I remember when I was a kid and Back to the Future III came out, and part of someone's PR campaign involved spreading fake rumors that there was going to be a real Hoverboard like the one Michael J. Fox rides in the movie. They had me hook, line and sinker. Well, Air Hogs Zero Gravity Cars sort of reminds me of that - an impossible fantasy - except that it's real.



But realizing this fantasy comes with some killer downsides. The cars' magical ability to stick to walls and even ceilings relies on a fan that pushes air up through the body of the car and creates suction. As a result, the toy's battery life is very short, and what's more, when it runs out of juice, it doesn't just stop - if it's on a wall or a ceiling, it instantly falls to the ground. Customer reviews on Amazon.com suggest that the car is clearly not designed to handle such abuse.

An additional constraint consumers might not think about is that the car demands a totally smooth surface to operate - not concrete smooth, but drywall with perfect seams smooth. Ultimately, this toy will probably be the most fun for adults working in offices with long, uninterrupted walls and some free time to buzz by fellow employees or deliver sticky notes between adjacent cubicles. Sounds like fun to me.

Since the original release, Air Hogs appears to have addressed at least some of these issues with a revised version of the car, which costs about $10 more ($40 instead of $30) but has a better shell and uses headlights to indicate when battery life is running low. Inscrutably, however, the company also chose to create these improved cars with a separate model that operates on each of four frequencies, rather than the original design, which allowed the user to switch the car between the four frequencies. This means that with the newer cars, like models are not compatible for joint play.

You can pick up Air Hogs Zero Gravity RC Cars on Amazon.com for about $30.