Syma 2nd Edition S107 S107G New Version Indoor Helicopter (Yellow)

This is probably the best toy you can get for the money. I've only flown it once, as it came an hour ago. But that was one heck of an enjoyable first flight. The copter is very stable in the air. Basically, when you touch the controls to make it go in a specified direction, it GOES in that direction - which is essential to having some fun! The controls are simple, but if you've never flown a helicopter before like me, mistakes will be made - you might find yourself panicking that you've about to hit something and going FULL DOWN for a rapid descent/crash landing then kick yourself afterwards! It's a challenge to fly but it's perfectly doable, by the end of the flight I had the copter hovering in the same spot without any problem!It had a few little scrapes against walls and a couple of light turn-overs. Survived just fine with no damage! If you have kids though I can see this getting damaged easily, but I just checked the replacement parts kit cost: £2.79 with free delivery and it covers everything likely to get damaged (rotor blades, fins, balance bar at the top, and the cogs that presumable drive the blades that might break if you hit the blade against a wall hard). That's fantastic value really.I've read stories about the battery not lasting long before dying due to overheating. To combat this you're supposed to wait for it to cool down before recharging, and again before use. I also place my copter on top of my PC to charge as I have a top-mounted PC case fan - this blows cold air over it during the charging process which I think is a good idea. Keep that battery as cool as possible!The controller includes a compartment where, if you open it, a charging lead pops out. Rather than charge via USB, you can charge the copter directly from the batteries inside the controller if you like! This is great as I use rechargeable Eneloops in the controller so if you're out and about you can get several flying sessions without returning home!Edit: 15+ flights now. Still an excellent heli!Edit: Well over 100+ flights now. Still great. Had to re-solder a cable that's next to the ON/OFF switch, as it broke loose after a heavy accident. I think they use high temp solder as my soldering iron wouldn't melt it but I managed to bodge something together eventually. The battery doesn't have quite so much power now, so I'll have to replace that soon. But that's to be expected considering the use I've had out of it. Still probably the best toy I've ever bought for the money!

Great fun to use, crashed many times and still works perfectly. Doesn't fly for long but charges extremely quickly. Very good value for money.

NOTE: this is identical (remote, mechanically, in every way except the case) to  ACME - zoopa 150 red heat. 3 + 2 channel 2.4 gHz helicopter with LED lights (AA0179)  but is slightly cheaper with the remote design, the controller for this is a cheap smooth plastic, the one linked has a nicer smooth finish (and nicer box too!)As such I shall paste my review here, because it is entirely applicable.I give this 4 not 5 stars because you cannot easily replace the battery, a nice thing to do with little RC helicopters is remove the battery, insert a new one and play while the old charges. This has no battery you can easily replace, perhaps even easily buy - others do.This is a great learning helicopter, it's 3 channels, I have no idea where it gets +2 from, you have forward/back rotate and main rotor (which is mostly height, but when the helicopter is learning forward to move forward, this can increase your speed)I recommend this for children and people starting out with RC devices in general or specifically helicopters, despite the charging problem.Why:Flybar - this is the bar above the 2 rotors, it is basically two weights on a stick, this results in a high moment of inertia, meaning they don't like to move off their axis (think like a bike, stationary the bike loves to fall over, but when the wheels are spinning, the wheels try to keep spinning in the same plane, so the bike is resistant to falling - it's the same principle). The helicopter is very stable and stays level as a resultLoose main rotor connections - the main rotors are free to pivot (spinning up will put them into their main position, opposite each other), which means if you crash (and you will) the blade can collapse and thus not bend the rotor pole (if it does bend, the device is either going to be really shaky if you are lucky, of completely inoperable) - so this makes it very durable.It also means if it hits something it MAY recover (rather than push itself over crash), rather than topple, it will also mean it'll hurt less if it hits someone, but don't plan on doing that.HOW TO FLY:IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG: say you're loosing control, drop the rotor to 0, this way the helicopter will fall (it weighs like 30g, so wont crack or anything) and you will minimise the chance of damaging the rotors, if the motors are still spinning you're straining the motor, you mean the rotors might actually whack into something, just drop the helicopter. WHEN SOMETHING IS GOING WRONG, DO NOTHING, seriously. It will protect the helicopter. Anyway:People often think "I can ignore all advice and just push up!" please don't do this, start out by trying to do hops, and gradually extending how long you are in the air.When you try to do hops, don't increase the rotor speed and try to stablise the helicopter, then increase further until takeoff. As you approach the point where the helicopter is balanced in the air (supporting its own weight) you'll get no friction from the skids (the two rails it sits on) but they cannot (this isn't a design problem, they cannot prevent this) support the weight evenly, so the helicopter will drift and you'll try to correct these random directions and just make them worse, you need to increase through this until it is hovering under it's own weight above the surface. Now the gyroscopes can operate properly (because they don't have an unpredictable force being applied through the skids any more)Now you'll probably get more confident, RESIST THE URGE TO GO HIGHER, instead work on rotating, and going forward and back. I recommend a DINING ROOM TABLE that is clear for this because you have space. If it's about to go over the edge of the table, drop the rotor, this way it far safer when it falls, as I mentioned above, you want to be able to get it where you want it to go, by that I mean, take a spot in space, move it there and practice getting it there without over shooting, and keeping the altitude the same. After that have fun, just remember the when in doubt drop the rotor thing.Example: (this happened to me) if your beloved dog jumps (and comes out of nowhere) drop the rotor, if you throttle up not only are you accelerating the blades, you would go nearer the eyes, remember the blades are wing shaped, they have quite a high air resistance (the blunt side is forward after all) so with no force applied will slow down quickly, dropping means she'll get a startling hit to the nose, but the blades are not sharp (blunt side) and they were nearly stopped, so be safe and drop the rotor when something goes wrong. Please don't think ill of me for this example, I feel awful for it - by mentioning it I hope others can see how good drop-the-rotor advice is and be mindful of pets.CONS:This is 3 channel, so it cannot do crab movements (this is when the helicopter strafes from side to side) it can only go forward and back, and rotate (and up and down, obviously) however this is not a con of the helicopter, it's great design means it can't have these things. To be able to crab it must be able to adjust the blade angle, which it can't, and doing so would mean the blades would have to be fixed, meaning if you crashed it it'd be far more likely to damage itself. However I really recommend this as a first helicopter.NOTE ON MODEL NUMBERS:Syma 2nd Edition S107 is identical to this, in build and remote, however this one is better because the remote has a high-quality finish to it (so it feels comfortable, and good and not cheap and has good grip), these helicopters are identical but the Syma has a tacky looking box and a cheap control finish (just plastic, no smooth grip)Any questions or comments please do comment! I hope this helps someone