WowWee's FlyTech Bladestar can govern your home autonomously

Indoor flying toys aren't hard to come by these days, but WowWee's hoping you'll still be willing to drop a little bit of coin on indoor aerial supremacy. First introduced at CES, the $50 FlyTech Bladestar has helicopter-like blades for hovering, and built-in infrared sensors to avoid obstacles. You can control the Bladestar with the included remote, or stick it in autopilot mode to watch it avoid obstacles and even "push" it yourself by walking up to it. If it's war you're after, you can put the toy in "dogfight" mode to use the infrared signal as a weapon against an unfriendly Bladestar: three hits and you'll be testing WowWee's claims of crash-resistance. The Bladestar is available now. Cheesy Saturday-morning advertisement is after the break.

[DssTrainer @ Sep 15th 2008 9:09AM]

That's awesome! I would love to get like 5 of these badboys autonomously dogfighting around the basement

[loosely_coupled @ Sep 16th 2008 3:10AM]

Are you 13?

[Steven Wevodau @ Sep 15th 2008 9:25AM]

Yeah, I'm with you.

[Paul @ Sep 15th 2008 10:42AM]

Bought one for my son for his bday. Not impressed. May be ours is defective, but it definitely lists to the right. Also gets about two solid takeoffs from the onboard battery before it cant maintain altitude.

Cool concept, but unless the one we got is faulty then they needs some work.

[Dave Zatz @ Sep 15th 2008 9:54AM]

I wonder how loud it is? Their other flying thingy makes too much noise for my sensitive AARP ears. ;)

[blarvh @ Sep 15th 2008 9:59AM]

Give them heat cameras and a patrol mode and I'll buy 5.

[JD @ Sep 15th 2008 10:08AM]

Wow, some things just never change:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCwn1NTK-50

[Davey J @ Sep 15th 2008 10:09AM]

Anyone else think Bioshock when they saw that thing flying through the corridor?

[Timothy @ Sep 15th 2008 10:14AM]

I work at radioashack, and we've had these for MONTHS now.
Personally they kinda suck.
After about a week of use by little kids the blades where so beat up from crashing into things that it refused to gain lift anymore and was grounded perminantly.
As for the avoidance, it works for the most part, but wheneven the thing manuvers it looses altitude and thus ends up crashing DOWN onto something instead of into it on the side.

My verdict, don't buy it.

-Tim

[Spyvie @ Sep 15th 2008 11:14AM]

I bought one of these at a Radio Shack in Seattle about a month ago. It is excellent at hovering in place with good proportional throttle control, but the directional control is a little sketchy.

When you press one of the d-pad like buttons the flier moves a little in the desired direction while loosing altitude, then when the control is released the flier tends to recoil back toward its original position while climbing wildly to the ceiling. A deft throttle hand is the key to long crash free flights.

I'm unimpressed with the autonomous mode, where the proportional throttle seems to have been forgotten. The motors just turn on and off as the flier kind of bounces along just below my 12' ceiling.

The dogfighting attachment is a simple attachment the limits the spread of the IR beam, the “fire button” is just a kill switch. It only takes on press to instantly bring my flier to the ground, but I only have the one play with so I guess I haven't really tried dogfighting.

Overall I really like my new toy... unlike the other half dozen micro copters sitting broken in a box under my desk. This thing will easily stay aloft and hovering for the duration of the batteries charge, and is the best indoor flier yet for the intended purpose of frightening my GF's bloodthirsty cockatoo .

[Jocafa @ Sep 15th 2008 10:37AM]

I picked one of these up from Target a while back when they first came out. It's a lot of fun to play with even though it's not terribly agile. Also, I keep forgetting that I have to point the controller directly at it in order for it to work, so I end up losing control and then feel like an idiot when I realize why. It comes with replacement wings and propellers 'just in case', but mine has taken quite a beating from running into cubicle walls, chairs, etc and I still have the original wings on it. Be aware that varying colors will confuse it. For example, if you're in an empty white room and you wear all black, that sucker will chase you because the IR sensor will think the 'darker' area is safer and move toward it.

[Scott @ Sep 15th 2008 10:47AM]

This thing is EXTREMELY BORING to fly and has ZERO translation speed. I bought one when they first came out and shortly afterwards realized that I had wasted my money. SERIOUSLY. DON'T. BUY. THIS. YOU'LL. BE. BORED. TO. TEARS. AND. REGRETFUL.
Go and buy something like the Walker 4#3B, it'll be a bit more expensive and a bit more challenging to learn how to fly but much more entertaining and rewarding.

-Scott

[Dan @ Sep 15th 2008 11:17AM]

Thank you Tim.

[Ian @ Sep 15th 2008 11:29AM]

Stay away from this thing. I bought one from my Radioshack and returned it the next day. The "autopilot" is a joke. It automatically avoids almost nothing. If you bring it up to the ceiling, its idea of maneuvering away is to shut off the motor so it drops 4 feet. Steering input is practically ignored, and the IR remote range is about 10 feet. Also, the "manual control", where you use your hands, is not only unresponsive, but the way it works is that it still needs to receive at least some sort of input from the remote every 10 seconds, or the things will just automatically shut off and crash.

DO NOT BUY.

[Wicker24 @ Sep 15th 2008 12:55PM]

I also work at RS and we have "dogfights" with these and other flying creatures that we sell here {It helps pass the time}. Sure they are fun for a few minutes but I always laugh when someone returns one and they expected an amazing flying machine that lasts forever for fifty bucks. For that price I am surprised they even fly.

[maxz @ Sep 15th 2008 1:45PM]

Add wifi and webcam and let me control it with my pc. :)