Leapfrog's Fly Pentop Computer: A Review

I got the fly pen a few Christmas' ago. Why I was compelled to have it is obvious. I enjoy writing, and the cool commercials played a major part in my wanting one.
I could learn Spanish just by writing the word out in English!!! No way! I was sold! I had to have one for myself. I also work in a real estate office so I figured this little tool could come in handy for when I got a Spanish speaking customer.
The pen itself costs $99 plus tax, but you can buy them on sale for much less when sales are occurring. They seem to go on sale a lot in Walmart, and I have seen them for $89 before.
After buying the pen I then realized I needed to buy all of these additional programs and special paper called Fly Paper. The Spanish program which is nothing more than a mini cartridge ran me $30, and the Fly notebook was another $10.
Now at first everything was kosher. I was writing words from English and just tapping the pen on the word I just wrote, and wallah. Hello- Hola', Goodbye- Adios'. I could even go back and tap it again at any time and it would translate the words for me again.
Then just as things seemed to be cool, everything went downhill from there. The pen, it just stopped translating when I re-tapped the word. So what I had was a half a notebook filled with English words, that the fly would no longer recognize or translate. Useless! I'm calling shenanigans!!!
I must add that I was also little disappointed in flys false advertising, they made the pen seem so easy to use in their commercials. They didn't mention that the pen comes with a page of codes you had to remember to make the fly function correctly.
After every different function you want to use you have to memorize these circular codes with letters inside. C circle. M circle. Circle, circle TR, circle!!! Ahhh!!! Your kid may as well just study his or her spelling words than try to remember this page of ridiculous codes.
FLY IN SCHOOL:
This pen is useless in school. It speaks, therefore having this disruptive little device in school, is most likely going to be grounds for having the pen taken away, letter home, or detention. Some teachers will consider this device a cheating device, so avoid having it with you in school.
MOVING ON...
Okay so there's some good things that this pen does. It teaches a child to write neatly. The fly will not recognize messy handwriting, nor will it recognize lower cased letters. So your child will learn how to write neat upper cased letters only. Nothing else.
I also don't understand why fly pen only allows fly paper. Or why none of the fly paper is lined. This is annoying seeing how most children, and even myself write crooked on unlined paper.
ANYTHING GOOD?
Fly Pen also remembers your birthday. So when you turn it on, it will say happy birthday and play this musical little beat for you. But it only works if you turn it on, on your birthday. You of course must set it first.
There's also one cool feature, that looses its cool in about 10 minutes. You can play the drums or the piano simply by drawing it out in basic circle, and rectangular patterns. But like I said, its only neat for about 10 minutes.
ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE:
The fly by leapfrog, also has additional software available for purchases.
The fly journal-
this one I own, and let me tell you its nothing special. Its another $30 cartridge with a flimsy little notebook for you to write in. There is only one thing that's different about this journal, than an ordinary $5 notebook with blue lines. The stickers talk when you click on them. There are about 30 stickers. Yay! So if you do the math its a dollar a sticker!
Fly Baseball cards-
Now I'm not sure if every edition of the fly pen came with them, but mine came with 5. These cards are basically useless, so if they didn't come with your fly pen, save yourself the $10. All these cards do are, talk.
You can run your pen across the statistics, and little facts on the back of the card, and the pen will read them for you. I guess this pen is good for the blind. Now thats a great concept! - I bet I could go somewhere with that idea... oh, anyways...
Fly Spanish-
I spoke of this $30 cartridge earlier. Like I said, it only works on a page for page basis. It will forget everything previously written on old pages. Thus wasting paper.
Fly through spelling-
I don't own this one. So I honestly don't have any good, nor bad opinions on this cartridge. But I will say, it's $30.
Fly through tests-
Don't own this one. But I'm almost positive this will not be allowed in school. Again rendering this tool useless. I don't know of any schools that would allow cheating during a test. You'd be a fool to send you kid to school with this pen. This cartridge will be another $30; your catching on now. Almost $30 for any additional game or cartridge.
Fly through math-
Again don't own this one. $30
OTHER NECESSITIES:
Fly ink refills- more ink for the pen. They run $8-$10 depending on where you buy them.
I also know of some games such as Fly Gotham City, or Batman. Not sure what this little game does. But I'm sure once the paper runs out, so does the $30 game.
THE SPECIAL PACK FLY PEN:
This special package comes with the fly charger and will cost a bit more than just buying the pen. However you will want to buy the special pack, because you will need a charger in the long run anyways. This pen goes through batteries like crazy, so get the one that comes with the charger.
I've had no issues with the charger. It seems to do the job in good timing. 15 minutes to a half an hour on a completely drained battery. It also came with speaker buds for your ears. I guess they added these so kids could try and sneak this bulky device in school. It wont work, no kid is going to get away with using a fly pen in school without getting caught.
All in all I feel that if you don't have the additional $200, or more to spend on all the different add ons for the fly pen, don't bother with it. Ink refills, paper refills, new cartridges, charger, games... etc.
The price of leapfrogs fly pen isn't just $99. Don't be fooled.
BULKY:
Fly pen itself is not designer for smaller hands. It's quite heavy and bulky. Not to mention the fact that your kid already has to be a genius in works just to get this thing to work properly. My 9 year old nephew couldn't even grasp the concept, or the circle codes. He tossed it aside like an old teddy bear. I couldn't even give it away to him.
Also don't be fooled by the false advertisements that will most likely spring up on television around the holidays enticing your children, and getting them to believe that this pen is cool.
Leapfrog advertises a great technology achievement. Or "Leap". The only place this pen is going to leap, is to the back of the closet.