Yesterday my handsome(and single) friend and I went to the Dollar Tree to purchase a couple of the kites that I have heard so much about from the Tallahassee kite community. We dove into the extensive kite aisle to find so much of a selection that it made our heads spin! There was a SpongeBob Squarekite, a Stormtropper kite, and some other kites. I personally fell IN LOVE with the Minion kite(as seen in Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, and the Minions movie). One look at it and I could tell that it was built to fly. My compadre fancied the more traditional Dragon design, but to each his own I suppose.
We made it out to the kite field, and we immediately started having a few challenges. For one, the Minion kite had directions on the packaging, but the Dragon one DID NOT. We realized that we would have to get a little creative to put it together- Strike #1. Also, it was so windy in the field that we had to retreat back into my car to even put our kites together at all without the risk of tributing our mechanisms to the wind- Strike #2. Even with the strikes, I would have been completely satisfied with the purchases if they held up to my expectations, but more to come on that later!
I put together my Minion and was able to study the quality of the kite. Aerodynamic material- 6/10; Shape- 5/10; Tail- 8/10; String length- 6/10; Colors- 7/10; Overall- 9.3/10. This baby looked like a dream.
I had to peak over at my handsome(and single) friend to see if his Dragon was ready to roar. Alas, it was not. One of the stick holsters that was attached to the base of the device had lost all of its adhesive material, and there was no way to re-fasten it. I blame this on a probably error at the manufacturing plant, but Dollar Tree is somewhat liable for neglecting on the quality inspection. We tried our best to recover the kite by poking a couple of holes into the foundation and tying the excess string around the framework to bring our Frankendragon back to life, but it just would not hold.
The Dragon was slain.
In spite of this drawback, we decided to lift our spirits by watching the wind lift our Minion.
Well, it definitely made it off the ground, but there was an apparent design flaw! The kite would get to waist-level and would begin to viciously barrel-roll into a frenzy. It could not achieve maximum elevation no matter how much slack we gave it nor how fast we would run with it. To make matters worse, that was the ONLY trick that it would comply with. Sometimes it's true that you can't teach an old kite new tricks, and that was truly the last straw of the endeavor... or was it? It wasn't long before the frame ripped apart from the base entirely, and both of our kites laid upon the grass in shambles.
I would not recommend Dollar Tree to anyone who is serious about flying kites competitively or recreationally, and I hope that they will do a better job ensuring the capabilities of their kite products. Nice job, losers. read more