My boys and I had a good time putting the Meccanoid together. It was a few days in the making, but well worth it. Usually the only electronic items the boys like are those that involve a video game system and the television. It was a nice change of pace to spend some quality time with them without needing to turn the TV on.
Once it was built they were arguing over who would get to turn it on (typical that they would argue over something like that). Once it was fired up and calibrated they had a great time playing with it. They were impressed that it could understand it when they asked for a joke, to play a game, or to show them a dance. They got a kick out of how it responded.
Overall, 5 stars for me. I could have gone about 4.5, but since only whole starts were available, I gave it the benefit of the doubt and rounded up.
You should know that it will take you a few hours to build it. I don't know how you could put together almost 500 pieces much faster.
If you are a believer in STEM learning for your kids, have them put this together. It isn't a huge challenge, but if they are around 10 years of age there might be some tricky parts for them.
You will need a computer to update the firmware of the unit. The software to do the update will need to be downloaded from the web.
It did a good job at understanding what was asked of it, as long as you were in front of it. On occasion it wouldn't understand or respond to what I asked for, but those cases were few and far between, and typically when I was behind the unit, or several feet away.
I'll definitely look for other products from this vendor after seeing how my kids responded to this one. [This review was collected as part of a promotion.]
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