Think Gizmos Robotic Kit for Kids Aged 6 7 8 9+, Ingenious Machines Remote Control Building Kits for Kids – TG633 Awesome Fun Build Your Own Robot Toy (All Batteries Included)

Happily surprised by the wonderful product. Out of the box, it looked a little intimidating to my 7 year old. Once we checked out the "Lego" style instructions, he got excited and picked out the tank as our first project. These pieces fit together tightly, so some help was needed for construction. Mainly I just acted as a parts installer, he was able to find the pieces and follow the steps himself. After 40 minutes of assembly, and following the instructions for initializing the controller, we were happily driving around and over low obstacles (thin slippers, thin books, anything too tall made it pop a wheelie and get stuck). The supplied batteries are still going strong after an hour of play. We haven't built anything else yet, but we did completely disassemble the tank and nothing has broken. That gives me hope about longevity. It's plastic, it will break, but so far, we're happy. The thing I like most about this product is that you must really construct the entire toy. Even the treads for the tank must be put together. This was a great lesson for my son who has a burgeoning interest in robotics. He now knows that he can construct something from a pile of parts and it will actually function. Some may be disappointed with the remote control function, it's not quite possible to propel and turn at the same time without a little compromise. But that didn't seem to decrease my sons enjoyment, and I actually expected the function to be more limited than it was, so I was happy. The number of parts, and the instructions for four projects leads me to believe we won't have too much trouble making some custom vehicles in the near future. I would call this another Santa Success!

We got this for my 5 year old (6 in a couple months) son for Christmas. He loves Legos, and remote controlled machines so I thought this would be the perfect gift! I was right. He was so excited when he opened it. The first day he made both the tank & the race car, then he started to make his own creations! He has been using it almost non stop. He can do it mostly on his own, although my husband did help a lot with the construction of the first tank. My son took over after that and will occasionally ask for help when he has trouble fitting a part in right. We have had no problems and everything works great. The remote action is great. They go at a great speed and can turn in circles and turn quickly. I was hoping it wouldn't be slow & boring, and I am very pleased with its capabilities. My son even made one of his vehicles do brodies! We are very happy with this item so far. It's only been 2 days so we'll have to see how it stands the test of time.

I bought 8 of these types of kits (4 of this model with the treads, and 4 of the $40 smaller kits), sorted ALL the parts into bins, and had a bunch of friends over to build our own custom race cars. We didn't really go by any instructions (beyond guides)... just built whatever came to mind. I purchased enough cheap outdoor carpet to build a 8'x18' race track (using cut up hose for the track itself). People had a blast building, racing, and crashing into each other. The cars have enough power to get up to good speeds and really bash each other apart. Fantastic for a destruction derby.For anyone asking, these DO support up to 8 separate channels, so you can race 8 at the same time. You could also build one vehicle out of 2 kits, and sync them both to one controller to allow 4 wheel drive, or even use the 2 extra motors to create some sort of "battle bot" weapons.The only real down side, I find, is that there's a split second delay between the controller inputs and the vehicle movements. Again, I have 8 of these, and it's there on every single one. If you're not too knitpicky, you'll get over it, but some might find it frustrating.As far as the controller inputs go, forward will make both rotors turn in the same direction, so you go forward. Back... goes back. Left makes them spin opposite directions, so you can spin around 180 degrees. Forward (or backwards) and a direction will make one of the motors spin, the other not, allowing you to turn while driving. It works very well for a wide variety of maneuverability.There's another model of these out there that look nearly identical called "smart machines" that are in a green box. Their controller responsiveness is MUCH better, but their motors do not have the above mentioned "turn" feature. They only go forward, backwards, and spin 180 either direction. Certainly makes them inferior. The controllers may also look the same, but they will NOT work with these kits, or vice versa. So, buy one manufacturer's kit, and stick to that. As mentioned, this kit and the other ingenious machines kit controllers ARE compatible with each other. Tested and confirmed.The only reason I'm giving only 4 stars is because of the delay in controller > vehicle responsiveness. Being that the "smart machines" brand does not have this delay, it's clearly a product flaw.Oh... and be sure to get lots of rechargeable batteries. These will tear through them.

Our son asked for Lego Mindstorm for Christmas and that's all wayyyyyyy out of our budget, so I was looking for a different more affordable robotics kit for our seven year old. We picked this one up because it had lots of different building options - our son never leaves his Lego kits as they are for long, they usually get broken down and made into other things. We were a little worried he wouldn't be into it because it wasn't Mindstorm, but once he cracked open the box and found all the little pieces, he was SO JAZZED. He immediately started building and asked me for help making it go. I told him I'd never built a robot before, and that he needed to follow the directions on one of the included projects first to learn how it worked. He and dad worked together building the tank, and now he's making up his own designs. You may need to help your kid with the mechanics of this set, but it's really cool and our little boy's been a very happy camper.