Thames and Kosmos Robots

We are a robot loving family!

My son has loved science since we first started our homeschool adventure. I guess it is only a natural progression that he would then be drawn to robots.

We have gone through many robots. Solar robots, salt water robots, robots that can carry a can.

Since my son has gotten older we have been able to work our way up to more advanced robots.   I am going to tell you about three of our robots; what I think of them and what he thinks of them. Because as any of you parents know what the kids think about a toy is not always what we may think of it.

We have the snap circuits remote controlled car. It is a little less robot, but we still consider it in the robot category. We also have Dash, a very popular robot with younger kids. I will talk about these two guys in  later posts. Today I want to focus on the Thames and Kosmos remote controlled robot.

Building a robot with the Thames and Kosmos set

This is one of my favorite of all of his toys.  All Thames and Kosmos kits come in tons of pieces, which for a Lego loving family this is perfect for us. Legos have certainly taught us a thing or two about attention to detail, which is required for success with Thames and Kosmos.  There is an instruction book that has fantastic illustrations to put together 10 different robots. But if you have the imagination of a 6 year old that lives and breathes robots and making things… your possibilites are endless. He has even figured out how to integrate some Lego masterpieces on his projects. It has 3 motors so your robot can go forward, reverse, turn left and right.  The remote control has 6 buttons to give you lots of control over the 3 motors.

The recommended age on this is 8+. My son was able to work with it at 5 and build the kits in the book and now at 6 he is really good at just sitting down and building whatever he can imagine.  It is very likely that all his practice with Legos have allowed him such success. So as with most toys, the age on the box isn’t really the best indicator of whether or not your kiddo can make use of it.

The Thames and Kosmos kits are great as you can have several kits and put them together to have even more versatility in your project.

I love this robot. It requires lots of time, which can sometimes we a bit frustrating if your kid wants to just open the box, turn it on and play. But thats what I love about it. It’s requires imagination and creativity.

My son likes it, but generally wants me to play with it along side him in the beginning.

My husband LOVES it! He needed a smooth driving robot for a business project so my son was able to build him exactly what he needed. So my 6 year has now built his first robot that solves a problem and he gets to rent it out to his Daddy as needed. Building robots and making money… just what he wants to do when he grows up, and already living out his dream at 6! My son calls it the “rickviter” RCVTR = Remote Controlled Video Taking Robot!

The RCVTR Remote Controlled Video Taking Robot

All in all we love this robot. We did have some minor problems with the gears inside one of the motors, but we were able to fix it rather easily.  Thames and Kosmos are expensive sets, but are certainly worth the money.

I will be going in more detail about Dash and our snap circuits robots in later posts. Be sure to subscribe to my email newsletter to be sure you don’t miss them.

Do you have a robot loving kid? What robots does your family currently have?

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