14-in-1 Educational Solar Robot | Build-Your-Own Robot Kit | Powered by the Sun

This is an amazingly fun way to introduce robotics to your kid. I have spent several nights with my 3 year old, building up and tearing down different robots. This kit has allowed me to introduce to my son concepts such as solar energy and gears. It's also allowed me to show him how to follow directions by matching letters and numbers on the guide with the letters and numbers on the grid.The parts are not perfect, nor some of the robots. For example, several robot models are extremely sensitive and will not work if the wheels are not lined up perfectly. Not a problem, however, since this allowed my son and I an opportunity to "experiment", to discover what was wrong. Also, the water-based robots are not very good -- the plastic is not very friendly to work with. Other robots, however, work perfectly fine and are a lot of fun to watch come alive.Overall, the product is quirky, but when you consider how much it costs for what you get, it is a super bargain. It's a great way to have fun with your kid while introducing important concepts. I highly recommend it.

It was a good birthday present for my 7 year old son. After helping him organize all the pieces in the plastic bags that are included it makes it easy for him to put the robots together. I helped him build the main unit. Some of the pieces are pretty small so adult supervision is required if you are buying this for a young child. My 7 year old acts more like a 9 year old so he is able to put robots together with minimal help.

This is a tough one to rate...For $25, this kit is an absolute STEAL for what you actually get, you just have to spend a bit of time on the initial pre-work. First off, you'll have to spend about 2 hours snipping all of the parts out of their break out molds and then filing them down. For this you'll need a small pair of cutters and a decent flat file. The second issue is the gear box. Because the gears are all loose fitting plastic, there are some major problems with the operation of the gearbox. It's not smooth, needs to have several coats of lithium grease applied to each gear, and probably isn't going to last very long.That being said, if you're looking to sit down with your children and you're willing to spend two to four hours getting the kit 'set up', this is the kit for you! Removing and filing down the parts is the most tedious part, but you also have to get all the parts separated and into the 10 or so bags that you have to put labels on. After that, it's all just fun taking the robot apart and rearranging it into it's other configurations.It's also hard to put an appropriate age on this product. Children under 10 probably aren't going to have the patience to get the initial setup out of the way. I've also noticed that some parts can't be inserted into each other without the use of a small pair of pliers. I would think that kids would have to be older than 10 to get some of the smaller parts into the holes without breaking them. It takes patience and a good set of small pliers to put the robot together and take it back apart without damaging it.Make sure that you and your children wear safety glasses when assembling the toys. There are many small parts that can go flying when you're building. It's a good idea to keep an eye on younger kids while they're playing with this kit, that way they can ask you for help if they run into any problems while building. I'm guessing that older kids should have no problems changing the robot into different configurations.This toy takes quite a bit of light to get it moving. You'll have to use it on an extremely sunny day, in direct sunlight. If you want to test out the gearbox indoors, you have to hold it next to a 60 watt incandescent light for test purposes. There is really no way this can be used indoors (other than building it indoors). For it to actually move, I had to hold my Fenix TK-75 flashlight about 3 inches from the solar panel. It takes a lot of bright light to get the toy moving!

Amazingly engineered, terribly manufactured. The amount of stuff you can do with this is amazing. Someone was exceptionally smart when they engineered this. You can make so many different gear trains, it's crazy complex, it's an engineering marvel how many different things you can make with little plastic parts.On the other hand- the parts don't seem to be manufactured to a good tolerance level. Everything is very difficult to put together, and the casting marks cause issues, where you have to shave them off. Additionally, the gears don't come together tight enough, so most of the robots don't walk/ roll very well, because when the wheels/ arms hit any kind of friction on the ground, the gears slip, because there is less friction between the gears than the arms (even going over small cracks or irregularities on the surface it's moving on).The instructions are pretty bad/ confusing, and you'll be more often than not putting it together with half guesswork, especially the basic gearbox that is required for every robot (at least you only have to build that once- well, until you realize the gears in it slip, and you have to push them together slightly tighter multiple times until they are tight enough to handle slight friction on the bottom gear).I bought this for my nephew who is a little younger than the recommended age, but this was challenging for all the adults involved- I'd say just about anyone will have problems putting this together, and wouldn't recommend anyone below 16 try it by themselves.I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see how to build a ton of robots, and an engineering masterpiece - but I wouldn't buy it for anyone who isn't prepared to be let down when most of the robots just barely work/ can't really run well (without gear slippage).