Get started in electronics, eliminate red-eye the old-school way, and touch up your walls with the screw of a lid.

TOOLBOX

Enter the Dragon Dragonfly R/C Ornithopter $50 flytechonline.com

Wow Wee continues its string of high-tech toy hits with the Dragonfly, a genuine R/C ornithopter. Wow Wee likes to find talented designers and entice them to Hong Kong to make killer-cool toys. First they wooed Mark Tilden, who created the Robosapien. Then they turned to high school student Sean Frawley, who they found selling ornithopter kits online. Now responsible for the Fly Tech line at Wow Wee, Frawley’s first creation is the Dragonfly.

The Dragonfly is extremely light. The 16" wings use carbon fiber struts, and the styrofoam body weighs just 0.8oz. The flier is powered by a lithium polymer battery recharged via AA batteries in the controller; you get 10 minutes on a charge. The digital radio controller has two channels, for beginner and expert modes; expert allows for tighter turns. The Dragonfly can travel up to 18 mph within a 50' R/C range.

As with Robosapien, one of the coolest things to do with a Dragonfly is to hack it! Early hacks include removing the styrofoam to reduce weight, replacing the LED eyes from blue (which draw ~3V) to red (~ 1.6V) to save battery life, and tracking down the Chinese battery manufacturer to discover a longer-life version (which may be flyable in a denuded Dragonfly). For other hacks, go to robocommunity.com.

—Gareth Branwyn

168 Make: Volume 10