Toys -- not wot they ustta be...

[lsanderson]

If Leonardo Had Made Toys
By MICHEL MARRIOTT

LEONARDO DA VINCI’S 15th-century vision of mechanical flight apparently never included fixed wings assisted by propellers or jet engines. His chief inspiration was birds, reflected in drawings of a flying machine fashioned to stay aloft by flapping its wings. More

During demonstration flights of the Dragonfly last month at the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual technology showcase in Las Vegas, the fluttering, footlong bug was an enormous hit. Throngs of onlookers clamored for a chance to buy the $50 toy on the spot. At the time, none were for sale.

Watch on YouTube

And Wild Planet Entertainment, which makes a line of “spy toys for any mission” under the rubric Spy Gear, had added a surveillance wrinkle to a rather conventional remote-controlled vehicle. Its Spy Video Car, which sells for $140, has a front-mounted camera that wirelessly transmits a live video image that can be viewed in an eyepiece.

Late last year, Jakks Pacific, a toymaker in Malibu, Calif., released a lightweight radio-controlled flying wing called the XPV, or Xtreme Performance Vehicle, which sells for $60. Once its onboard battery is fully charged, the twin-propeller craft can soar as high as a 20-story building.

HobbyTron.com, based in Orem, Utah, makes a 6-inch-long, $40 infrared-controlled helicopter, the Picco Z, in which its entire body is made from EPP foam.