HEXBUGVEX Robotics Pick and Drop Machine

I am a Middle School STEM Teacher. I bought this product as a fun activity for students to do if they finished other classwork early. It took about 3 hours for my 12-year-old student to complete building. They had minimal trouble with building the model; however, there are some parts in the instructions that ask for something to be built twice and some parts that do not need to be built twice. My student got a little confused and ended up building something accidentally twice as it wasn't clear to him that he only needed one for that part.Mechanically, the model works well and is quite fun to turn the crank to. I have several of VEX's ball machines on a table and this one always has the most students gathered around it trying it out.Pros:+ Instructions are in English (not translated from Chinese)+ Visual, detailed instructions+ Easy to fix mistakes+ Model works as intendedCons:+ Lots of small pieces

This kit is very sturdy once assembled and is simple enough for a child to help. It's been in use in my house with young children for several months and is still kicking after being dropped, broken and put back together twice. It's also a great introduction to gear box adjustment when configuring the cycle offsets for the arms.

My grandson loves putting things together . He is 10, always putting together and taking things apart. This was a challenge but he loved it .

Our very mechanically-enthusiastic 3 year old loves playing and watching this. While the build was tedious, my engineering background tackled it easily enough. I did deviate slightly from the instructions as the motor (sold separately) was providing too much torque on the gears as designed. Instead, I swapped a few metal shafts and mounted the motor to the side next to the upper gear assembly instead. This provided a *much* smoother run. I also adjusted the rubber band tension some and changed the trigger pins that opened the claws to a greater diameter. This improved the catch and release as well.Overall, happy with the product and despite it being a medium density plastic giving it quite a bit of 'tolerance', my 3 year loves it and thus we love it too.

Awesome build

It kept him busy for a good while and id fun to watch. It did require a little tweaking to make it run smoother but it is a fun toy.

It operates pretty much like it's supposed to. It doesn't always pick up a ball and drop it like it should.

Bought this for my 8 year old son. It took him all day to complete but was able to do so with only needing my help to clarify a step in the process a couple of times. This is a good starter kit in to the world of STEM. Highly recommend it.