Customer Reviews

WowWee Robotic DragonFly - Green (49 MHz)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The 15 year old I bought this for wouldn't take it outside to play with it, wouldn't read the instructions and generally annoyed his father with it. But that's fifteen for you.

When I got a chance at it I found it easy to fly and maneuver, even in the house. The charge lasts about 7 minutes which doesn't seem like a lot but prevents the toy from becoming boring. I would recommend this for any age except 15.

This is a really great flying toy, out of all the air hogs planes and other various flyers I owned the controls for the dragonfly are by far the best. This is very easy to fly and fun however it does seem to have problems climbing but still, you can get it up in the air fairly high. It also goes at fairly fast speeds when you remove the tail ribbon. Flytech dragonfly does make it a great indoor flyer as well, once you get good that is. And its not like you need a huge empty basement or something to fly it in, I fly mine in my living room all the time which is only about 20 feet wide. If your flying indoors make sure you have the tail ribbon on and the controller is set to expert, expert allows the dragonfly to turn much faster and sharper which really helps avoiding obstacles, but for your first flight make sure to have it on beginner and be outside. The thing is pretty durable as well (I've had mine for over a year and it hasn't broke yet..) those flimsy wings are actually alot more durable than you would expect and if they do happen to break you get a backup pair that comes with it. I guess the only downfall to this is that it can't tolerate any wind, and I mean ANY wind. Just the slightest breeze will have it crashing left and right. But yeah overall this thing is awesome, pick one up if your into flying toys.

It's Christmas morning. Where is my 6 year old? Not playing the new handheld video game. Not playing with the new RC track vehicle. Nope! He's out in the backyard flying the Dragonfly around. He ran outside as soon as it was light after giving it a brief charge, and I just knew I was going to hear screams of frustration. Instead, I heard giggles of excitement and JOY in just two minutes. He's flying this thing around the yard, doing unintended but still impressive stunts under the sliding board and through the swingset. He's still got a lot to learn about control, but it flies itself well enough that he can do this on his own and stay aloft for 20 seconds right off the bat.

I'm extremely jealous, and I want one of my own. Guess I'll be back at the store getting another one for me, as I know I can't pry it out of his hands! GREAT choice!

The two reviews before mine are very good . This is really for indoor flight a room of 16 by 16 is recomended . Make sure you put the tail ribbon on for first flights and set the switch on beginer . You must read the manual and its very short and simple .

I suggest strongly buying 12 rechargeable batteries with a charger which costs almost as much as the dragonfly we spent $25 . You get about 6 minutes out of a charge and 10 flights out of a set of batteries . I usually spend about 30 minutes a day . This is really not for outdoor flight unless its very , very still . The wind could damage or take ahold of it and sweep it up on a roof or worse but if you have a area thats open with low wind try it at your own risk .

The little guy is cute and made of styrafoam , wire with a plastic tail and propellor at the end . Its very easy to put together if your batteries are charged you can be flying in 20 minutes . They suggest to always put it away with a full charge . It is fragile thats my main concern for children ( I am 50 LOL ) . You must be very careful taking it out of the box its wired and tied down . Never handle it by the wings wich are celophane and could tear very very easy . I have heard a little packing tape and or plastic wrap repairs them . Wowee has spare parts for sale at their website but they are not cheap it may be better to just buy another one if you run into problems and cant fix it with stuff around the house . If you want to fly 2 at the same time buy one with a 27 frequency and another with the 49 so the controllers dont interfere with eachother . Its a nice controller .

I found this very good to learn how to fly basic models . Several hours spent with one of these is wise before going with a real hobby plane or helicopter . It takes a licking and keeps on ticking . I havent mastered mine . I average a crash about every 45 seconds the key is power off the wings as soon as you bump something . You can just turn the power off at the controller . Then start over . You launch it from your hand . The manual is good . If your serious get the rechargeable batteries . I wasnt sure I would like it or find it relaxing but I did . I plan on trying some other little foam planes and helicopters before moving up to a lithium outdoor training plane with a 20 minute flight duragion , 300 foot range and a extra battery . It really gets fun if you have a few of these little jobs buzzing around in the house at once . They make a nice hobby collectable item . Sadly it all comes down to money . Its not a must have item . But it is a unique flying aparatus ..its flies like the dragonfly . God Bless ..be careful out there . I still like Estes rockets too even at my age .

I bought two of these toys for Christmas, one for my 10yr old niece and the other for my 7yr old daughter. They both loved them, after opening we took the girls outside to play with them and right out of the box they are pretty easy to fly even for kids. I got a big kick out of all the adults who were begging the kids for a turn with the toy! Very happy with the purchase, would definitely buy again.

The Wowwee Flytech Dragonfly is awesome! It is extremely fun and easy to use! When I first got it I broke both of the wings, but I taped them back together, and now it works perfectly. I'm actually watching it charge right now. If you have a problem with the bobbing of the dragonfly, you can attach two very small pieces of clear tape to the back of the underside of the tail and the bobbing stops! (well, at least it worked for me). 7 minutes of flight? What are they talking about? I mostly get over 10 minutes of flight! If you are really excited about this product, you should order it on quick shipping;I nearly cried waiting for the dragonfly! Also, if you find that you love this product, you should use 6 rechargable batteries. I charge the batteries every night so by tommorrow I have the batteries as good as new! If you are a lover of rc's(like me), and you have a medium sized living room,(also like me), I would definitely recommend this product!

I am a UAV/Robotics engineer and wanted to buy this to check out its flapwing design as we tend to view such designs as pretty preposterous compared to traditional fixed wings or rotary wings. Although I don't know that this would scale up very well, it works fantastically in this size!

First...I was initially disappointed since it did not fly in my home at all. Reading a review however, someone else suggested that the indoors pressure differential may have caused them to have this issue as well. So I took it outside and what do you know, the dragonfly flew like a charm!

The flap wing/ornithoper design of it is really innovative and it flies surprisingly well considering how it moves the airflow. Presenting it as a dragonfly makes complete sense, because with the wing design that is what it would most represent even if it were not painted like one.

Whether looking at this for your kid or yourself, it's a really well implemented flyer of a pretty novel design for its price range. Wowwee toys are always good (I have several of their robots)...not familiar with flytech, but they did a great job.

It's a bit hard to control as it's not the most responsive to turns, even on expert. Personally, if you've flow before, skip the tail feather, and the beginner setting...those are really best if you just want to float around and don't care about it going anywhere in particular. This flys most like a fixed wing, not much like a heli. Once you get the hang of it and get it trimmed up (mine has a severe right hand tendency when centered...I have to start it with the rotor spinning to get it to fly right, but it's a toy, so I'll forgive that.) it flys pretty well. The feather makes it turn slower...not really better and reduces its ability to climb. I could see where this would be good if flying it in a tight space though, but outdoors it is more limiting than helpful.

The charge lasts pretty well for this sort of toy...7 minutes seems to be a minimum if you are using fresh batteries in the charger and the recharge is reasonably fast as well (15 minutes is usually what I give it). I would not recommend using rechargable AA batteries...it's tempting I know as this dragonfly munches batteries if you use it very often (I get between 5-8 charges, but by charge 6 or so, my flight time is starting to be less and less). Rechargable batteries (at least of the NiMH variety - this is not true if you have the old alkaline rechargeables) actually have lower voltage so if you're using them, you'll find your dragonfly does not seem to fly as well or as long.

As for the construction, when I first looked at it, I was a bit disappointed. I thought it looked pretty "cheap". I mean, it's almost all Styrofoam and the wings are lightweight plastic film. It made sense that they were keeping the weight down, but a lot of "nice" looking toy-grade flyers are made of plastic (which generally ends up snapping or shattering after too many crashes and is nearly impossible to glue). But after crashing this thing constantly (you WILL crash this the first few times you fly it and probably several times thereafter), I completely understand. The Styrofoam is actually very dense and cushions the internal components extremely well. Mine is a bit scratched and gouged (mostly on the nose) from colliding with trees, buildings and pavement, but I have yet to cause it any real damage. If you don't intentionally try to break this thing, it does not break easily. Honestly, I worry most about damaging the wings, but so far have not managed to do that, even though I've flipped it over a number of times. There is a spare set of "wings" included but that is just the plastic film. If you break the struts, you may be out of luck. I worry most about snapping off the foam tail but so far have not done so, so that seems pretty well constructed too. I guess you could probably tape or superglue it together if it did break so long as the rotor can still turn, but I don't know how that would affect its flyability.

Other comments:
It can take a REALLY long time to connect to the remote. Sometimes on the order of 3 minutes or more. Best suggestion is to turn the trim (so the rotor will start spinning as soon as it's connected), extend the antenna, turn both on, lay them next to each other and go do something to keep yourself busy while listening for the rotor to turn on. However...it's a toy, so again forgivable. Once connected, they stay in contact pretty well. I've walked out of range, but as long as they're both on and you reconnect immediately, they usually pick up again pretty well. The range is at least as large as the manual says however, so as long as you stay within those limits, you should be fine (unless you let the batteries get too low, but by then it won't fly well anyway).

Recommend starting it from your hand at full throttle, tilted slightly up. It can take off from the ground but will need a "runway" of sorts as it's gonna take it a few feet to get up. Also do it full throttle and don't be surprised if it flips over if you don't get it up fast enough...it is nose heavy (for stability).

If it looks like it's going to crash, throttle back all the way. This way it doesn't hit with its wings flapping. Seems like a good policy with any moving parts on things like this and so far I haven't broken anything, so I think it's a good policy.

It glides pretty well as a fixed wing. I like to get it up and stop the wings temporarily. Then you can do tricks by turning the tail rotor. Start the wings again to get it to recover and climb when it starts to dive. Takes practice, but a lot of fun!

Watch out for buildings if you aren't confident of flying it. It sucks having to get a ladder to get it down. Flying it down off a roof is very difficult.

Only complaint is the indoors thing. I've seen videos of them flying indoors but it will not fly in any of the places I have tried it. Granted I have not had the opportunity to fly it in something like a conference room or a gymnasium yet though, so maybe.

And...last but not least, look for it on sale. I got mine for only $20 (not from amazon). Of course, had I known how much I'd like it I'd have gotten more at that price, either for gifts or to replace this one when it finally does break/stops being able to charge properly. Of the under $50 flyers I have, this is easily my favorite.

I fully intend to pick up a couple of the other Wowwee/Flytech toys when I find them for a good price.

This toy is used by my twin sons (age 7). They are very distructive with most of their toys. However, we've advised them how FRAGILE this toy is and it has managed to hold up so far. The durability of this flyer seems pretty good!

The charge time is minimal and the wear time of the battery is perfect so they don't get bored.

You need a lot of space to fly indoors. It's larger than some of the other flyers.

Our kids love it and advised the STAR markings in this review!

i bought this product a month ago, and its ok but its impossible to use under windy conditions. really!

First of all this toy is not a robot. It is a model bug that fly, there are no computers no nothing in this. That being said the toy is fun, it is a challenge to learn to fly it right, but allot of fun when you get it right, unfortunately it is very fragile. Mine worked for a few days then broke down.