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$49 remote control multicopter

Mark Frauenfelder at 9:26 pm Thu, Aug 9, 2012

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Another fun toy from Brando of Hong Kong -- this time it's a $49 quadcopter with remote control unit. The manufacturer's description describes it much more clearly than I could:

NewImageSIX AXES GYRO, Super Stable UFO!! Special SOMERSAULT in the AIR!!

The Perfect Flying Object with this New Design Technology, The Most Stable (like the real?) Floating in the AIR. The Special Design of the One Press Button, which can make the UFO to Somersault in the Air. This RC UFO is powered by a Small piece Battery that is fueled with the USB External Dual Charging Box; therefore, UFO can Fly Never Stop with this Unlimited Power Supply!


Tiny 2.4GHz Rechargeable 6 AXES GYRO RC Somersault UFO

Read more in Family at Boing Boing

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

TAGS:  family toys

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  • Sxe

    UDIRC.

    I will ponder its significance like a mantra as I fall asleep tonight.

    • http://botaday.com mmrtnt

      I will ponder its significance like a mantra as I fall asleep tonight.

      I believe it’s an attempt “gangsta up” (see below) the product.

      “You da IRC, dawg!”

  • R S

    I hope that they can refine it into a three axes version before we find signs of life on Mars.

  • Jake0748

    I want this toy SO BADLY, in spite of AND because of the prose in that ad.  

  • http://twitter.com/primey primey

    I showed this to a friend and he said it wasn’t gangsta enough… my reply:  http://imgur.com/D0TDU

    • Scott Lyman

      “But dey Spinnin’…”

  • Antinous / Moderator

    Something’s missing.

    • Jake0748

       No. The dead-kitty-copter did not feature – “the One Press Button, which can make the UFO to Somersault in the Air”.

    • Faring

       Yes, far too small for a cat. It might fit nicely in my poor recently deceased hamster however.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Hmmm. I occasionally find kittens in the pool filter.

  • Jason’s Robot

    Are they calling this a UFO as in Unidentified Flying Object???  Because, thanks to the manufacturers description, it is literally the opposite of unidentified.

    But, then again, most uses of the term UFO are wrong and I should stop caring about it because I’ll never win.  Cool toy, though.

    • Jake0748

       So, you completely skipped over the insanely  hilarious Engrish description of the product. just to gripe about  the (ubiquitous)  misuse of the term “UFO”?       When did you lose your funny bone?

      • Jason’s Robot

        I totally picked the wrong post to bring up my pissy-ness over the misuse of UFO.  I don’t know when I lost my funny bone.

      • http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

        C’mon, give a robot a break.

        • http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

          : D

      • http://fallsastar.com Crashproof

        It’s obviously a USBFO.

  • http://www.facebook.com/marko.raos Marko Raos

    GIEF!!!

  • fuzzyfuzzyfungus

    It’s always surprising how chinglish descriptions can be(and frequently are) entirely comprehensible, even detailed, yet utterly non-idiomatic in practically every way possible.

    What I don’t know is whether this is a testament to just how incomplete dictionary definitions really are(leading the guy with a basic knowledge of English grammar and a dictionary to make technically-accurate-but-not-right selections for many of the words) or whether it is a testament to how robust our abilities to infer meaning from badly mangled natural language are…

    • z7q2

      What amazes me is that these companies don’t just hire 1 native english speaker to polish up their presentations.

      What troubles me is that these companies may have hired just 1 native english speaker to polish up their presentations.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BOOM27DBLMZQIJVK4BQLE7K5YA Nagurski

         Native English speakers want to be paid like first worlders, and precise English product descriptions don’t boost sales.  Who’s going to pick up a cool quadracopter toy and then decide against buying it  because the English is choppy?

      • penguinchris

        I related this story to Rob Beschizza via Twitter a few days ago. I know some people online in China, with imperfect English (they found me on Skype looking for people to practice English with, actually). One of them worked at a company for a while that sold A/V equipment on ebay worldwide.

        She needed to write an e-mail to a customer in the US. She ran it by me to make sure it was OK. It was short but had a couple of problems that required me asking her questions to ensure I knew what she was saying, so after she explained it, I rewrote the whole thing as a native speaker (such as myself) would.

        She later ran it by her boss (not admitting that someone from the US wrote it for her) and the boss didn’t like it – so the boss rewrote the whole thing himself, much worse than my friend did to begin with!

        I think in many cases they just don’t realize that what they write is so bad. They don’t hire a native speaker because it never crosses their mind that there might be a problem with what they wrote themselves.

  • http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

    I’d love to see a video of this thing, looks like fun

  • http://twitter.com/danoot Dan

    sold!

  • spejic

    Now I need a small, light HD camera I can glue on to this. Preferably with a similar Chinglish description.

    • fuzzyfuzzyfungus

      Your friends at DX are absolutely rotten with teeny spycams and questionable english, the hardest part will be choosing which one you prefer…

      • Glizbane

        What is this DX you are referring to, and where might I go to experience such lovely Engrish?

        • Gojulas

           Dealextreme.com Great prices, slooooooowwwww shipping.

    • http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

      This fits the bill. Only mild Chinglish, though.

      Something like this is prolly better, but no Chinglish.

      This bloke stuck a keyring camera on his model plane FTW, same as just about everyone else with a RC aircraft.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxS1pd7pVPg

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1177098042 Erik Denning

    Yeah, ha ha. Isn’t it funny, for the zillionth time,  the way those asians poorly translate their product descriptions and directions? I wanted to know how the damn thing flew! You posted a very cool picture of it and never got around to reviewing it. 

  • RJ

    The translation wouldn’t bother me if they didn’t Capitalize Every Significant Word in the Entire Blurb.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Gunner-Miller/100000140006929 Gunner Miller

    I would love to see if the blades are dangerous…why you ask? I think this would be a great cat toy. I can see my cats losing their furry minds at this and chasing it. If this was pet safe, it could redefine cat toys. Hang a feather from it, or allow your cats to leap and ‘kill’ it. 

    • IndexMe

      Yes but without cages around the propellers your cats could lose an eye if they pounce too high so I would recommend against it. Though laser pointers are not good for eyes either..

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Gunner-Miller/100000140006929 Gunner Miller

        GGood point. I have seen some with guards around the propellers so they could be a possible choice.