Comment by Harrison Cassidy on October 11, 2012 at 2:40pm

I have backed, should make a nice toy

Comment by John Condon on October 11, 2012 at 3:08pm

@ Harrison.  Thanks for your support!  Let me know if you have any questions.

Comment by sergei lupashin on October 12, 2012 at 1:54am

Looks great! $150 is a bit high compared to say, the Ladybird/AR.Drone, but I can definitely sympathize with trying to compete with Walkera or Parrot.. Cool controller concept!

Comment by sergei lupashin on October 12, 2012 at 2:02am

P.S. Just backed the project :-) 

Comment by John Condon on October 12, 2012 at 10:03am

Hey Sergei!  I just responded to your questions on the Kickstarter board, so go check those out over there.  

You're right, it is very hard to compete with some of the super low-cost toys coming out of China.  That's why we put lots of thought into how to add value though quality, good engineering, and being more fun for a longer period of time.  After all, we're making toys and toys should be fun, right?  

BTW, we are half the cost of an AR.Drone...  We don't have a camera, but who uses the AR Drone camera anyway?

Comment by Tom in ON on October 12, 2012 at 7:15pm

Great idea...  here are my layman's suggestions.

I think for those who cannot/do not want to buy another one of these drones for a "dogfight", you may want to create an environment for single drone fun. What sets your drone apart from other drones is the IR gun. You can make and sell some low-cost stand alone pod sensors (use the one from the drone since it's already made) that can be placed around the house for target shooting. That would also allow several people to make runs against stationary targets with their own drone. Or you can hang the sensor pod and let it swing, move etc. This way if you want to buy only one drone, you can still enjoy the dogfighting/target shooting option (which again sets this drone apart from other drones in its class or above its class).    This way you could sell a lot more drones too.

I also disagree on the camera not adding any value. You could use it for an obstacle course target shooting game with FPV by placing those remote sensor pods around the house and various places.

Also, wouldn't FPV dogfight be more fun?  On your computer screen's FPV view you can place a gun crosshair in the video window and shoot at the other drone like in those good old Atari games against asteroids.

For a lot ore complex games, you could also have these pod sensor "wifi" capable and "report back" to a computer where they would form part of a grid of challenges graphically displayed on  the screen along with a FPV windows. The job would be to navigate from room to room, or from obstacle to obstacle, to compete a course.

Comment by ramboky on October 13, 2012 at 1:11am

@Tom if you read the Kickstarter page you'll see they already have plans for configurable, sensored ground targets. 

Comment by Tom in ON on October 13, 2012 at 5:54am

Oooops, missed that!  Yes, you are right!  Strike the ground target suggestion.

FPV suggestion still stands :)

Comment