Customer Reviews

Lego Spybotics Shadowstrike S70 3808

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Lego Spybotics line is an easier and lower-priced introduction to robotics than the Lego Mindstorms series.

ABOUT SPYBOTICS PRODUCTS
Spybotics contains four robots (so far). Each is designed to be strong in only one or two of the categories of speed, strength, and agility. That means that the user will have to learn how to capitalize on the vehicles strengths in a competition with other Spybotics vehicles.
* Shadowstrike is a vehicle that scores high on speed and agility
* Gigamesh scores highest on strength, but low on other
* Technojaw is probably the most balanced, scoring quite high on speed but well on strength and agility
* Snaptrax scores high on agility and strength

COMPARISON TO MINDSTORMS
There are several key differences with Mindstorms:
* Mindstorms is far more programmable; there are even artificial intelligence algorithms available for Mindstorms so that the Mindstorms robot can learn
* Mindstorms has more components that can be controlled: The program doesn't just control wheels; it can control gears and infrared sensors, etc.
* Spybotics is like a smart remote control car, but not really a robot; it is also geared toward playing competitive games when a friend has another Spybotics vehicle
* Unlike Mindstorms, but like most other Lego kits, you can only bid 2-3 different vehicles with the Spybotics kit

Because of its greater programmability (you could actually write your own operating system for it), Mindstorms costs a lot more.

PURCHASING RECOMMENDATION
I think this is a great product. If I was purchasing for an adult, though, I'd buy Mindstorms--which is used in college robotics classes. But, ANY OF THE SPYBOTICS PRODUCTS ARE A GREAT FIRST ROBOTICS EXPERIENCE FOR A CHILD.

Bought this for my brother, who just turned 12. He loves it! It was fun for him to put together and loves the idea that you can program missions into it. The down side is you have to go to the website to get the instructions to put it together. You can't print them, so he had to sit in the family office and put it together, which wasn't as easy. However, now that it's together he loves running it around the house. It's like a remote control car made of legos! He hasn't put it down since. This toy is great for young boys (even older boys, my fiance helped my brother put it together and they had to wrestle eachother to play with it) and provides them with hours of entertainment. I would recommend it for children over 8 or 9 because it does require a little inginuity to put everything together. All in all, fun for the family. My mom and I even got to play with it!

We were disconcerted by the lack of printed instructions but a quick glance at lego's web site told us the instructions were on the CD. Running XP we had no problem installing the software. My 9 year old son who has put together a lot of complex lego projects had no trouble putting this together, too. Then he followed the on screen instructions and it worked like a charm. A couple of false starts in running missions were solved when he retraced his steps and saw what he had missed. I watched him do all this while I was busy with some other work. I was ready to step in and help if needed but that was completely unnecessary.
I also bought a spybotics book on amazon which I look forward to reading. Maybe we can expand the frontiers of what the spybot can do.

BTW, we also the movie maker kit from Lego and had some trouble with its software but got email answers from customer support within 24 hours on the day after Christmas!

My 10 year old son received this toy as a gift. When he first opened it and saw all the tiny pieces, he was a little dismayed. However, within 15 minutes he had the CD in the computer and was assemblying the spybot according to the instructions. Within an hour he had downloaded a spy mission. Later in the day had installed the sensors and had the spybot bumping and turning via its remote control. He has been enthralled by all the possibilities this toy provides. He has already asked for another of the four robots. I bought this in lieu of Mindstorm to gauge my sons interst and ability. Now I think he's ready. This toy provides a great introduction into the robotics field!

When I got this toy I thought it would be awsome.As it turned out It was!You get to design and program your own robot!Plus you can send it on missions and if your freind has one then you can battle each other.There lots of fun for any one over 7.I highly reccomend it.

I cannot comment on the actual functioning of this toy because I haven't gotten it to work yet. First of all, you can't even assemble the unit until you are able to establish a good connection between the unit and the PC. All documentation is in the PC Program and you can't access it until it successfully detects the unit plugged into the PC. Secondly this thing does not use USB like the rest of the modern world. It uses serial ports. I had nightmare flashbacks of reliving my DOS days trying to coax my PC to detect it. To date I still haven't managed to get it to connect and I've followed all the directions in the two paragraphs devoted to connection problems in the readme file. I tried the website but they have nothing on connectivity. I called Support and after navigating 5 layers down in the phones menus it told me that no operators were available and promptly disconnected me. It did this 4 times in a row.

So, it might well be a nice toy but if you have ANY connectivity problems then you are dead in the water. It seems to me that if the entire functionality of the product depended on it's connectivity that they would make a greater effort (any effort) to assist in this area.

I already own several Mindstorms Sets so I bought this Spybotics set more out of curiosity than anything else.
...BR>It was fairly easy to set up despite the fact that officially Lego doesn't support the software under Windows 2000, which I use. No serial port problems and no failures so far.
Its good for teaching kids the basics of robotics if they're not ready for Mindstorms.
My four year old son is intrigued by it and I imagine most 8 to 10 year olds would have no trouble building and using it.
...

When it comes to remote control toys, we as parents have seen our fair share of them end up in the trash. They either stop working or go through so many batteries you have to get a 2nd job to support the toy. Lego Spybots on the otherhand are worth their weight in GOLD! We purchased two spybots aprox. 3 years ago for our sons (ages 9 and 6 at the time). Our 9 year old put them both together on his own. They loved that they could program "missions" into the spybots. I love how the spybots take AA and AAA batteries. The batteries last for quite some time. If my boys play with them every day I would say the batteries last 1 month. Both spybots work as well as the day we bought them. That says a lot seeing as how boys in general are pretty rough with their toys. We ended up buying the other two spybots last Christmas. They only reason I gave the spybots a 4 on durability is that when they go flying down the stairs or crashing into the wall it's possible that the "laser" or an accessory or two might come off, but the toy itself is ultimately as durable as a tank.

I've always wanted this toy...
AND NOW I'VE GOT IT!!!!
It is very cool to have if you want to battle or spy on your friends. I've gotten to make my own spying robot to from the pieces!!

I bought 2 of these for my two sons ages 5 and 6 1/2, Gigamesh and Shadowstrike. The computer instructions were very simple, although many pages long, that my two boys put their vehicles together all by themselves! I ended up getting another one, Snaptrax as my husband wanted one to play with the boys and my son didn't like Gigamesh as much as the many wheels make it slower than the others and a bit loud and bumpy on the floor. Overall we all think Shadowstrike is the best of the 4. The only thing is not very "durable" for rough play. My boys like to chase each others vehicles and try to turn them over to "lose the battle" and then you have to put the vehicle back together again. The spy missions are few, so just fun to play with them as remote control vehicles.