The Robosapien of the 2006 Holiday Season?

Even though I spend half my time setting up complicated home theater systems or configuring new little gadgets with my computer, I'm not much of a handyman. Other than Lego, I was never big on erector sets or models or anything requiring actual building (I even had a friend come over and help me make a shoe rack I bought recently at The Container Store).

So I was delighted that the Micro Mosquito—apparently the world's smallest and lightest RC helicopter—requires no setup whatsoever! It's essentially ready-to-take-off right out of the box (in fact, the hardest part about getting it started is removing it from the packaging). If I had known it was so easy, I would have taken it out of the box a couple of weeks ago, after eagerly begging manufacturer Interactive Toys to send me one—silly me.

Once charged and airborne, there's a bit of a learning curve to get the thing at a steady altitude and aimed in a straight line (using the three-lever remote control), but it doesn't take any damage or hurt anyone during the initial (frequent) crashes. After about an hour of practicing, I got the Micro Mosquito flying smoothly around my cluttered work space (it's optimized for indoor environments). It can operate on either of two channels, so you can get two copters and have air-battles in the same room with someone else.

It's recommended for ages 12 and over, but make sure those 12-and-overs are careful. Though it seems to take crashes well, the legs and other parts of the body are very mosquito-like—in other words, slim—so I wouldn't completely treat it like a toy.

Since there's no new Robosapien out this holiday season (just the Roboreptile, a smaller version of the Roboraptor), this RC doodad-of-the-home-skies could well be a candidate for toy of the season, if only it were available at more places besides Radio Shack stores, which are the only places you'll find it (and where it looks like it's currently sold out, at least online). 

The thing has only been out two weeks, and already it's getting ready to show up on the big and small screens: The creators of Homeland Security (a movie currently in production starring Antonio Banderas and Meg Ryan) and next season's 24 are incorporating the little flying wonder into the plot! Well, for the latter production, the Micro Mosquito has simply been requested on the set, but hey, maybe it'll get noticed and end up on the show. (This according to Interactive Toys.)

Now how can you possibly work an RC helicopter into an episode of 24? Ideas, anyone?