I had one of those plastic boomerangs, made by Wham-O I think, but never could get it to return. No matter how I threw it, it’d go out about 50 or 60 yards, then go straight up and fall back out there. Used to play with it on the high school practice field when nobody was there — try that now.
I should get another and try again one of these days.
The toy store boomerangs (i.e. Wham-O) was always crap. My brother had a wooden one that I think we special ordered through the mail that worked pretty well. There's definitely a technique to throwing it and you also need a breeze to throw into or it will just go up in the air and fall down far away.