Dave's TF Artifacts Rant: Energon Kites SkyDiamond - Optimus Prime - Not going to flight test SkySled - Optimus Prime - Flight tested FlipFlop - Optimus Prime/Unicron - Flight tested MicroLite - Scorponok - Flight tested Hex Kite - Optimus Prime - Flight tested After more than a decade of no Transformers kites, we get three at once, woot. Interestingly, the last time I flew a kite of any kind it was a G2 Optimus Prime kite. Update 6/7: Found the SkySled at a dollar store, added review between SkyDiamond and FlipFlop. CAPSULES SkyDiamond: Basic "kite" shape with streamers for a tail, somewhat boring image of Prime just standing there. But it's hard to beat the price, snag it if you can find it. 88 cents at Wal-Mart. SkySled: Narrow rectangle sled shape with two long streamer tails. Same image as SkyDiamond. Tends to collapse in on itself if the wind dies down. Mildly recommended. $1.00 at Dollar Tree. FlipFlop: Broad delta shape with keel, the standard stunt kite shape, this has different images on the two sides, and can be constructed with either one facing the kite-flyer. Prime looks like he's being crucified, Unicron is the black Energon version. Keels are only glued on, however, and will come off on any hard landing. Mildly recommended. $2.99 at Target. MicroLite: This sort of kite is new to me, a small mylar irregular hexagon with streamers for a tail, it'll be interesting to see how it handles. Picture is of Scorponok advancing on the viewer. Appearance marred by numerous safety warnings around the edges. Shiny. Really long tails. A very good "parking lot kite". Recommended, but storage is an issue. $2.99 at Target, $2.84 at Wal-Mart. Hex Kite: A serious nylon fabric kite, bigger and sturdier and clearly meant for repeated use (whereas the plastic sheet kites above are probably not expected to survive an afternoon of use). Almost worth getting just as a window hanging. Easy to fly, very stable, no tendencies to nosedive that I noticed, easy to put away. Recommended. $9.99 at Target. RANTS First, the commonalities. They're all made by X Kites, "a division of X Concepts", and are on the shelf along with a number of other licensed kites (Justice League, TMNT, Barbie, etc). All are marked as being for ages 5 to adult. The image from the SkyDiamond is used on the packaging of all three. SkyDiamond: Packaged rolled up in a long slender bag with a cardboard bit clipped across the top, this is a cheap, basic kite, and will probably end up destroyed the first time I fly it. :) Recommended for wind speeds 5-15 mph, it's an old fashioned "kite" shape (diamond with two short sides at the top and two long sides at the bottom) using a cluster of relatively short streamers (called SkyTails TM) for a tail. The kite is 23" (58.5cm) tall and features a "standing at attention" non-super mode Optimus Prime standing against a blue and white energy streamer background. The included string is wrapped around a red handle 3.5" (9cm) wide and sized for child hands (i.e. I can only really fit three fingers inside comfortably). Slender rigid plastic rods stiffen the kite, and connect easily via black plastic tubes connected at the corners and center. The plastic of the kite sail is very thin, and I doubt it'll survive crashing on particularly pointy grass...but then again, most kites when I was a kid used really thin paper, so no real difference. I haven't opened this yet, but I suspect the safety warnings are on the otherwise blank back of the kite. For connection, this kite uses a "Quikclip No Knot System" to hook the included line to the kite. Nothing special, but at 88 cents, I think I'm gonna pick up an extra few to use as posters or something. Flight test: Decided not to. After how the FlipFlop detonated on landing, I have little doubt that today's gusty winds would shred this puppy. SkySled: Packaged the same way as Sky Diamond. Laid flat, it looks like a traditional diamond kite with the bottom and top points snipped off to make an irregular hexagon. However, the struts are both vertical, defining a central rectangle 22" (56cm) tall and 11" (28cm) wide. The strings are attached to the outside corners, so that when in flight it's a sled shape with two triangular box sides leading to the string. The SkyTails are an inch wide (2.5cm) and about 15 feet (5m) long, each is attached at the bottom of one of the struts. There is no cross-strut to make an H shape, the kite depends on the wind to keep the sides apart. The rectangle is bright yellowish green with Energon patterns, and a rectangle along the bottom few inches with the various warnings and safety messages. Prime is just standing there at attention, with a red energon aura around him and the Transformers Energon logo across his feet. The side triangles are clear plastic. The SkyTails are blue, and hard to put away again for storage. Flight Test: The wind was uneven the day I tested this, which exposed a serious flaw in the SkySled design. When the wind drops below a few miles per hour, the sides tend to collapse together, totally eliminating the kite's lift even if the wind picks back up. Side to side stability is iffy, making this a swooping stunt kite type. FlipFlop: Packaged about the same as the Sky Diamond. A big ol' delta kite 45" (1.14m) wide and 24" (60cm) long, this is definitely intended for older users and repeated use. The stiffening rods are square-crosssectional tubes instead of slender rods, the plastic sheet is stronger, and the handle for the string is slightly larger at 4" (10cm) wide. Assembly is very simple, just insert the one crossbrace across whatever you want to be the top of the kite. They avoid fiddling around with reversible keels by simply having a keel on both sides. A little ugly, but uncomplicated. There's two connection points on each keel for attaching the QuikClip, and the instructions say that one should be for high wind and the other for low wind (a stability issue, no doubt), but the diagram doesn't match the configuration of the eyelets. I'm guessing that the forward point is for high wind, keeping the center of mass farther behind the connection point in order to minimize the chance of the nose being whipped in some random direction by the wind. Recommended for use in winds of 5-15 mph, it has no tail. The Prime side is taken from art of the Autobot leader striding forward and exhorting his forces to advance (I've seen it elsewhere). But it's cropped to look like he's been crucified and is gesturing at someone off-screen. Heh. The Unicron side is (I think) package art from EnerCron's box, the only package art on these kites (I may be wrong about this, I haven't kept Prime's box). The Unicron side has the safety warning block, so I guess they figure Prime will be more popular as the front. Flight test: The wind was a bit erratic, but the kite generally stayed in the air pretty well. Paying out line was easy, drawing it back in was not. When the inevitable nosedive happened, the keel just came right off. Turns out the keels are glued on, not heat-bonded, but they can't be stuck back on once they first rip off. So, essentially, you get two crashes before it becomes a wall-hanging. MicroLite: This one is actually on a blister slab thing about 9" (23cm) wide and 10" (25cm) high, a clamshell glued shut at a few points around the edges. The string is attached to a tiny little reel with a rod handle about 3cm long (I may attach an adjustable screwdriver handle to this or something before using it). It's recommended for winds of 5-12 mph (apparently it does more poorly in high winds than the other designs) and comes with SkyTails. The kite is a mylar sheet stiffened by diamond-style crossed rods, and it comes already assembled. Oddly, despite the hexagonal shape of the sail, there's only two rods, so the lower left and lower right corners are free to flap around. The hexagon is 7" (18cm) wide at the top corners, 5" (12cm) wide at the bottom corners, and 6.5" (17cm) tall. The mylar sheet is imprinted with a grid pattern to make it glitter at different angles rather than being a uniform sheet of mylar. Purple and red patterns form a crackling aura along with the base silver around Scorponok. The Scorponok image is dynamic, and printed on opaquely so that the mylar doesn't shine through. The back of the kite is just the sparkly mylar grid pattern. Unfortunately, they didn't put the safety info and trademark info on the back, and it clutters up the front in brown squares along three of the borders. This one does NOT use the QuikClip system, you have to tie the string on. Too bad, since that's a point failure source. Especially if you're not good at knots (I recommend a pair of half-hitches if you know how do to them). Flight test: When I took the rubber band off the SkyTails, I was shocked to find out how long they were. Once out on the parking lot, the wind whipped them out to their full length of over 20 feet (6m)...I don't own a tape measure that long, sorry. A 7" kite with tails about fifty times its own length is, unsurprisingly, pretty stable. VERY easy to spool out line, but kinda time-consuming to reel it back in. It was fun to fly, as long as I kept the tail away from trees and cars and stuff, and if you're only going to get one kite to actually fly, I'd recommend this one if you don't have a big open field handy. However, storing the SkyTails is non-trivial. I ended up winding them around an empty toilet paper tube, which took me several minutes. There's faster ways to roll 'em up, but I didn't want to tangle them or put them in knots. Hex Kite: Everything about this kite suggests repeated use, even the more rigid tube packaging that is reusable. The tube is 33" (84cm) tall, 5" (13cm) wide and about 0.8" (2.1cm) thick, rounded on the sides. The "plug" at the top of the tube is the handle, the only one of this lot that's large enough for me to grip comfortably. The label is glued on to the front of the tube, and lists the following information: the kite is 30" (76.2cm) tall, it's a nylon applique kite, with "stained glass sewing" and fiberglass airframe. It uses the QuikClip system, and is recommended for windspeeds of 6 to 18 mph. The nylon fabric is fairly thin and crinkly, but seems strong nonetheless. It's made of numerous panels stitched together with black borders, hence "stained glass", although some pieces are multicolored, kinda cheating in that respect. The image is a closeup of Prime's head from a pose of him with slanted shoulders, so the stuff around the head looks a little odd at first glance. An Autobot symbol panel is in the upper right. The hexagon is the same basic proportions as the MicroLite, with the upper two corners farther apart than the lower two corners. The struts are solid black fiberglass 1/8" (3mm) in diameter tipped with rubber caps to keep them from ripping through their "pockets". The instructions are on a separate sheet, and say that the minimum windspeed is 7 mph, not 6 mph. Hm. The "SkyTails" streamers come already attached. Once assembled, it's clear that Prime's face is about a centimeter off center, which is a bit odd. On the other hand, at least there's no safety warnings on this kite. Flight test: The SkyTails on this one are less than 15 feet (5m) long, and much wider. This makes them less likely to tangle and easier to roll back up for storage. As far as flying this kite, it's great. I only stopped because my arms were getting tired. It looks a little odd when bowed by the wind, kinda like Red Alert's FD shield emblem. The wind was gusting between almost nothing and nearly 30mph, and I had no trouble keeping it in the air and under control. I'm glad I have a park across the street. }-> Dave Van Domelen, will probably review Megatron tonight.