Brookstone 15011-PPL Skywriter UFO Remote Control Helicopter

First, this is not a toy for children. As other reviewers have said, it does not hold up to rough use. It requires environmental awareness and a reasonable sense of caution of what conditions to fly it in. (Not in a small room full of stuff, or over a crowd of children trying to grab it out of the air, or a windy day, etc) I recommend learning to fly it over soft grass in a field at night some time before trying to control this in an enclosed space. Also, when you lose control or it hits something and tarts tumbling to the ground, don't try to save it by pushing the lift button up. Immediately shut the rotors all the way off and let it fall. I suspect a lot of the damage is done to this model when the still spinning rotors hit a hard surface and try to keep spinning, then snap because they can't. The science expo where I first saw these featured one with a blade guard. I'm thinking the owner may have 3D printed it. Good thing I'm getting a 3D printer soon, but the rest of you are probably out of luck.So, yes, the fragility cannot be denied and my review lost a star for that. It lost another one for not having a clear place to obtain replacement parts. For the price point, however, this is a really great little drone. As another reviewer said, it really shines outdoors at night and this is also the safest place to fly it.Besides the fragility, the design is genius. I've also noticed that if you are flying it with careful control indoors, unless it is pushed into a wall by an air current (like from a ceiling vent!), it's own current somehow forces it to hover away from the walls and doors. But that only works with flat surfaces it seems, not any little thing.Anyway, for $18 this is perfectly fine. That's very cheap for a consumer drone, especially one with such a neat and user friendly POV display.

A buddy of mine had one of these which flew, crashed, discharged, recharged, and flew again. A lot. Lots of fun, or so I thought…This prompted me to buy one for myself. It arrived undamaged from the shipping ordeal, and I carefully unpacked it, read the directions, charged it, programmed a msg into the remote controller and proceeded to launch. When I pushed the throttle control forward, the LEDS on the copter lit up, and I was then expecting the rotors to spin up, and it to lift off. I got nada. Nothing. Zilch.No rotors. No noise. No nothing. I "re-booted" the controller, switched the copter off/on, and tried again. Still… NOTHING.Too bad. If they had paid just a little more attention to making a quailty toy, it would work, and they wouldn't be able to keep 'em in stock. This one's going back. Thank goodness, it did come with a 90 day Limited Warranty. Just glad it said "day" instead of "second". I'd really LOVE to reccommend this toy, but under the circumstances, I can't. And, I won't be holding my breath waiting for a much needed re-design. DON'T BUY ONE 'TIL THEN.

My grandchildren and I loved it, but we have broken 2. Might order more.

Christmas morning~~picture it~~A toy that writes messages. Adult sons who like to have fun. Even Dad joined in the fun. The dog howled at it. The cat was unimpressed. All ingredients for a fun Christmas morning.The price was fair and after 60 days, the toy still works, which is remarkable in its own right. Would be cute for a marriage proposal, birthday greeting or other message you wanted to deliver with an element of fun.

Lasted a week. Pretty cool concept but did not last very long. All these things like this seem like they don't last very long. I think there are just too many small moving parts.

Very fun toy the messaging part works perfectly. Only issue is you can't actually steer this thing. You more or less have to play with the throttle to keep it aloft. For the price totally worth it. Love the fact that you can charge the flying portion via USB. My controller batteries have been solid for over 3months with moderate to daily use.

I bought two of these,one for my son and one for my son-in-law. Even though they are adults they have to have a toy for Christmas. These fit the bill

This is a good toy for a bigger kid, it realy works and the quality is really good. I highly recommend it