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Our 10-year old grandson really enjoyed this birthday present. He built several models and played with it throughout our entire 1 1/2 day visit. He commented that he really liked the 3 motors and the remote control, a key reason why we picked this for him. He had no trouble following the pictorial building directions on his own, but hadn't shown any particular interest in the explanatory learning material (like how gears work) while we were there.I was disappointed that the robotic arm was almost too heavy for the motor to lift. Several times the lift mechanism came apart when trying to lift the arm from a full-down position, and the motor really strained when lifting it. I think a counter-balance on the arm would solve this problem. It worked fine otherwise, but had limited function as a stationary unit (he didn't notice). I think it could be significantly improved by adding drive and steering capabilities.
Same for the crane. Drive and steering capabilities would be a major improvement here too. This limitation might reduce the long-term interest in some of the models.
Otherwise, a good construction/learning toy we'd buy again!
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This is a nice educational kit. I gave it to my 10 year old daughter recently. It uses plastic parts and plastic gears and snap-on parts. No screws or bolts are used. This has the advantage of being simple to build but the disadvantage that machines do not work well. The cars are fine but things that use lots of gears and specially those that put stress on gears tend to fail. The Robotic Arm is a good example. The gears that lift the arm up and down too flimsy to handle the weight of the fully extended arms. I was initially disappointed but then realized this is a good opportunity to teach my daughter how things break. It demonstrates the principle of levers very well. Because the gears handle the arm when the hands are pulled in but fail when the hands are extended. If I reinforce the gears buy holding them tight with my hands I can show how to compensate for the additional strain. So while the arm is not practical as a robotic arm it is very practical as a tool to show how they work and where the stress points are.Honest reviews on Thames & Kosmos Remote Control Machines
My 8yr old loves LEGOS, robots, remote control items, and building things so I thought this would go over well. However, it only was played with for about an hour. He put together two of the templates rather quickly and moved on to other things and has not played with it since.I tinkered around with it myself and I think the issue is LEGO owners have different expectations. This kit is not intuitive as to how things attach and fit together. There are also limitations on how you can assemble your own creations since some pieces need secondary connectors and you are limited by both quantity of connectors and where they fit.
If you kid is an advanced LEGO fan, use the money towards the motors and controlers that LEGO supplies and you will have much more possibilities.
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This was one of several toys my 9 year old received for Christmas and it is by far the most played with. In fact it is one of the best 'toys' I have purchased and am surprised why this one isn't more popular than it is. Its educational value surpasses any toy on the market today we have a lot of the popular engineering toysSnap Circuits, K-nex, Lego, but this one combined with the remote control is beyond wordsI am talking education meets excitement! It is undoubtedly quite time-consuming, each model taking anywhere from 20 min to 2 hours to build so if its not for an extremely science inclined child, don't bother, otherwise its because of that very element of complexity that it is great.
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