Christmas is currently just over 4 weeks away so why not make the day even more special for the little kids in your house with Santa and his reindeer flying past your window? 

In the review, we got a chance to try the flying Santa drone from Thumbs Up which is £40 but currently available with a large discount at only £12.   

 

Unboxing

 

The box that the flying Santa comes in is fully recyclable however, everything inside not so much. I did like the branding on the packing its very Christmas themed as you will expect. The rear of the box provides you with a list of the contents and also some useful instructions that also come in 4 additional languages. 

 

Open the packaging and you are greeted with the following: 

  • The Flying Santa’s main body 
  • 4x Raindeer
  • Spare rotors 
  • Micro-USB cable
  • Instruction manual
  • Transmitter/Controller

Design

 

This little drone features a Santa Claus in his bright red sleigh with a bag of gifts in the back pulled by 4 of his reindeer. This drone comes with 3 sets of powerful mini propellers to take this sleigh into the sky and you control him with the radio control.  

 

If I had to pick this apart you can see why it’s very cheap looking and made of plastic and there is very little detail on the sleigh you can see it’s Santa but would it have hurt to add a little detail on the face? 

 

In terms of set-up, it comes pretty much assembled you will need to charge the main body of the unit before use you need to fully charge this will take just under an hour to do so. Once charged you will only get 5 minutes of flying time so think carefully when you take this to the air.  Once charged you need to connect the 4 reindeer and make sure the remote control has 3x AAA batteries then you are ready.

How to fly?  

 

Before you make any attempt to fly this read the instructions as the controller might look simple to use but there is quite a bit to know. First up let’s take a closer look at the controller. The controller is made of plastic as you might have expected and in the centre of the controller you have a small LED, this is the power indicator and will also flash when paired to the sleigh. 

 

You also have a forward and back trimmer located under the LED and under that is the power switch to the controller. On either side of the 1st trimmer are 2x control sticks the lift side is the throttle stick and also doubles as the emergency stop. The control stick on the right is solely a directional stick that allows you to position it forwards, backward, left & right. Last but not least under that controller is the left/right trimmer.

 

You then need to pair the control to the sleigh to do this you need to do the following: 

    1. Switch on the flying Santa and place it on the floor you will then see a red LED will flash.
    2. Turn on the power to the control you will notice the LED on the control will also start to flash.
    3. Push the throttle sticks to the top position and then pull down to the bottom position and you will see the power indicator light up and it’s paired.   

How to take flight

 

  1. Place the Flying Santa on the floor.
  2. Slowly increase the throttle and focus on the flying Santa.
  3. Once santa leaves the ground slowly reduce the throttle worst case it will hit the floor but you will get the hang of it eventually.  

 

Timing the controls

 

First up gently push the throttle up to raise the flying Santa to about 2 meters from the ground. If you notice the flying Santa pitches forward you need to press backwards on the trimmer to stabilise the drone. If you notice it pitches backward then press the forward button on the trimmer and it will also stabilise the drone. 

How does it move? 

 

Maintain a steady height and with the right controller stick push the direction left to rotate counter-clockwise or push right and move the stick clockwise to go right.  If you want to move forwards just push the directional stick up to go forwards or pull it downwards to go backwards. When flying just consider the device has a range of only 30 meters and a flying time of just 5 minutes. 

 

Verdict

 

Flying Santa is great fun especially if this is your first taste of a drone it’s very easy to use but do read that instruction manual overwise it’s game over very quickly. I would have liked a bit more flying time and a bit more thought to go into the overall design. 

However, we have a 2-year-old nephew who when he saw this fly past the window was blown away. Now you could also use it inside if you are brave and wanted to direct your young kids to the presents this could also be done but I would need a bit of practice before I pulled that off.  

 

It’s a cool little gadget that will provide smiles at Christmas for your young children so it gets a thumbs up from me! 

 

Product Rating: 

Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars   

Normally £40 but if you are quick you can find a bargain price of £12 via Studio.co.uk 

 

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