FABULOUS! My 10 year old LOVED this. Bought it for him for Christmas. It kept him engaged and when he completed the MuttBott, he was very proud of himself and his accomplishment. Very "easy" to put together if you (your child) has patience and likes this type of thing. Has just the right amount of challenge base, too! Download the app and it has picture directions that are clear and animated. Hope they come out with many more of these.
Speaking of parts – there are a lot of tiny parts in this kit and they are very easy to lose. So make absolutely certain that you clear off a table and sort the parts into perhaps some plastic storage bins such as clear plastic bin boxes that you can see through to know which parts are where. There are some larger subassemblies that are not as small, but still small enough to misplace. Voice of experience. There are several short small electrical cables with small connectors on the ends. But very sure where you are plugging them because they will fit in any of the connector receptacles. Once these connects are in place, they are not easy to remove. Do not pull with the tiny wires or you may pull out only the wire and ruin the electrical cable permanently. They do not appear to give you any spare electrical cables or subassemblies either. I had to use a sharp knife point to gently tug the sides of the connector plugs out of the receptacles. The tops of the plugs are almost flush with the surface leaving you almost no way to grab the plugs to pull them out.
Ideally you should use a dedicated old cell phone or tablet with this robotic kit. I had a virtually new cell phone suddenly stop receiving text messages that I used to build and control the robots. The larger the screen on the phone or tablet the better. There is a basic software sample for each item, but you can edit the moves to make it do anything it is capable of doing. That’s the slow and tedious part of this kit and it may seem boring to work so hard to make even simple changes – especially if your child has a short attention span. The easy part is assembly. The more difficult challenge is editing and creating more robotic movements. That for sure is probably for kids older than eight – probably considerably more than eight. I would have done anything for something like this in my childhood.
For now I am about to see how my 6 year old granddaughter will respond to this after Christmas. Her birthday is a couple of weeks afterwards. Her parents are both PhD level in physics and chemistry and have been tutoring her since birth, but that’s absolutely no guarantee she can handle this at her age. Worst case, she will have to wait a year or so. It is a matter of attention span at too early an age. This is not a toy that will be easily outgrown in a short period of time. This will be great even into the teen years. There are much more advanced models than this one. This is only the base beginner’s model. However, this will still demand considerable attention to detail and methodical implementation to be successful. Don’t expect too much too fast. You don’t want to frustrate them too much or they may lose interest. There’s a delicate balance to be achieved and that may take time and patience. Some interaction and guidance between parents and children is probably essential, depending upon age and dexterity and mostly degree of interest.
With that in mind, I give this learning kit my highest recommendation. My wife is much younger and she thoroughly enjoyed being the tester. I would have waited until Christmas to review this, but the Vine program requires that I have to write a review now in time for other people to decide whether to buy this for their children or grandchildren at Christmas. This will make a very fun project for any age appropriate child to enjoy. It is a learning experience that may prove valuable for their future career. Just make sure you don’t lose any of the parts. I cannot stress this enough. And charge up the rechargeable battery as soon as possible. It’s a bit anticlimatic to build something and have to wait for the battery to charge.
This is a wonderfully thought out robot kit. Superbly presented and simple to build. My 10 year old daughter built it under supervision. The tool for the connectors allows you to insert AND remove the connectors with no fuss (or pliers).
The build instructions are great. Very reminiscent of Lego instructions only in rotatable electronic form on the iPad. Once you complete the lady step the app goes right to pairing the robot with the iPad which it did immediately. My daughter was able to play with the preprogrammed movements and creat some of her own right away. Motion is smooth and connection was a breeze.
I would say if you are unfortunate enough to have an issue, persist and get it sorted out because this really is a very nice product.
I paid $110 and it was worth every penny.
I have spent more and got way less before now. If you child is disinterested it won’t be the fault of the product, may be it’s just not their thing.
For presentation, ease of use, the pence of accomplishment my daughter got completing it and see it come to life. I would score this with a 6 if I could.
My 9yr old son loves building this robot. Great, easy to follow, ipad instructions. Pretty neat how Buzzbot is controlled through ipad. Basic computer programming so he was able to program his own dance moves for robot to do. Great quality product. Enjoyed rebuilding into Muttbot the dog.
My grandson was amazed at his gift. The best gift he ever received.
Feature Product
- Introducing buildable, codable, interactive robots from UBTECH Robotics.
- In this kit, you'll find everything you need to build BuzzBot, MuttBot or your very own JIMU Robot creation.
- Learn hands-on engineering by programming JIMU robots to dance, move, play, and more using Blockly coding.
- Program JIMU robots by creating entirely new, custom actions with the PRP (Pose, Record, Play) function.
- Includes 264 snap-together parts, 6 smooth motion robotic servo motors, 1 main control box, 1 lithium-ion battery, power adapter, and quick start guide.
- A compatible iOS or Android device is required.
- JIMU Robot is the award-winning interactive robotic building block system for ages 8 and up. Awards include: Tillywig 2018 Brain Child Award, CES 2017 Innovation Awards Honoree, Time to Play Magazine 2016 Holiday Most Wanted List, and IFA Awards 2015 Best of Show.
Description
The JIMU Robot BuzzBot & MuttBot Kit includes everything a kid needs to build and program the playful BuzzBot, his trusty companion MuttBot or an original JIMU Robot creation. Two, lively robots with 6 robotic servo motors and over 250 snap-together parts deliver STEM learning smartly and memorably. Program JIMU robots to move and play using Blockly code or with the PRP (Pose, Record, Play) function.
we missed a few parts, the replacement arrived in no time
our son assembled almost all available UBTECH robots,
we like them
waiting when he will be able / interested to program them
Easy to build and fun for kids, older kids can program the robot to do many tricks.
Gift for my grandson and he loves it. Packaged very nice.
Very quality parts. A but hard to put together but my 6 years did 90% of it I just checked it over. Limited movements. Not sure if it's worth $160
Great seller. Product exactly as described!