First you furiously inflate its hollow fuselage with a hand pump. Then the Air Hog, a mean-looking toy plane the size of a pit bull, snorts like a chain saw and heads skyward. For a few seconds, all the disappointments you've ever had with those rubber-band-powered pieces of crap fade as you stare slack-jawed at the incredible flying power of this $40 wonder. Then it finds some trees and gets lost.
That's what happened when I took my 8-year-old son out into an upstate New York clearing for a session of male bonding with the Hog - just two generations of guys, yakking about Chuck Yeager and stuffing so much air into this toy (a custom pump is included) that I was terrified the propeller would lop off Junior's finger. (Spinmaster Toys, the Hog's creator, insists the thing is safe, and so far no digits have been lost.)
During the first couple of tries, something went wrong and the craft hit the ground like a lead Frisbee. But next came a flight worthy of a John Williams score - it sailed the height of six stories, made gentle rolls, and returned to our feet after 40 seconds of sustained loft. Cowabunga!
On the next trial, the Styrofoam-and-plastic marvel flew longer than a football field, only to enter the forest and disappear overhead. Months after our sortie, we got a report that some hunters found it, and that the hog had strange bite marks on the wings. An animal must have guessed right - this is a very tasty toy.
Air Hogs: $39.95. Spinmaster Toys: +1 (416) 364 6002, (800) 622 8339.
STREET CRED
Geek Basics
Let 'Er Rip
Data Ports of Call
Addicted to Toys
The Art of Getting Along
Block-Rockin' Beats
America's Cabinet of Curiosities
Make More Slimy Guts
Music
Just Outta Beta
ReadMe
Reality Bytes
A World for the Taking
High on the Hog
Visual Mixing in Clubland
Mixed Media
Contributors
