MetaFly Upgrade Kit by BionicBird - High Tech Electronic Biomimetic and Radio-controlled DRONE insect for indoor and outdoor use

Only for days with little or no breeze. Superb fun...entertaining for our cat! Easy to assemble and so far surprisingly robust

Firstly, I'm a huge fan of whole RC birds as it's unusual and I have been looking at RC's of this type for a good couple of years (also I've been watching this closely when it was still in development).But this is the first time of owning this type of RC as unfortunately I missed the Korean and China larger size birds as these companies have either disappeared or no longer making them.Overall:1. So, when opening I notice that the main body (where the wing motor is housed) was slightly misaligned (was thinking daammmm that is going to mess up the flight?) and also after attaching the rudder the RC had a slight fall from desk height which caused the rudder to pop off the plastic housing but I repaired this with a dab superglue.2. Body wasn't straight which cause it to fly in a circle with only power but after two test flights and adjusting the trims on the wings after each test flight it was flying straight! YAY!!!! (This was on training mode)3. The lowest setting (fastest speed) don't know why but if you click it down 4 levels down it's really hard to get any lift from it. So don't know if this because of the misaligned body?3. The price. Yes, I understand that this has been in development for a number of years and a lot of cash has been pumped into this project. But for the size, the cost of electric components, manufacturing (let's admit that there isn't that much plastic! and there is more in the remote then the metafly itself) is this RC is it worth that amount of cash?I think a lot of customers would be turned off due the cost. IF you had dropped this down to say £30-£60 you would capture the kids or parents market and you would get a better return back due to increase of sales.Which you can use to fund other larger scale projects, which you can hit the RC hobbyist market *hint hint* I want a large bird!Overall it's between 3.5 stars because of the issues I had and the cost. But it was fun to fly and people in the park were going "Ehhh what the hell is that!!!!"

Great fun and more robust than I imagined. Needs some skill to fly properly

This little MetaFly is a great idea and I can tell that a lot of love and passion has gone into the concept and design.The pieces seem pretty well made and more sturdy than you might expect. The instructions are good, and I didn't have any problem constructing it - it just took a little time. You do need to have fairly nimble fingers, though, as a lot of the connections and pieces are very small and need delicate and precise manoeuvering. You'll need good eyes, too (or a good magnifying glass)!Unfortunately, once I'd constructed my MetaFly I couldn't get it to fly properly. It took off no problem, and the controls worked just fine, but mine kept nosediving - like it was too top-heavy. I tried troubleshooting online, and made some minute adjustments, but nothing worked for me. I perhaps could have fixed it in the end by trimming the wings or something like that but I was a bit scared to start tampering with it to that degree.There's also no real way to store or transport it safely once it's constructed. Although the components are pretty good quality, it is still ultimately a fragile little thing, and without a secure case it is liable to get damaged and bent. For the price, I'd have expected a case, really.Probably fantastic for hobbyists with a bit more patience than me! Perhaps not ideal for the average child or person who just wants a fun and easy drone to fly around.

This meta fly is very innovative as well as interesting and fun to fly. Some assembly is necessary when you first get it although there is a leaflet with a QR code link for instructions on how to assemble it. The 2 wings need to be fitted to the body as well as a stabaliser on the top which is adjustable and determines what speed the fly moves at. The tail is very fiddly to attach and you need to ensure the 2 tiny springs are on not caught up in the tail rod when fitting it.The metafly comes with a remote control which takes 4 AA batteries and has an inbuilt charging port for you to charge your fly on the move. Otherwise in order to charge it, you need to use the provided cable and attachment in co-ordination with the small portable battery kindly provided. There are 2 sets of coloured wings (one yellow and one black on white) so you either you have spares or you can change colours although there isn't much in it.Flying the metafly is fairly straight forward. Right controls wing speed (and therefore flight speed); left control is left/right movement. Lastly the top stabaliser on the metafly itself is adjustable - so the more the upright angle, the slower the fly will move; the lower/more streamlined the faster it will move.Despite advertisement that you can fly it indoors, no you can't (imho) unless you have a mansion - there just isn't enough space to turn it. So you can only really fly it outdoors and there CAN NOT BE ANY WIND! As it's so light, ANY wind will push it off course and make it much harder to fly. Otherwise it's straight forward to fly. You can either launch from standing on the ground or alternatively if you use the left throttle to increase wing movement and hold the fly, you can launch it by hand although I wouldn't recommend it.It's fun to fly and as it's so unusual, it will attract admirers.My only real "bug" (pun intentional) is that is so delicate! It's just impossible to take to the park safely and there really needs to be some sort of case to protect it in transit. Either you need to dismantle before travelling or you need to carry it as gingerly as possible. Both are quite inconvenient. Given the steep price and how delicate the fly is, I would have thought that one would already be provided. The manufacturer really needs to consider safe transit for the fully assembled fly- even if it's the box it comes in.