Bakugan Launcher

My 8 yr old son got this for his birthday. He was excited at first because he had seen it on TV and is a big Bakugan fan. But after a while he was just bummed out about how bad this toy is.

Firstly, the toy holds two Bakugan, however the little plastic doors unsnap and fall off very easily while you're using it.

To load the device, you take either Bakugan out of its little holder (carefully so the doors don't fall off). You then slide the barrel forward to reveal a hole in the top, which you are supposed to drop the Bakugan in. This sliding mech. jams very easily as it's very flimsy and it doesn't come out parallel. After wrestling with this a few times he did what any kid would do and just dropped the Bakugan down the barrel. Whichever way you load the Bakugan in, if you angle the unit downward, the Bakugan will often just drop out the front and fall onto the floor.

The package says the toy has three modes, curve angled or straight. These are determined by two arms which have "hands" at the end of them. When the arms are in the forward position these hands are meant to interfere with the flight of the Bakugan as it launches. They sure do interfere, often causing it to just fall out the front, or bounce back into the barrel, but if you angle them just right or out of the way, then the Bakugan will come out. For some strange reason these arms fold back and lock into place. They can then be deployed forward again by pressing a button and they spring forward. Of course if they'd put this effort into the launching process...

The launching process, (which is what this toy is supposed to do, after all) is pathetic. If you have managed to get the Bakugan to stay inside the barrel, then you retract a small sliding button backward. The button is under spring tension, but it doesn't lock into place, it just works like a rubber band being pulled back, only harder to use. There is no way to lock the mechanism back and aim the unit. Launching is a process of perhaps folding the arms back, flicking them forward (not sure why) and then totally separately pulling back on the slider while trying to stop the Bakugan from falling out the front of the unit, attempting to aim while holding your hand on the slider and then releasing the whole thing at once. Naturally, if it's on your wrist your arm wobbles all over and the Bakugan dribbles out the barrel nowhere where you wanted it. And you have a hand cramp from trying to hold it all together and still while you tried to aim. If they'd spent less effort on getting the useless arms to lock back and used that effort having the launching process lock back and fire with a button like every other toy known to man and child, it might make some sense.

And if you want to put it on your wrist, the strap is a piece of thin nylon webbing with holes melted into it with a soldering iron in some sweat shop in China. No grommets or edging, just rough, melted holes.

Don't disappoint your kids with this one, even if they are huge Bakugan fans. And certainly don't reward the manufacturer by buying this poorly designed, poorly implemented piece of not-so-distant-future landfill.

The Launcher does not come with instructions, and it badly needs some. I had to do a lot of online searching to find out how it works. When it fires, the Bakugan barely drizzles out, at best. It's useless.

The design of this product reminds me of the Capsule Shooter from Yu-Gi-Oh Capsule Monsters. The reason I am reviewing this product is for one reason. Awhile ago I met a kid named Brandon who's mom worked at Dunkin Donuts. We went to Wal-Mart and bought part 1 of Capsule Monsters and we thought that the Capsule Shooter should be made into a product. And we promised each other if one of us could find one, we'd buy one for each other. So if I can get in touch with him I will tell him to get this Bakugan Launcher because they make a good match.

My 6yo son bought this today with a gift card he received for his birthday. We got it at Target, and I thought $15 was a little much to spend on a toy like this. After getting it out of the package, there were no directions at all, not even something basic on how to use the item. Right away my ds had problems, and I wasn't much better at getting it to launch. I came here to see the reviews on the product and my heart sank (Should have told ds to wait so we could check reviews before purchasing).

However, I must say the reviews here are such a great resource. Because a previous reviewer recommended watching a YouTube video on how to use the launcher. This was very helpful in two ways: first, you pull part of the launcher tube forward and place the bakugan into the hole in the top side of the tube. Second, the launcher can come off the wrist band. One YouTube video recommended placing the launcher on the floor/table, which makes the wrist band kind of useless. My son is now enjoying the launcher much more, although it still could be so much better in my opinion.

I bought this for my son for his birthday. It look really cool, but its not functional and quite frankly sucks. It didn't work right and we ended up taking it back.