The Iron Man Tello drone is here
Two of my favorite worlds: drones and Disney, have just collided.
DJI, whose tech powers the $99 Tello drone, just announced the Tello Iron Man edition.
The Tello drone is a $99 toy drone (the Iron Man edition is slightly more expensive at $129) made by a Chinese startup called Ryze Tech, made in partnership with both DJI and Intel (it’s got an Intel vision processing chip and flight stabilization from DJI). Together, they created a budget camera drone that also can be used to teach newbies the basics of programming. Weighing in at just 80 grams, the Tello drone can fly for 13 minutes and shoot 5 megapixel photos (DJI’s next-smallest drone is the DJI Spark, which weighs 3x as much. It uses an Intel Movidius Myriad 2 VPU, allowing it to respond to hand gestures and land in the pilot’s hand.
And now, Marvel fans have more reason to get excited about DJI stuff. The new Iron Man Tello drone is designed to resemble Tony Stark’s red Iron Man suit. The Iron Man version of the Tello drone also comes with a special “Hero” app, simulating FRIDAY, Iron Man’s virtual assistant.
Other than the Iron Man design, the drone is otherwise the same as the standard Tello, and is also compatible with the custom Tello Hero app.
Iron Man is one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a property acquired by Disney in 2009. Perhaps the most-anticipated movie Marvel has made yet, Avengers: Endgame (2019), will be released in theaters later this month.
This is not the first time DJI has partnered with other brands to create drones. DJI partnered with Japanese messaging app Line to create a new Line Friends drone — a version of the DJI Spark featuring the popular Line mascot, a bear named Brown. I’m still holding out for the Olaf drone to ring in the premiere of Frozen 2.
You can purchase the Tello Iron Man drone here for $129.
Avengers assemble! And oh yeah, happy flying!