Thames & Kosmos Hero Robot

This robot is a great gift for older children. My four children between 8 and 15 years old had a great time putting together and setting up this robot. The directions are pretty simple to follow but it does take a bit of time and patience to setup. They have all had fun playing with it after we finished building it.

I was so excited to surprise my sons with the Hero Sound Sensing Robot. It looked like a fantastic STEM toy, promising hours of fun and learning. The recommended age range seemed appropriate, and I envisioned us all working together to build and then battle our robots. Unfortunately, our experience has been far from what I hoped for, and my initial excitement has turned into significant frustration. The problem lies in the complexity of the build. Despite the recommended ages, this robot is incredibly difficult to assemble, even for adults. The pieces are tiny and fiddly, requiring a level of dexterity and patience that my kids (and frankly, myself) just don't possess. My 8-year-old was completely overwhelmed by the instructions and the sheer number of small parts and quit before we even really began. My 12-year-old gave it a good try but also became frustrated with the intricate steps. Even my 15-year-old, who is generally quite good at these types of projects, struggled. He managed to get us to a certain point (as you can see in the photos), but even he had to stop due to other commitments. It's already taken significantly longer than the estimated build time, and we're not even close to being finished. This is definitely not a gift I would recommend giving to a child. It's simply too complicated. This feels more like something an adult hobbyist would purchase for themselves. I'm conflicted about how to rate this product. Since we haven't actually completed the robot and seen it in action, I can't speak to its functionality or battle performance. However, the frustrating and overly complex building process has completely overshadowed any potential fun. I can't give it a high score because, for us, it hasn't been an enjoyable experience. If you're considering buying this, be warned: this is a serious building project that requires a lot of patience and advanced fine motor skills. Unless you're an adult looking for a challenging build, I'd steer clear.

I received the Hero Sound Sensing Robot, hoping my kids would help put it together. My 17 year old daughter managed to get it started and worked on it for a couple hours. Unfortunately, I ended up having to complete it. As others have pointed out, the parts are jagged and have to be filed down. Just popping them out of the plastic holder can be painful and I managed to cut my hand once on the plastic. The set comes with an instruction booklet, but using the QR code and watching the video was more helpful. After many hours of frustration and finally getting the little guy put together, he can’t even walk. He plays a few notes and wiggles back and forth like he wants to move, but I think there’s something wrong with his legs. I’ll have to dismantle him a bit and see where I went wrong. It’s such a neat concept and I wished we had a better experience putting it together.

Hero is an creative sound sensing robot that I had an amazing time putting together with my 8 year old son. There are 144 pieces with very detailed directions on how to put this robot together “. Directions were east to navigate, robot is very entertaining.

This little guy is so cute! He makes me laugh when he starts dancing. He was easy to build and to work. He jabbers all kinds of stuff and is smart as a whip. His design is so cute and I love how small he is. Just right for my desk

My 10 yr old loves this little robot. It was a little too much for her to put together by herself. With the help of her dad, they put it together in a little over 2 hours. It does just what it says- it dances, responds to your voice and will follow you. It’s a great little toy.

Overall, the Thames and Kosmos Hero Robot was a fun activity for my 10 year old daughter and my husband to complete. Be prepared - it does take some time to complete. It took about 3 hours at our house. The written instructions were pretty good but there were some areas that were unclear. However, there was a link to a video that cleared up any issues. The finished product works well and does everything it says it is supposed to do. However, some of the plastic pieces don't stay in place and fall off and need put back on frequently. The fun in this was that 144 pieces came unassembled and the end result was a functioning robot. The creation was educational and fun and so cool to see at the end. They really enjoyed the process of putting it together and seeing how it works with wires and gears!

I thought this would be a fun project for my 11 year old and it was for a moment but the amount of pieces quickly became overwhelming and she did not want to finish it. I think this would be such a fun project for a child that really loves to build robots and such but a little too much for a kiddo who doesn’t do this all the time. It was overall a fun experience even though we did not finish it and learned something new.

I got this for my 8 year old son who loves building. He was so excited and started putting it together immediately. There’s a lot of little pieces which makes it a little harder to put together but he loves the challenge and really puts his mind to it. He said this is the best robot ever!

My 8 year old daughter got this as a Christmas gift and she loves it! This is the perfect gift for the stem loving child (and adult!) It also comes with a cute comic book to talk about his adventures.

Plan for a long assembly time when you gift this pretty sweet little robot together, our 12 year old that loves projects like these build at home robots took a few hours to reach the finish line. Also be prepared for an abundance of lights and noise when it’s ready.

This little robot hero sounds great in theory. I am leaving it to my son to put together. I didn’t realize that it was for you to put together. There are a lot of pieces. My son loves science and figuring out how things work.

I'm really struggling with this. I thought my twelve year old would be super interested in this. I thought it would be perfect for over Christmas break. I thought wrong. He spent two and a half hours straight and barely got anywhere. He is also very bright so I'm not quite sure why he is having so much trouble. He also broke a few pieces when trying to remove them from the plastic packaging. I think if the pieces were bagged together instead of put together by a giant plastic piece, it would be easier for the kids to put together. He's so upset that he broke a few pieces that he said he's done. :(

If your kids are interested in building, this might be the activity for you. My kids looked at all the parts and the thick instructional booklet and it was an absolutely not. It intimidated them and me for that matter.

This is a very fun toy. My grandson loved it. He spent hours playing with it. Very sturdy and great material. Only downside to this that it was somewhat hard to build. It took about 3 hours to build. Aside from the difficulty of building it’s a fun toy to add and follow you around.

This is so cool! My 7-year-old assembled it almost entirely on his own. He needed help with a few pieces and to hold things together, but other than that, he did it solo. It took him two days, including a few breaks, but it wasn’t a big deal. He thinks it’s the neatest thing ever and has tried just about every setting, which has kept him entertained. We did encounter a few issues with some pieces popping off randomly, so I need to investigate that further. My only real complaint is that it’s quite loud, and I wish there was a volume control. Overall, this is a great interactive toy that keeps the kids away from screens, which is a nice bonus!

My son enjoyed putting this together with his dad. He is 10 and I don’t think he could have done it himself. The biggest problem was that the baggies of parts did not have labels on them but the instructions refer to part numbers so they had to do some guessing. The use of colors helps. I would give it 5 stars if they labeled the parts. It works well and is fun to use.

This robot is a fun activity in my kids for sure. Enjoy it but just to alert you , It does take awhile to put together so carve out lots of time! It took my husband and 8 year old two days because they started it later in the day thinking they would have time to complete but it is 140 parts!! After always assembled it was a little hard to get the hang of at first, the clicker is just two circles with some elastic string on it so I worry about that falling apart at some point . Both of my kids really wanted to play with us at the same time so it was hard for them to share. In the moment there’s a few different modes and by far everyone’s favorite was the dance one you can play music and the thing dances and it was really cute so that was completely a hit and has 4 modes to choose from. All in all if you want to stay busy assembling this and have a cute little robot go for it!! I will say I do worry about the shelf life because my kids play with it for about an hour and then stopped and have it for a few days. I had to remind them that they had it.

My kids like building sets so I had no doubt they'd enjoy their Hero: Sound Sensing Robot. Upon opening the box, we were impressed with the quality of the materials. My kids are young enough to where they still need a bit of help, but the clear instructions are making it possible for them to do most of it themselves. It requires time and patience, but they had fun assembling it and felt accomplished once they finished it. Now they’re enjoying playing with their new robot that they can say they built themselves.

If you are looking for a building project, I would highly recommend this robot. The instructions are very clear, everything is labeled and the building process went very smooth. The pieces also came In attached panels, which made it nearly impossible to lose a piece. The downside of this robot is that in terms of a robotic, it is definitely lacking. Even though it’s assembled exactly as instructed, the robot barely moves and because everything is controlled with one button, it’s difficult to figure out which mode it’s in. The building aspect is enjoyable, but if you’re in the market for a robotic for a beginner, there’s many better on the market for a comparable price.