The last toy we tried out was the Real Flying Toothless. It’s a lightweight plastic body with plastic film wings and tail, about 11 inches long and 16 inches wide. Inside the body is a rubber band—you turn the crank on the back to twist up the rubber band, and then flip the switch near the wings to release the catch and give it a gentle toss.
The problem with ours is that the first time I tried to flip the switch into “lock” position, the little mechanism inside snapped off. (It felt stuck and kind of flimsy so I was trying to be careful, but no dice.) So then when you turn the crank the wings just flap and there’s no tension building up. Instead, I had my kids hold the wings up while I cranked it up. It takes about 50 cranks to get it wound up properly, and it’s kind of hard for a kid to do it.
However, once we got that figured out, it was actually still a lot of fun to play with. We took it out to the park and took turns throwing it. The flight pattern was often a sharp climb, followed by a wide spiral back down until the wings stopped flapping, though you can adjust the tail to steer it to some extent. I never managed to get Toothless to fly in a straight line, but we did get some interesting dips and curves, too.
I did manage to get this very brief video of Toothless in flight:
My kids really enjoyed Flying Toothless, and so did I, but I do think the lightweight plastic is pretty flimsy and could be easy to damage. There is an extra rubber band included (it’s a really long one) with a tool to help install it, but if you break one of the wings or the body you’re probably out of luck.
There are, of course, many other How to Train Your Dragon 2 toys, from plush Toothless to flaming swords, but these are most of the ones we’ve gotten to try out ourselves. Thanks again to Spin Master for providing the samples!
Related links:
10 Things Parents Should Know About How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Art of How to Train Your Dragon 2
