7 reasons this is the one present he will still be playing with in February

Every year it is the same. Half of what he opens on Christmas morning is forgotten by the time the decorations come down. The expensive one is at the bottom of the wardrobe by the second week of January.

If you are the one buying, that is the bit that stings. Not the money. The fact that you picked wrong.

So here is what is quietly happening in living rooms this December. It is not a drone, there is no app, and there is nothing to set up. It is a superhero figure that hovers above your child's open hand and moves with whatever he does. It is called the Velora FlyHero Pro.

These are the seven reasons it keeps getting used long after Christmas. The seventh is the one grandparents ask about, and it is the only one that really matters.

1. It beats the screen at its own game

Most toys lose to a tablet because a screen gives something different back every single time. A predictable toy cannot compete with that.

This one never flies the same way twice, because it does not fly on its own. An infrared sensor reads the position of the hand several times a second. It rises, it hovers, it drifts away if the hand moves too fast. He gets the same unpredictability a game gives him, except he has to get off the sofa to have it.

2. You can let him fly it indoors without holding your breath

The first thing any parent thinks when they see a flying toy with rotors is the lamp, the cat and their child's face. It is a fair worry, and it is the reason a lot of these things get banned from the house by the second afternoon.

Here the rotor blades are not out in the open. They sit inside the frame, which takes the knock against the floor, the wall and the furniture. It bounces and keeps flying. It does not cut, it does not catch hair, and it does not mark the wall.

3. There is nothing to set up on Christmas morning

No app to download. No batteries to find at eight in the morning. No pairing, no instructions, no account. Twenty minutes on the USB cable in the box and it is ready, and most children work it out before any adult has read a word of the manual.

4. He picks the hero, which is half the present

Spider-Man, Batman, Hulk or Superman. A child who opens the one he would have chosen himself reacts differently to a child who opens a generic toy, and every parent knows the difference between those two faces.

It is also why families with two children tend to order two different heroes rather than two of the same.

5. The adults end up playing with it too

This is the part nobody expects. Dad has a go "to check it works". Grandad gets it flying before the boy does. It turns into the thing the room gathers around on Christmas afternoon, which is the only moment all year you actually wanted.

6. It goes where he goes

Living room, back garden, the park, the grandparents' house over the holidays. It needs a bit of space above head height and nothing else. That is why it ends up in his bag instead of at the bottom of the wardrobe.

7. It is still in use in February, and that is the whole point

This is the one grandparents ask about, because they have bought the expensive present before and watched it die in a week.

A toy survives January for one reason only: the child can make something happen with it that he could not make happen yesterday. Keeping it steady, landing it on a shelf, flying it down the hallway without touching the wall. There is always a next thing to get better at, which is exactly why a screen holds them and a plastic figure does not.

That is what you are actually buying. Not a toy. The fourth week of January.