Air Swimmers Inflatable Flying Shark

I have had a whole lot of fun with my Air Shark. It is a clever design, and as sturdy as it can be considering that all of its features are trying to save weight. I have used it for over a month now, and have put it through its paces well enough that I feel confident writing a review for it. It was a little tricky to get it put together, not very intuitive, so walk through the instructions once or twice before you start on it and take your time. It also helps to have another person help hold on to it. And definitely, definitely tie a string to it and lash it to something heavy before you start to fill the balloon! I had to figure out how to get it down from the ceiling a couple of times. You can take the string off later when you're balancing out the ballast to give it neutral buoyancy. The fins and tail are very lightweight, as they need to be to enable to balloon to float. They are springy and very flexible. They have bounced off of my textured ceiling, walls, light fixtures, blinds, cabinets, and various other things numerous times and still look pretty good. They also seem to function as bumpers between the skin of the balloon and other objects. The balloon itself seems rather sturdy. My shark was still floating (adjusting for buoyancy by removing clay from the Remora / Pilot Fish pod as needed) TWO WEEKS after initially filling it. I have never had a balloon retain helium that well before. I filled it back up again this weekend and it was back ready to go just like day one. The shark is surprisingly maneuverable, and able to turn in a much tighter radius than I ever would have thought. With a little practice with the remote, you can get it to dive and climb and make some pretty impressive turns. Not at high speed mind you, but much more energetically that you would expect a helium balloon to be able to do. A couple of caveats should be mentioned. When unattended, even though seemingly happy floating in the corner of the ceiling, the shark tends to wander around. You just don't appreciate how much air flow you have in your house until you have a balloon floating around it. Mine has a tendency to wander into the kitchen. Perhaps I should increase his meals... At any rate, it may wander into areas with sharp pointy things that you'd rather have it avoid, so when not using it, tie the shark down or confine it somewhere without a lot of airflow. Secondly, over time the balloon will gradually deflate. This causes the stickers holding things onto it to have gaps between the adhesive and the balloon body and come lose. This was easily remedied with Scotch tape. Also, when less inflated, the rubber bands holding on the tail tended to slip off. This is not a problem when fully inflated, but I did have to hunt a couple of them down on occasion. Lastly, my dog does not like the Air Shark. She generally just leaves the room or avoids it, but more aggressive pets could easily damage the balloon. All in all, I think this is a great toy and I highly recommend it, for small and big kids alike.

Absolutely terrible design! It works okay for the first day, after which parts start falling off and the ones that are attached to special rubber bands (the tail section) actually go flying across the room somewhere and then the hunt is on.... Because your finished if you can't find them, as they don't give you any extra "hooks" in the package! The main problem lies within the design.... EVERYTHING is held onto the balloon with very NOT so sticky double sided tape, and then what appears to be scotch tape strips over top to double up the holding power (NOT).... so picture this for an evening of fun.... You blow this thing up with helium, after which you have to stick a dozen or so of these items into a balloon... That constantly wants to "Get Away" from you (it's a chore even with someone helping).... Then you have to go back to all of those items and peel and stick flimsy scotch tape (which also wants to fight with you) over the top of them, which at least a couple have already fallen off of the balloon! So once you get this all done and your ready to fly this thing, you realize that it needs more helium (even though it looks like it is going to burst) so you fight with the tail section and you wrestle more helium into the a## of this thing! OK so now the grand kids have gone to bed disappointed because you didn't realize that this was going to be an all day "project" to put these things together (I bought two of them :-( ), so finally Grandpa fly's it around and tweaks the weight with the provided puddy and everything is working "kinda" OK, the controls are clunky to get the hang of, and you always have to be within 5 feet of it for it to get a signal..... So it's bed time for ole grandpa... The kids will be really excited to play with them in the morning....... So here we are.... The next day, I get the kids all reved up at breakfast, you know, for the big fish debut....I go into the spare room where they are "Docked", thinking I'm going to fly it over there heads at breakfast AND....WAH....Wah....waaaaah....NO JOY! The damned little sticky hooks that hold the tails on had popped off, and went to play hide-in-go-seek, so here we are again, chasing parts down and " re-sticking" them to the balloon (another two hours of my life I will never get back)! The long and short of it.... Until they make all of these taped on thingies PART OF THE BALLON.... It is just not worth the aggravation! Once you get it together and flying, it is actually pretty cool, but expect to go thru the same aggravation every couple of days of re-sticking the thingies on, AND buy stock in batteries and helium.... Because these things eat BOTH! If you don't head my warning and stay away from this evil torture device..... Then you get what you deserve! Good Luck!

I got this for my college-age daughter's birthday. Everyone really loved it! It is an eye-catcher, both because of the large size, and because it moves with a realistic(ish) side-to-side motion. If you want to make a "splash" (bwa-ha-ha), this is a great way to do it. We had a surprise get-together after her calc final in the lobby of her dorms, and, and this shark stole the show. Word about it spread quickly through the dorms, and people were coming down to see it and take videos. The most important part of course is that it was a huge surprise, and she really loved it! A couple of notes: watch the youtube videos before you try to put it together, because it would be easy to make a mistake otherwise. The sticky tape that they give you is not labeled, so you need to be careful to use the right pieces to attach the different parts. You DO need 2 people to put it together, but although I'm not very good at things like this, my friend and I were able to do it pretty easily in about 20 minutes total after watching the videos. It has to be inflated before you put it together. Some extra shipping tape is not a bad idea, as they don't give you any extra sticky tape pieces (which would be nice). Also, the small door where you add the putty to balance it in the air is very flimsy- we had to use a pair of tweezers (forceps) to retrieve it from the housing a couple of times. Note that it is really only crudely remote-controlled. There is a small housing that you attach to the bottom of the shark. This housing holds the putty that is used as "ballast" to keep the balloon at a height within the range of the remote control. It is also plugged into the tail fin, and operates the side-to-side motion of the tail fin to make the shark "swim". It also slides along a plastic track that you attach to the balloon, causing it to dive or climb as it slides. The remote has a button that controls its position along the track- when you press the "dive" button, the housing slides along the track toward the sharks nose, and it moves downward; when you press "climb", it moves the other way, and the shark climbs. It makes some noise as it moves, but people seem to find this more funny than distracting. The fins are pretty flimsy, and the dorsal and tail fins aren't very realistic, but the overall effect works really well. The tail fin is a separate piece that attaches to the balloon with rubber bands that slide onto hooks (attached when you put it together). There is a gap between the base plate of the dorsal fin that sits against the sharks rear end and the fin itself, and this is what looks least realistic, but it allows the swimming motion, and its easy to ignore the imperfections of this fun balloon. Its a mylar-like material, and very light, so I would be really careful taking it outside, or using it near sharp things or ceiling fans. We move it with a big bag around it and a weight tied to it to be safe. Its well over 4 feet long, so you need some room to maneuver it. Its takes a bit of practice to learn to maneuver it, but once you do, it really is great fun!

I bought the shark air swimmer and the clown fish air swimmer for Christmas presents. So far we only have the shark put together and flying. It took quite awhile to put it together and it's somewhat fragile. You can't just grab it out of the box, blow it up and away it goes. It's a pretty complex set of instructions to get the shark all set up. We rented a helium tank from a party store. It was only $40 for a month and it's really top quality helium. We were going to purchase the small helium tank at Toys R Us that they sell right alongside these toys but they were completely sold out at every store. I think this gift was pretty popular for 2011 Christmas. I feel bad for the kids who received this toy only to discover they cannot fly it without helium. The shark is REALLY big and unless you have a pretty good size house, it won't be much fun. Our house is 2 stories, very high ceilings in some spots, about 2400 sq feet and the shark still seems a little cramped flying around. My kids were really impressed with it for the first couple of days but seemed to get a little bored with it after that. The shark doesn't just deflate though, he is still floating around the house with nobody steeing him here or there. Sometimes I will go into an upstairs bedroom and he will be floating there when he wasn't there an hour ago!! It's a pretty fun toy but it almost seems more trouble than it's worth. It's such a unique fun idea and I guess there is just no way around the complex assemby of it.

So this air swimmer is a lot of fun. We (three generations ranging in age from 5 to 70) had several hours of fun with this thing, and expect it to remain a great toy for as long as it lasts given the relatively delicate nature of the device. Assembly was a bit of a chore, it took about an hour working at a steady but unhurried pace. I *strongly* recommend viewing their assembly video (easy to find on their site or youtube) and also being extraordinarily careful with assembly. For example, many of the steps involve sticking double-sided connection pads to a mylar/nylon balloon, pads that are *not* removable, so if you make a mistake you're basically done, there's no undoing and redoing. Once it's assembled, take the time to use the provided clay to balance the buoyancy of your balloon, otherwise you'll find it scraping along the ceiling or dragging along the floor most of the time. Given the variable nature of helium inflation over time, you can expect to have to re-calibrate the weight regularly, so hang on to the (generous) clay for future re-balances. Once it's assembled and balanced, you can take it out using the provided controls. Here is my biggest gripe - the fish only 'swims' if you continually hit either side of the tail control switch, causing the tail to flap back and forth, which generates forward momentum. If you stop hitting left-right-left-right on the controls, the shark stops swimming. I assume the manufacturers did this to preserve battery life, but I'd greatly prefer an 'always on' mode for the tail and the ability to 'steer' it using the controls rather than having to constantly 'flap' the tail. Also, the remote is infrared, meaning that it needs line-of-sight to work - I would have preferred RF (radio frequency) which is omnidirectional and can go through or around some obstructions, but oh well. For reference, you do have to manage inflating this yourself, either by taking it to a friendly shop with helium, or by purchasing a helium tank from a local store (we got ours at Target, for example). Put it all together and this toy is still great fun, although it is frustrating to deal with what-might-have-easily-been with the limited controls.

I finally bought the Air Swimmer Shark after seeing it being flown at the Toy Fair in New York. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and knew I had to have one! This Christmas season, after reading all the reviews on Amazon, my excitement turned to disappointment and I almost didn't buy one. After hearing me talk about the thing for the past 9 months, my boyfriend said, "Just buy it!" And I did. I have had the shark for almost a week and it is still firmly full of helium and flies perfectly. I don't know why people are having such a hard time putting it together. The instructions suggest having two people to do the job. I assembled it in under an hour all by myself. Yes, the tape is a little tricky, but if you take your time (and especially if you have help), there should be no problem at all. The instructions were clear enough for the average person to understand. My only suggestion is instead of sticking the three fins on first, do them LAST. That way they don't risk getting pulled off while you are turning the balloon upside-down to put on the motorized track. I filled the balloon at my local Party City and it cost me 99 cents. The way things are looking, I won't have to refill for a while. It is not difficult to fly and took all of a few minutes to get the hang of. Its movements are fluid and look very much like a "real" shark swimming through the water. Everyone is amazed. It is definitely a crowd-pleaser. I do have to mention that when I ordered this toy, I was sent a knock-off that was packaged as an "Air Ranger." Maybe that is the toy all of the people received who posted negative reviews. You need to be very careful that you are getting the real thing. The box should be labeled "Air Swimmer" and should carry the trademark for William Mark. Only boxes with these statements are the original Air Swimmers. I would not hesitate to recommend this toy to anyone who's looking for unique, fun toy. It is VERY large, so make sure you have someplace bigger than a 500-square-foot apartment to fly it in. And don't take it outside....bye bye shark. Big fun.

I'm sorry to say this was a waste of money and time. I work in a place we call The Shark Tank, so I thought it would be funny to get this to swim down the hallway from The Shark Tank on Fridays. It was a couple of weeks after I bought it that we finally had time to put it together, and it is a piece of junk. First, let me say that this took A LONG TIME to put together. A really long time; mostly because the pieces are so flimsy and tiny, but also because the instructions are vague. It takes so long, there's a 12 minute video online that goes way too fast trying to explain how simple it is. The instructions in the package are pretty useless as there are several steps missing and the shark doesn't have the same parts as whatever fish is referenced. I read the reviews that said it takes a long time, and thought I could master it. It took me and another engineer over an hour to assemble a remote control balloon. THEN IT DIDN'T WORK. Not only did it not float with all the parts on, which the instructions say is a symptom of high altitude (Reno is at about 5500ft), but the junk motors didn't work. The one for ascending and descending seemed to work OK except for the motor power wire getting caught every time. The tail fin which is supposed to propel it never worked properly, it just moved in one direction and slowly dropped back. So if I had been able to find a higher quality helium to float this sucker, it still would have never gone anywhere. It has since deflated on its own, which means it would not have made it from one Friday to the next. This is a horrible gag gift akin to the talking toilet and pet rock. I do not recommend.

I REALLY wanted this to be at least decent. The plan was (is) to surprise my 11 year old nephew (and every one else in the family) by flying this thing in from the garage to the Christmas tree while the theme from Jaws plays in the background when we get together to open presents... I'm keeping "911" on speed dial in case my mother-in law loses it... As many others have attested this is the flimsiest and poorest design of what could have been an exceptional product. After taking over two hours to fiddle with pointless little pieces, rubber bands and weak double sided tape to assemble-- and having to glue the plug into the rear fin to keep the connection together we were finally able to test it. When it works it is surprisingly OK. You don't really notice how REALLY cheap the other "fins" are and such. But the problem is the double sided tape only holds for a few hours, and this was with the included clear tape and our own HD packing tape over that to try to keep them in place. After our initial 15 minute test/phone video to send friends we are on our 3rd remounting of the undercarriage in three days from it just floating in the corner waiting to go to the celebration. It just comes apart just hanging around... I finally got some really HD industrial double sided tape and though it seems to be holding we don't even want to stare at it too hard for fear it will come apart. Obviously this gift is as much for the crazy uncle I want to be as much as for my nephew-- I mean if we had anything like this when I was a kid WOW!! At @ $50 the price is fine, but I can't help but wish there was a $79 or $99 version that was designed with some thought of real world use/longevity in mind. How hard would it have been to have the mounts molded into the shark itself or something better than a zip-tie for the stabilizer track? I only hope it gets through the one evening as I don't see it lasting any longer even with adult supervision... As a one -use disposable I'm hoping will even survive the trip to Grandmas house in the mini van. If so I will cement my position in crazy uncle infamy... **UPDATE** With a whole other round of industrial double sided tape, fresh batteries and prayer, the ^*#!##$! shark made it over to Grandmas...The first 3 minutes were a letdown, as you a must have your HVAC turned off to control it-I learned that the hard way as a drunk shark stumbled into the tree. After that was resolved the POS worked for an hour straight, and a day later reports are it is still functioning. Really the worst engineered cool idea ever-you must either glue or wire the plug into the fin-many people here with that issue need to go McGyver and rig it. It served it's purpose-I really want to release it outside then shoot it down form the sky...