There is something about paper airplanes that always seems to excite boys, even grown-up boys. I can think of a handful of adult males: fathers, uncles, and teachers who would love this kit to work on with their young ones, or even just for themselves. I, as an adult female, don’t usually get that excited about paper airplanes, but I was certainly delighted to see the cool, unique designs of the paper airplanes when I first opened this kit.
The kit includes 12 pop-out paper airplanes, an instructional booklet, and a catapult launcher. They all fit in a nice box that comes in, even after building the planes (if you remove the cardboard inside). The catapult launcher makes these planes fly so much faster and further than hand-flying, which is a big bonus!
Just after receiving this One Minute Airplanes kit I had an opportunity to spend time with a seven-year-old nephew, so we got to try this kit together. He LOVED it, both to make and fly them.
I should point out that the name of this kit, “One Minute Paper Airplanes” could be misleading. First of all, I think that the One Minute implies the time it takes to build each airplane, but it certainly takes longer to build one until you get a hang of it. I realized that diagramming system for building paper crafts is different from origami’s so it took me a while to figure it all out. Even after building all the planes, you would end up spending a lot more time flying them so this is not just a “quickie” kit that you’d get tired in a short amount of time.
I think this kit may be a bit too challenging for a young child without much experience in paper crafting to figure out how to build. But it would be an excellent kit to build together by a parent-child team. Building and flying them together could lead to a great bonding experience.
It would be fun to bring this kit to vacations as well. Just be sure to bring a stapler and a ruler to build the planes with. A smaller head stapler would work better if you have one, since regular sized staples seem to weigh the planes down.
Also, be sure to test out the planes in a large open area without obstacles, on a calm, dry day. My nephew and I flew them in the wooded area with a pool, and we ended up losing a plane in a pool, another one in the woods. Oops.
Tuttle Publishing just released the One Minute Paper Airplanes kit just a few days ago. You can purchase one directly from Tuttle, or also from Amazon and Powell’s.
