Japan’s Kyosho has released a fairly inexpensive toy helicopter that is able to survive crashes.

Radio controlled toy helicopters are a lot cheaper than when I was a child, but they are still not exactly cheap… so learning to fly can sting the wallet a little bit. Kyosho’s Space Ball is enclosed in a plastic cage in order to help it absorb the inevitable bumps and bruises. It also happens to be self righting, so if you crash it, it rolls back into take off position.

You know what else it does? It lets you atomize fragrances. Someone was thinking outside the box on this one.

The $80 price tag, or 6,279 yen if you prefer, seems a little steep and I can’t help but wonder if they could have made it a little cheaper had they not included the fragrance atomizer, but the crash-resistant design sort of makes it worth it. I have sent no less than a hundred bucks worth of tiny plastic choppers to the toy helicopter graveyard – something like the Space Ball would have been a good way to get through the learning period.

Price: $80 [Source]