Take-copter again. Not many parents are ready for peeling off more than US$30,000 for their kids, even though mad engineer Gen-san's H-4 has been available for quite some time. Actually, no parents have visited Gen-san's shack, so far.

All right, Take-copter is an imaginary product after all. How about something a bit more tangible and affordable? Take-copter simulator for kids ... for this one, you don't need to go straight to bankruptcy.

Head-mount non-functioning propeller, IR receiver unit and LCD TV screen.

Epoch Co. of Tokyo has developed a simulator game, "Feel Doraemon's Take-copter". Connect the simulator to TV screen, put a plastic propeller on the head of your kid (supposed to be older than four years). The simulator finds the position of dummy Take-copter. An infrared transmitter is hidden in the head gear. A simple trick.

As the wearer of propeller moves around, the movement is being projected to Doraemon on the TV screen. Now, this Doraemon avatar ventures into the game world. Several mini games like Treasure Hunt, Zero-Gravity Flying Race, High-Speed Woodland Cross-Country can be played.

An overgrown (bodily, not mentally) child playing the game. No, actually, he is from Epoch Co.

By the way, the head-mount propeller does not rotate, though it has a button battery (CR2032). I guess infrared sucks all power and none left for yellow plastic propeller.

Epoch says the game will be available end of September. 7,854 yen (US$67).

Mmmm, your daughter is not impressed by this kind of simulation game? Right, I'll show you the final resort. A model Take-copter from the same Epoch Co. Sure, radio-controlled Doraemon with oversized rotors. The contraption is not unlike Gen-san's personal chopper H-4. Co-axial counter-rotating rotors are powered by a nickel-MH battery. Fly time, just 1 minute; 4 minutes to quick-charge the exhausted Doraemon.

The controller has only two commands, ascend and descend. Your daughter has to practice a lot to hover the Doraemon in midair. Landing is also a bit hard. Oh, no worries, this flying Doraemon is quite sturdy. He can survive many crash landings. A real tough nut he is!

From left: Controller, Doraemon standing by, quick charger.

Price tag: 5,754 yen (US$50) including VAT.

 

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