Elenco Escape Robot Kit

This is a nice working model to build. However it requires a good deal of soldering. Therefore unless your child is very comfortable with solder you should help her or him.I bought this for my daughter and we built it together. I am very good with electronics and did the PCB circuit. She did the rest of the assembly.When we turned it on only one motor worked. I had to redo some of the soldering to get the second motor to work. Once I did it the whole thing works very well.Pros:These are the main "good" things:* It is a fun kit to build and really works very well.* It teaches you a little about electronics.* Shows kids how simple it is to get basic automation going.Cons:These are the main "bad" things:* Very minimal instructions specially for children. At least tell them how far to push the components in the PCB.* Needs a troubleshooting section. At least they should tell you how to test it before fully assembling it.* It requires soldering. While not hard it requires some basic skills and should not be your first soldering project.Overall: It was fun and it is not over yet :-)

First off,I have never done any sort of electronics before, although I have always wanted to. I recently struck an interest in robotics and figured I should start somewhere simple and inexpensive. The package contained everything, and looked in great condition and all that.. The instructions seem as if they might be translated from a language other than English, but still readable.Fair warning : There are about 100 TINY parts (transistors, diodes, capacitors) and are very easy to lose if not careful.After about 3-4 hours of soldering and mechanics, everything was complete, I put batteries in, But nothing happened. :( I was pretty sad, after all that work and no cool robot, but After a closer inspection found that the Microprocessor was put on backwards and pretty much stuck (like 20 pins soldered is a pain to unsolder).So now I've ordered a second one to give it another shot, After I put that one together I'll update this review.

It was a great project for teaching 6 and 7-year-old granddaughters how to identify parts and solder them in properly. We had a great time. The robot worked for a while and then quit. Finally gave up troubleshooting after replacing sensors, etc.

I purchased this to get my 10 year old more interested in building kits and in robotics. We worked on it together and learned about gears, electronics and controls.Initially we got one gear reversed on one side and it was binding. After some examination of the drawings we discovered the problem and fixed it. The electronics controlling the legs on one side are not working but I assume that we did something wrong in the electronics during the assembly. We will be looking into it more soon.Even thouth the drawings are good there are almost no written directions. I would recommend this project at s joint venture between a child and an adult. Soldering is required and so it is not a true toy and should be only done by someone at least 15 years old or someone that is familiar with soldering.The only disappointment that I have with this item is from an educational standpoint. It would be much better if written material was provided that explained control systems, electronics, and gearing. This might raise the low price of $21.00 but it would be worth it.Otherwise great fun - would purchase again.

This item is much much harder to assemoble that I anticipated. I have a great deal of soldering experience, but not with circuit boards. After 4 hours I finally had the circuit board together. Another 3 hours to assemble the gears. Then I found that the circiut board was so flimsy it was broken in 7 places and the kit was useless. If you want frustration and failure this is the kit for you.

I bought this as a gift for my girlfriend's young brother, the idea being we could build it together.Note this kit requires soldering, something I assumed it didn't if it was appropriate for 12 year olds. But we went out and got a small soldering iron. Solder has lead in it and the fumes can be toxic as well as the molten metal. There's considerable safety considerations for children because this stuff affects children even more than adults.Ok, all that said - I'm by no means an expert soldering things, but by profession I work with technology. It took me and the lad about 8 hours to put this thing together soldering all the tiny resistors and capacitors and integrated circuits on to the circuit board. And as it turns out? The thing doesn't work at all. I bet one of the components got fried when soldering it in. Point is, this wasn't a good experience for the person I bought it for.It wasn't safe for him to do alone, for sure. And as an adult with electronics experience, I couldn't make the darn thing work.The instructions are ok, better than the usual you might expect, but there's nothing about soldering safety, etc. I would not recommend this unless you have advanced electronics experience, are really good with a soldering iron, and can supervise the young ones very closely.

Did this with my kid (9 years old), and we had fun. My child did over 90% of the solders, I did the IC because it was a bit intimidating. The instructions were pretty clear, I never had a problem understanding what to do next. But the instructions where mostly a parts list with a few diagrams. For my kid, it was mostly a fun experience of working on a several day project, learning how to solder, and flicking the switch.I am not sure how much we would have liked it, if it did not work. There was no guide for amateurs that discussed trouble shooting. If it did not work, I would have checked the connections, but my lack of knowledge of all but the simplest electronic theory would have turned it into a static sculpture. Still I would recommend it to people who are interested as long as they know what to expect.