Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

edit: 2 whole months of flying with a single fillup of helium and just air to make the balloon full, see my edits at the bottom of this review. Main review: It's a helium filled balloon after all and I never expected it to zoom along like it does. It works way better than I expected. I had a blimp with a fan motor a few years ago and this is way better. The tail swishes back and fourth to make her go. And "autoswim" makes it even easier to play with and control. See the video to see the Angry bird in action. To control her forward, press right then left, repeat, I call this swishing. You can press faster and faster and get into a rhythm. Press climb to make her point up. The control unit moves toward the back and changes the center of gravity, thus pointing the bird up. Genius! Now swish her or press autoswim and she climbs. Cool! Ok she's up, now press dive, and the control unit moves forward pointing the bird level or down if you press it long enough. If the control unit doesn't move, tighten the string, try again. After you get it working press "autoswim" and watch her go. Stop autoswim after a little. I found that you can keep autoswim on and constantly press real fast or hold left to make her turn left during autoswim, same for right, but sometimes it won't do the command because the IR control doesn't hit the control unit. Mine turns right easier, in fact mine turned right all the time until I adjusted the motor placement a little to the left (to make it turn right less) by tightening the left rubber band. You can balance her with the putty. I keep her a tiny bit less than neutral so she won't end up at the ceiling, but it doesn't matter, she works great in either case. Some people had problems with the bird not flying level. If the bird faces up, move the motorized control unit forward a little. Start at the center, between where it connects at the front and where it connects at the back. And make sure the string is tight enough to move when pressing "climb" or "dive". If the control unit doesn't move, tighten the string one hole. Another thing to check is to be sure the wire is loose along the string and the control unit moves easily. Enjoy! edit 1: I often leave "Angry" free in the downstairs family room. She never stays there long. One time she was looking out an upstairs window facing north when we left and when we came back she was looking out a different upstairs window facing west. A couple of times she decided to go into the basement to look around, it's below the family room. So she'll go up or down depending on what she feels like. Oh and recently she wondered into our bedroom closet during the day and we didn't notice her until my wife was startled going into the closet early in the morning. Now I'll keep her tethered when not in use. edit 2: The drive mechanism broke after near 100 hours of autoswimming. Really it was just the spring. I found another spring and she goes again. I don't know where the spring came from, I have a lot of parts laying around from my RC airplanes, helicopters, quad-copters and oh yes Angry Bird... edit 1/24/2013 - I did the first helium fillup on 1/4/13. As helium dissipated, I kept tightening the string so the up/down control worked. But after 9 days enough helium dissipated that I had to fill her up again. Instead of using more helium, I used a bike pump and put in air. Then the string could be tightened properly. I just had to add more air again today, 1/24/13. I still have not added any more helium. She does fly slower now, but she's still a whole bunch of fun to fly around. I will continue to fill with air until she needs more helium. I have a tank of helium, but not everyone does. So this can save many trips to the store to fill with helium. I don't know how many times I can do this, I'll let you know when I give up on air. But I still have a lot of putty on the receiver. edit 2/5/2013 - I have not filled Angry with anything since 1/24/2013. I did have to remove more putty, but there still is a lot more that I can remove later. This is crazy, to be able to do one complete fill of helium on 1/4/2013 and never add any more helium and still be able to fly!!! edit 3/8/2013 - Again I have not filled Angry with helium since 1/4/2013, over 2 months ago!!! I have been filling Angry with air using a bicycle pump when needed. I just filled Angry with air by blowing into the balloon! Much easier and faster than a pump. ALL the putty had to be removed and Angry was still a little heavier than air. But Angry still flew well just like always. But he had to point up a little to fly level. Still he flew up to the top of the 2nd story in my family room just like always. So this is it. I'm calling it, 2 whole months of flying with a single fillup of helium and just air to make the balloon full. On a different subject: My friend has a shark and I filled it up for him the first time (a whole lot more helium than Angry). He recently when to the local party store and paid $1.99 to top it off (He didn't try air like I told him to). So a refill didn't cost much. Don't know what a full first fill would cost, maybe the same??