At first glance, with its translucent see-thru wings and Styrofoam body, WowWee's new “FlyTech Dragonfly” I didn’t think it would withstand even 5 minutes of flight time, let alone the many, many wall collisions I put the poor thing through. Yet it did. Oh so cool!

So what is the Dragonfly anyway-well it’s basically a bug that weighs next to nothing and flaps its four, seemingly delicate but powerful wings to soar like an eagle! Oh so cool!

I know it’s simply a remote controlled flyer that flaps its wings and flies about. Really, I do. But, to see it in action is oh so cool! You can't help but think, "Man, it really is flying by flapping its wings”.

Produced by the same company that brought us the “Robosapien’ and other robo-creations, their newest radio-controlled toy is not a robot, this one not only resembles a dragonfly, it flies like one too. The relatively inexpensive toy will set you back $49.99(sounds kinda expensive I know, but compared to the $150+ that the Robosapien costs it’s a down right steal.)

As cool and fun as they are, rarely do gizmos and gadgets hold my attention for more than a day or two but this cute little endearing dragonfly somehow got under my skin!

In fact I’m having trouble concentrating long enough to write this review as he sits across from me patiently perched on the remote, staring at me with his big, buggy eyes taunting me to take him outside. Umm, now that I stop and think about it, it’s actually kinda creepy and scary…Whispers-please send help!

The assembly is as easy as screwing in the antenna and inserting the required 6 AA batteries (yeah, it’s a lot, so better break out that battery re-charger now) in the remote. Presto, you’re ready to roll, err fly.

Flying is controlled by the remote control , just your basic left knob for power and right knob for direction, and yes it does take some time before you fully feel comfortable controlling it. The remote has two settings beginner and expert and ironically through trial and error, I found it easier to maneuver my bugger on expert. It can fly to 50 feet away from the remote before losing contact.

So is the dragonfly fun for a beginner? Yes, although once again it’s not the easiest aircraft to fly, it does take a few outings to really get the hang of controlling the dragonfly. But that’s what practice is for and gives it its cool replay-ability value.

Sure a newbie is going have lots of crashes and collisions, but so what. I say “go ahead put it through the paces!” I feel very confident in saying that it is great for beginners and kids alike because mine has held up so well.

I can report that my dragonfly has held up quite nicely and remains in almost perfect condition in spite of many encounters with walls, lamp pole collisions, and my 12 year old little boy (who can already fly it better than me) and kamikaze nose dives into parked cars.

I give WowWee a big ol’ Yay for including spare parts!

It is surprising resilient for such a small, fragile looking thing. In fact I really didn’t expect to get this thing out of the box without breaking it!

I am happy to report that it has stood up to abuse very well and hasn’t maimed or damaged anything in its path, well maybe a couple of mangy squirrels but they were asking for it!

The manual recommends flying the toy outdoors, which is what I did, being I have a small space and a curious English bulldog. The funny thing is the manual goes on to say "Do not fly near walls or buildings" and in my experience, that's pretty much impossible.

It probably goes without saying, but when flying outdoors, stay away from trees. The dragonfly can handle a 2-4 mph breeze (as per the manual) but I’ve found it can take off as much as 5-6mph if flown by a licensed professional pilot-just kidding! But really though, be careful any more than that and it is gone with the wind as they say!

The only downside to the whole dragonfly experience is that you only get about 6 to 8 minutes of high flying fun from the entire charge, and then it takes about 17 to 20 minutes to recharge, so there is some downtime.

Ah well, just think of it this way, it gives you more time to bond with your kid as in my case (I earned some pretty cool Mom points with this one!), or to finally make friends with your neighbors, because trust me they will come out in droves.

And isn’t that what it’s really all about- bringing people closer together?!

To charge, simply perch the dragonfly’s magnet located on his chest onto the little transmitter magnet do-hickey and it does its recharging magic all on its own. The light-up LED eyes show you the charge status by blinking, pulsing or shining bright- it couldn’t be any easier. Oh so cool!

The Dragonfly contains:

*Radio controlled Dragonfly (obviously)

*A spare set of wings

*Remote (that looks a lot like an XBOX 360 controller)

*Antenna

*Spare tail propeller

*Tail ribbon (mostly for indoor flying, I preferred to fly it w/o the tail ribbon though because it adds weight and slows it down.)

*The dragonfly requires 6 AA Alkaline batteries (not included)

The dragonfly comes in green or blue and each color of dragonfly is on a different frequency (green - 49 MHz, blue - 27 MHz) which means that both can be flown at the same time. I have the green one but I plan on getting the blue one (harder to find in stores for some reason) in order to have some pretty cool races.

All in all, it's the most fun I've had with a flying toy since my rubber-band–powered wooden plane that I had as a kid. The “Flytech Dragonfly” is a great toy at a reasonable price that can withstand lots of abuse, which means you’ll get hours of swooping, slamming, nose-diving and squirrel-battling fun!

Psst, I was serious about what I said before- it’s now following me from room to room!-please send help!