Thames & Kosmos Color-Sensing Chameleon Robot

This looks so cool! There are 133 pieces and the instruction book is 48 pages long. The assembly time is 3-4 hours. It states that it’s for ages 8+ with help or 12+ on their own. I’m looking forward to doing this with my friend’s smart 10 year old and hope I can figure out the manual since I was never good with Lego creations. The box says there are three experiments to try!

This learning toy says that 8+ can do this with adult help, and 12+ may be able to do it on their own. I, and my 9, 10, and 12 year old worked on building this chameleon and it took about 7 hours total over 2 days. The instruction manual is like a small book but it at times had typos and was wrong 1x. There are QR codes to watch videos of step by step that were right, however so we finally figured out it was the instruction book that was wrong. I suggest using the videos to clarify each step. My lower stars is because it was a source of frustration instead of fun for my kids and they all have very different temperaments. Also, the tongue never functioned properly, and we took it apart 3x trying to get it working. We were able to get the movements working great, the coding to work, and the lights to work like a true chameleon and mimic what ever color it was placed on. If you child struggles with sitting for long or struggles to focus, this may not be the toy for you. It was a fun family challenge though.

This is such a cute project! I did this project with a 9-year-old and it was challenging enough to hold their attention yet easy enough that they could complete most steps themselves. The online videos were a big help! It took us quite a few tries to get the tongue right- it didn’t want to reel in correctly at first and there was no troubleshooting for what we encountered. It was also a lot of disassembly/reassembly every time we had to try. However, once it was correct, it has been working great and the kids love playing with it! From start to completion, the whole project took us about three and a half hours. We still really like to do the coding part and it is an awesome time sink when the kids need something to do.

"My Robotic Pet: Coding Chameleon" might be the only pet I’ve ever owned that doesn’t shed on my couch or steal my snacks. Instead, it changes colors every time I press the wrong button—so basically it spends most of its life looking like a neon disco ball. It also tries to teach me coding, but I’m pretty sure it’s secretly laughing at me when I forget a semicolon. Overall, 10/10: my kids love it,

This Thames & Kosmos Coding Chameleon surprised me by being a truly educational toy. The components are well made, and I'm impressed that the accompanying assembly/instruction manual includes an engaging story line with full color illustrations. I was going to assemble it and introduce it to my young nephew and niece, but it's going to be unexpectedly educational for me to get to that point! On opening the box, you first discover that this is a very hands-on project. You will be cutting out the plastic components needed to assemble the chameleon and following a beautifully written and illustrated manual to put it together properly. Along the way, you will learn a lot about careful work, following instructions, and taking your time to understand instructions before acting. It's a bit daunting for this Lego-loving mom, but I'm looking forward to the challenge! I'm including more pictures than usual because I think this could become a disappointing experience unless the person purchasing or gifting this kit understands that it's best done with adult collaboration. The adult should mentally prepare by making sure enough time has been dedicated to this time with the child and that they are consciously choosing to model a growth mindset so that complexities and setbacks become opportunities to learn and persevere, laugh, and ultimately celebrate.

My son and I worked on this together a few weeks ago and had a great time with it. It's fun, encourages kids to think outside of the box and also to read instructions (something I don't always do) so it was nice to experience this together. It's also helped build his confidence with building things/coding so I think it's a great gift for kids.

It's almost impossible getting kids off their electronics however, this choosing chameleon robot did the trick. My son's 11 and asked me to help build it with him. It's really cool learning how to code through hands on experience and coding cards.

This a neat creative option for the young child who is is focus and doesnt mind figuring out the next steps without instruction. My child took a while getting this one together but somehow missed key steps to ensure that the electrical system will work. It is a great option for robotic learning.

This is a super cool toy! Very time consuming to put together, but that is part of the fun! It has some cool features that make this so different than any other stem product we've tried out. This would be a great gift for any kid that loves to build!

This is a great rainy weekend project. There are lots of pieces but it makes a pretty fun little robot when you're done. Definitely recommended for older kids as little ones might lose patience with all the pieces and steps.

My 9yo was excited for this project, but the interest fell away as time ticked by. The box states that this will take 3-4 hours to build, and I can confirm that is true! It is very tedious work. The parts are very well labeled and easy to keep track of. Instructions are very detailed and fairly easy to follow. Unfortunately we have not finished the chameleon yet, but my family members are all taking turns to get it done!

my robotic pet coding chameleon is very interesting game. It has 3 exciting play modes, coding, wild and pet mode. It comes with all the instructions. My 12 year old kid build it all by herself. I love that it has play while learning something new.

This chameleon is super cool. It was very fun to play around with and have lots of fun with my two daughters. We set it up together. Instructions were easy to read and follow along with. Durable plastic. Very fun and interactive.

This is definitely one stem project to keep the kiddos busy. The in depth nature but simplicity is great. Easy to read instructions. Great alternatives and options. The outcome is still in progress. Glad to see the eagerness in the kiddos. Will look for other coding projects.

While the box says ages 8 and up, this toy was far too difficult for a 9 year old to be independent with. 47 pages of complex instructions and my child gave up very quickly. Unfortunately this one didn’t work out for us.

This does not come pre-assembled and is put together like a model car (snapping out pieces, filing down plastic burs.) My 10 year old had moments of frustration, particularly when a few pieces broke. We attempted a super glue repair but on the movable piece, we ended up with a 3 legged chameleon without a tail. The coding, color recognition piece is really neat and has been fun to interact with.

This is a really cute set. My 11 year old set saw this but we are saving it for Christmas at this point. It looks like he should be able to do it with a little help as needed. He'll probably forget about it by Christmas morning.

Building the chameleon was fun for my 11 year old son. He did need help with some steps, screwing on several pieces together. It took about 3 hours to build, in the end we could not get the chameleon to perform the given tasks (we need to disassemble it and make sure we put each piece correctly). Overall a great activity for my son.

Great project for older kids. Takes a good bit of time (3-4 hours) to put together. My 8 & 12 year old did need a good bit of help from me and my husband. Really good project for them to learn how things work.

My 12-year-old and I were pretty excited to put this coding chameleon together. The excitement didn’t last long. You have to pay very close attention to the directions. The pieces were very difficult to remove from the plastic frames, I had to use a scissors to remove 98% of them. The first piece my son removed snapped free and sliced his finger. Followed the directions precisely, got the whole chameleon assembled, put in fresh batteries (requires four AAA batteries which are not included), and my son was again excited to test out the coding cards. Most of them worked, but the chameleon wouldn’t shoot its tongue out. Not sure why as it was put together according to the instructions. Neither of us had the time or energy to take it apart and try to figure it out. The critter is also rather loud when it’s powered on.