Wowee Dragonfly Hands-On. Verdict: Awesome!
- February 7th, 2007
- Read 2894 times
- 3 Comments
Some background: I tried to assemble and fly a model airplane once and only once. I was about 11, and after one attempt at lift-off, the thing crashed, never to fly again.
So today, when I found a nice new Wowee Flytech Dragonfly (a supposedly easy-to-use Dragonfly-shaped RC flier) in the mail, it was my first attempt at model flight in many a year.
And I was not disappointed. It won’t increase your productivity, but boy is this thing fun.
The first thing you notice when you get your hands on the Dragonfly is how light and flimsy the whole thing feels. The body is basically bug-shaped Styrofoam, and the wings are paper-thin plastic. However, this flimsiness is almost certainly necessary to A) achieve flight, and B) keep it from causing too much destruction when it crashes.
Throw in six AA batteries (yeah, its a lot, so break out that battery charger) and stick them in the remote (which bears a striking resemblance to an Xbox 360 remote). The Dragonfly itself charges by plugging into the remote, which is pretty convenient (and quite travel-friendly.) Once the Dragonfly’s eyes stop blinking, you are ready to fly. And the best part: No assembly required! All you have to do is stick the removable antenna in the remote and it comes completely ready to roll.
I take that back, here’s the best part: Anybody can get this thing flying in literally a minute. Simply hold it up, lightly toss it, and hit the throttle on the remote. Next thing you know, you’ll be steering the Dragonfly around your living room. It is INSANELY easy to use. And when you inevitably crash it into your mirrors and TVs, it will almost certainly cause no damage (again, the thing is very lightweight foam.) I haven’t had a chance to test this thing out over a long period of time, so there’s no telling how many crashes the foam will last for.
So, here’s the overall on it:
Pros:
Cons:
The Dragonfly hits in Spring for about $50, and will only be sold at Radio Shack (at least at first.) Hopefully I’ll have some videos up soon.
UPDATE: Check out the T3 video on the thing to see how fun it looks:
There’s a very interesting back story to the Flytech Dragonfly. It’s original design was created by a high school student named Sean Frawley, who is now a consultant to WowWee. For more information on Sean and his Ornithopter design and company, see here:
http://www.robotsrule.com/html/flytech-dragonfly.php
They’re finally out and available at RadioShack - far ahead of when the Flytech site said they would be which means awesome is available for purchase! I picked one up and absolutely love it. I was a little afraid of my 3 year old daughter being afraid of it - but, she’s sat on my lap and helped me fly it lots of times now — which is great, because she’s also the one that runs and retrieves it when I crash into the wall, chair, table, lights, etc. It’s durable enough for her to bring it back (usually crashing through/around/on something to get to me).
As for the cats… I was hopeful that they’d be afraid - but, my big guy runs after it. He won’t touch it once it’s on the ground which is good for the wings (smile!).
Checkout my review w/ pics and fan-site in general at:
http://www.mydragonfly.info/
Early morning and late afternoon, when the wind is very slight or not evident is a great time to take it it outside. The extra space allows you to fly at a much higher altitude than available in doors, improving your control skills. However, in slight wind, be extra careful that you don’t fly it out too far over other houses and end up loosing it, which can be easy to do. By the way, don’t be put off by the materials it is constructed with. I crashed (dive-bombed) mine hundreds of times onto concrete and it has suffered only slight scuffing to its ‘beak’ and still flys as well as it did on day one. Well done Wowee! nice price too for so much fun!! (AUD $59 @ Kmart).