Crystal Flyers Magical Flying Toy Doll

This was a birthday gift for my daughter, but I ended up taking her to choose something else at the store because we were both very dissatisfied with the product. The concept of a hovering, "flying" pixie-themed toy is nice and my fairy-crazy child was very interested - hence the birthday gift purchase. While the detailing of the doll is decent and the crystal-y egg storage compartment is pretty (though bulky and hard to open), the actual function of the toy left something to be desired. The power switch is located on the underside of the "skirt" section and is quite small, making it difficult to turn on and off with the various wing-blade sections flopping in the way. It is just plain awkward to handle. The instructions actually say that to stop the pixie you can either wait for it to run out of battery OR catch it by the legs. Just catch it by the legs, no further instruction. Well, catching it by the legs does nothing except leave you with rapidly rotating plastic in close proximity to your hand. It will not turn off if it is tipped over, only if the wings come in contact with something such as when it crashes. So let it crash or let it run out of battery if it miraculously stays airborne for that long. If it does crash, you need to switch it off and then on again if you want to have another flight - at least it has that safety feature. But here's the biggest reason we ended up ditching it, 9 times out of 10 it wouldn't take off properly. The base has a little metal prong that the pixie's feet lightly slot onto and you are supposed to launch it from there (trying to toggle the power switch then get your hand out of the way before it starts spinning 6 seconds later). Well, ours must be bent ever so slightly because the pixie leans just a few degrees when on the base...and then takes off at an angle, skittering to a swift crash landing before it can even get a foot of height. On the occasion we do get it to launch upward, it is difficult to "direct" in any way because it only senses a hand placed directly underneath it and there are no controls otherwise. It is not long for the air before inevitably banking into a wall. It says "crash resistant" but I wonder how much it can take before damage shows. Then as if to mock us, it began just getting stuck on the base and wouldn't take off at all, sideways or otherwise. It just spun like a noisy mechanical ballerina. I know I'm sounding snarky, but it really was disappointing to have a gift that didn't perform to reasonable expectations straight out of the box. Since we removed and tossed the shrink-wrapped label packaging I'm pretty sure we can't return it so I'm out that purchase plus the cost of finding another gift. And before you assume we were rough with it, my child is several years older than the recommended minimum age and I was also monitoring and assisting as we tried to give it the best chance to succeed - it just wasn't a good product and ultimately I wanted her to have something she could actually enjoy instead of this ill-conceived pseudo-drone. SO, buyer beware. In my opinion, this is a gimmicky fail that has very little reliability or fun factor in actual use.