Toy Helicopter with Moving Parts

I always joke that our oldest child (J) is a mini-Mike. They think alike and their personalities are very similar. Mike’s sisters also say Mike was a lot like him when he was a kid. He has also been a daddy’s boy since he was very young. They just get each other.

When J was around 4 years old I got the “brilliant” idea to do a homemade Christmas. Gifts given within our immediate family had to be homemade. Mike has always been a fan of RC things and had a RC helicopter that J loved but was too young to actually fly, so Mike rigged up this gem.

Helicopter Toy with Moving parts

It is meant to be a handheld helicopter toy but the rotors spin as varying speeds so it has a similar effect of being RC but more age-appropriate for a younger child. The body itself it made out of wood so it can be painted however you want. The two parts split apart and that is where the motor is placed. The blades were scavenged from an old RC helicopter. The feet of the helicopter are bent metal.

After watching that video you might think, gosh those can spin pretty quickly. Is my child going to lose an eye? I say depends on the kid. As a 4 year old, I didn’t worry about J. He was a pretty careful kid. Not too crazy or impulsive. I probably wouldn’t trust some of my other children at 4 with something like this. It wasn’t a particularly strong motor so it wasn’t going to hurt if you got hit by the spinning blades but it might be a good adjustment to use a motor that doesn’t turn so quickly if that worries you.

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