Air Hog Reviews
First thing is that the plane flies. I have a lot of planes that don't fly or take too much fiddling with to get airborne.
Second, I like the different colors. Orange and grey.
Third, I like that you just have to pull the string to make them fly and that gives me strong muscles.
Forth, I like that they have propellers that might cut your fingers off. (Only parents will understand this appeal, although imaginary.)
I think this toy would make a nice present and I'm lucky my daddy got this for me and I promise to be good ....forever.
...
List price: $19.99 (that's NaN% off!)
This is a great toy for bigginers, even to me!
I consider myself a fairly savvy toy shopper, and a believer in the principle that the best toys are simple toys, or non-toys. But in this case I let down my guard and bought something that really doesn't provide much play value, or value in general, for what it costs.
Every parent gets to steer their children toward the types of toys that we find interesting or exciting. I was always a fan of flying toys, and my son fortunately seems to have the same inclination. So we have spent many hours making and playing with inexpensive toy airplanes of all types.
The Air Hogs Eradicator is on some level a triumph of technology--As a child 30 years ago, I would have been thrilled by the idea of an airplane with an electric motor and rechargeable battery. (And I guess I was still thrilled enough to have thought about it for several years before finally going to the store and getting one.) It's pretty amazing even now when you consider how such a toy has a motor and battery that are strong enough to provide some lift without weighing the "airframe" down too much.
Ah, yes, the airframe. Remember those cheap polystyrene coolers that came out in the 60s? That's what the Eradicator is made of, or appears to be made of under the coat of colorful red paint. As a boy, I was always intrigued by how they had molded those little foamy beads into a smoothly shaped cooler whose lid squeaked around as we drove to the lake. And I recall distinctly how brittle the foam was, and when a chunk of it broke off (not a rare event), the cooler was done for. In the trash. In the landfill.
We got two or three good initial flights out of the Eradicator, perhaps because we had a good, wide-open spot to fly and the wind was perfect. As the instructions point out, you WILL need a light breeze to take flights of any length. And you will need to put some muscle behind it when you launch. I routinely got better flights than my kindergarten son, who couldn't seem to get the loft and velocity that I did. So if you're expecting just to stand out in the middle of a field, turn on the power switch, and let the plane go, you're going to be disappointed.
The problem is, you could very well be disappointed even if you do everything right. On one of our first flights, the plane headed for a nearby parking lot, conked on the edge of a curb, and promptly knocked a small chunk out of the wing. The instructions suggest taping up such mishaps, but we didn't happen to bring any tape with us and continued to fly the plane in slightly damaged condition. It worked about as well.
On our second outing, it must have been just a bit too breezy and the plane simply couldn't stay up when thrown into the breeze as the instructions suggest. It kept arcing upward and nose-diving into the grass, and on the fourth attempt it hit the ground with such force that the body broke in half. Tape put it back together when we got home, but we left the park disgusted at the plane's obvious fragility.
I realize it's not easy creating a lightwight plane for a low cost, and foam beads are a convenient material to make an interesting-looking and airworthy (though not necessarily crashworthy) plane body. But when that plane snapped in half after only about ten flights I thought, "You idiot. You got took! It's more cheap Chinese-made junk to clutter up the basement. What were you thinking?" And I don't like feeling that way.
Does the Air Hogs Eradicator occasionally provide interesting and long-lasting flights, which go so high the plane can indeed land in a tree? Yes, it does.
But the simple truth is that my son and I have had just as much fun with paper airplanes and the slightly more complex "White Wings" paper kit planes that you cut out, glue together and launch with a rubber-band catapult. We have occasionally lost such planes due to flights that go too high or too far, but we never felt the sense of loss and chump-dom that we felt watching our Air Hogs Eradictor nose-diving into the ground and breaking in half on its second trip to a park.
By the way, the plane must be recharged after each flight with the provided hand-held charger pack, which uses 4 C batteries. It has a cute "gas nozzle"-shaped charging tip that you plug into the side of the plane and, when done, can slide into a special holding bay on the side of the charger. It is solid and well-made, and so securely mounted on the internal packaging boards that you'll need a wire cutter just to get it out of the box. I like the charger, and wish similar engineering prowess had been applied to the plane itself.
We will try the Air Hogs Eradicator again, on a less-windy day, and we will take our roll of tape along. But I for one will always be somewhat bothered by the idea that I spent $12 (it was on sale, at least) on something that I now feel obligated to keep and "make work"--unlike a good old paper airplane.
Eradicator sounds like an exciting aerial combat name, but the only thing this plane eradicated was--sorry, I can't resist--the money from my wallet.
First, don't overcharge it and be sure to condition the internal battery by FULLY discharging it before recharging. It takes a little extra time but it keeps the plane charging properly. When the propellors on mine slow down enough that the plane won't fly any more, I just hold it with it turned on until the propellors stop turning. Then I turn it off and recharge it.
Second, they aren't kidding when they tell you to fly it in an open field. I take mine to the park and fly it on a soccer field. There is plenty of room there and it flies great. However, there is no way to fly it if there are even a few trees in the way. It just doesn't turn sharply enough and you WILL hit a tree in short order. The styrofoam is durable enough to handle crashing into the grass with no problem but a tree isn't very good for it and you run the risk of breaking the wings.
Third, you CANNOT fly it in a strong breeze. The engines aren't powerful enough. It seems to work best in a very light breeze, like 2-3 MPH, The head wind helps the plane to get enough airspeed to take off. In dead air, it flies fine but it's a little harder to launch it.
With the above in mind this is a GREAT toy. It's a lot of fun to fly it around and turn it and make it go up and down with the remote. You can also learn a lot about how an airplane works even though it isn't controlled like a real airplane would be with a rudder and so forth (it manuvers by ramping the engine power up and and down.) Because of the control method it isn't all that responsive, and as a result flying it might be a little frustrating for younger children. I think the "ages 8 and up" on the box is a bit optimistic. I think 12 and up is more accurate.
All in all a great toy for older children and adults, as long as you have a suitable place to fly it. I really like mine.
List price: $69.99 (that's NaN% off!)
P.S. INSTEAD OF THIS, THINK ABOUT BUYING A HELICHOPPER created by megatech...
I have crashed this thing in every way- into a tree, requiring a shot by a thrown stick to get down, into a chain link fence at full speed, into a brick wall in a fast dive, then straight down into concrete. The brick wall impact shook loose a wire from the switch, but it was easy to re-solder. I have never even broken a prop in all those crashes. Altho sold as a toy, this really is a radio-controlled airplane and takes some skill and basic knowlege of how an aircraft works to have any hope of success. Get into a big field at least as big as a soccer field to fly it. Think of it as a free flight plane with some limited control to keep it from getting lost.
The model turns by reducing power to one of the two motors, so when turning, it always dives some, thus you need to learn to nurse it around turns and anticipate big time. If you panic, just pull the stick down and it will come down pretty fast.
It is important to adjust the rudder for straight flight, just like the sticker on the controller says, or else you will crash only being able to turn one way.
One thing that made me crash once was not reading the directions and finding out that pushing the stick up means up while pulling it down means down- opposite a normal r/c control for elevator. It makes sense if you think of it as the left stick of a normal r/c transmitter (throttle-rudder).
It's great practice for learning to keep proper orientation- that is, when the model is flying to you, left stick makes the model appear to go right, and vice-versa..
I used the word 'crash' a lot, but with this thing, crash isn't really crash any more than an empty styrofoam coffee cup crashes when dropped.
An excellent product, tons of fun, for the money way better than the cox control line engine powered things of my youth, which made huge noise, would cut your hand clean off and broke each and every time.
List price: $7.99 (that's NaN% off!)
Our first purchase - an air powered model - lasted longer (it came with two sets of wings), but was still broken within 2 weeks.
We are looking for something more durable now - the concept is great but they just need to be tougher.
* Some planes fly better than others
* They are somewhat fragile, but they have to be light to fly! I have crashed one plane more than 50 times and it still flies great.
* They don't fly well in more than moderate winds
* Unlike model rockets which take the good part of the day to plan, drive to a field and launch, Air Hogs can be a quick 30 minute adventure in the back yard or in a near by park.
I love Air Hogs and will continue to try out new varieties. I do wish all the planes flied as well as some of the planes. The best one (so far) has been discontinued for years.