Wowwee Takes New Drone Vision to Indigogo

Do you have a friend who complains that remote control quad-copters are not actually “drones”? I do. What he wants is a drone that follows you around, not one you have to control manually. Well,  I had the pleasure of watching a demo of the Wowwee Lumi at ToyFair 2016 and I’m happy to say it’s totally a drone.

Yes, Wowwee wants to tell you how exciting it is that you can play games with Lumi and interact with it. That is neat. To me though, the neatest part is that Lumi uses Wowwee’s beacon tech to “leash” the drone to you. Add sensors for avoiding walls and other impacts and you basically have one of Mr. Terrific’s T-Spheres.

For those who want more control, you can manipulate Lumi via your tablet or mobile device and interact with it to play interesting games. I personally liked “Lumi to the Beat” – basically Simon, but here it would lower when you got one wrong and go higher when you were matching. There are all sorts of other games.

Wowwee decided to pre-sell the Lumi via crowd-sourcing at Indigogo. This is a smart move for them, as it gives more press than just showing up in a shop. It’s also a good deal for those who would be into this. The basic model is $60 – far cheaper than most Wowwee products when first in the shop. Most of our readers, though, will like the more interested in the $110 Maker kit, with an SDK. Oh the fun we could have… or rather, will have. We’re supposed to get a review unit and will let you know how it goes.