Straw Shooter Jets product reviews

I have always been a fan of paper airplanes, from the simplest to the hardest, I have always been mesmerised by the aerodynamics of a folded-up sheet of dried plant pulp! These "Straw Shooter" planes, however, are something decidedly more original. So far I have only built 1 plane, and it didn't fly well, but was probably because I got something screwed up while I was making the plane, and practise makes perfect. The force that I could feel being exerted on the plane, however, was impressive, so I which to give a special dose of kudos to the labcoats at Klutz for coming up with the idea of using the sheer power of breath and an exertion of force in a confined space as a method of propelling the planes, GENIUS!

This was not the only factor that impressed make, no sir, in fact I'm only just getting started. For one thing, I love the 5 unique and diverse plane designs, each one bears minimal resemblance to the others, so there is no risk of repetition. To further spice things up, I just LOVE how they have made 5 different basic designs, but they have created multiple versions of each one, so there will be one design, but there will be multiple copies, each with a different pattern on it.

The instructions are very descriptive, it would take either an ultimate amateur or a person who just had a brain surgery gone wrong to get these instructions wrong, as they show each step in great detail, with very helpful diagrams to go along with each. This book also has an education factor as well, because at the end of each set of instructions, there is a page which shows, and describes, the original planes or aerodynamic designs that the paper planes were based on. That's right, the planes in this book were inspired, not original.

To assist the readers, the book contains enough tips and tricks to choke a cow! (well, maybe not literally, but I will bet that your friends will be pretty green-eyed after seeing what you do with those tips and tricks ) I regret that I have not made more of these planes, so I will put that on my to-do list for the near future, but I can mess around with these planes all I want, because if I run out of planes or want to make my own designs, I can! In the back of this book there is a template for making 1 of the 5 types of planes, with which you can make your own designs, now that was cool and unexpected.

I was, however, disappointed that the book did not have templates for each type of plane, instead of just one. I think that this book is pretty impressive, and I think that just 1 book will be good to keep in a pile of stuff to do on rainy days at home. I hope you all enjoy this book, and see you later, byeee!

I have two boys who always ask me to fold paper planes but I'm useless at folding things and getting them to fly so thought that with proper instructions and directions I should be able to get it right... well I was wrong.

The book had some good points and tips and the instructions were clear and easy to follow. I let the kids (had some friends make some of the jets as well) decide which ones they wanted and then started making them, one at a time. I struggled with the darker colours to see the dotted lines so think I may have missed some of the folds on the plane.

Got to the end of the first one and it said to cut it at the end of the paper, thought that was a bit strange as I was expecting to have some way of blowing it so threw it instead and it did kind of fly but more of a nose dive. Second one was a lighter colour and I could see there were a few more dotted lines that meant I was supposed to fold them so the second one was a bit more of a success.

There are five different designs in the book so the third one was a different design and it was easier to make but kind of did a nose dive after a short flight. The fourth jet I had nothing to do with making (the child managed to remember what I did with the first two and got it all folded and cut right) but still didn't really fly as well as we were all expecting.

One issue I did have is that the nose cones don't fit into the straws properly unless the straw is black, any of the colour straws are far too small. I did try a few times and got it to fly with the nose half pushed in but when it crashed the kids had to try and find the nose cone as it came out.

There are still enough straws and templates left to give it another go so will try that and see if we can be more successful next time. The kids did try and fly them a few times but gave up after about 15 to 20 minutes apart from the youngest child who is now carrying her jet around with her.

I would not worry about this type of book again, I do like crafts but I don't seem to be able to get things to fly.