Customer Reviews

RipRoar - Creation Station

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

This is the worst item. I had high hopes. I wasted four hours just with the software. Even the WEB site indicates people are having issues and so does the outside of the box with a yellow sticker READ FIRST.
Never worked on one XP computer. Finally worked (sort of) on the other XP computer, both high end units. It kept lauching Photoshop Elements when you lauched the Creation Station software. Half the time it would fatal error. The camera would freeze. The cable would come loose and launch PS Elements again. The bonus clips were very poor quality. The kids would have hated it and become frustrated. Buy Adobe Premiere Elements, a cheap web camera and a lime green table cloth at the party store and you'll be much happier.

I bought this for my daughter for Christmas.

The software won't run.

I'm a technology professional and I did the software install. After a convoluted set of steps that required CD install, downloading from the internet, plugging and unplugging of the camera USB cable, and even a good old command line patch, the software won't run. Crashes everytime.

Undaunted, I uninstalled and reinstalled. Same problem again. It doesn't work.

I track down the customer service line for Rip Roar/Toyquest. Amazingly a real person answers. I speak to him for a bit, but he tells me that they can't support the Rip Roar Creation Station, that I need to use the 'Help' email address. I asked if there was a phone number to call, since solving software problems via email is usually useless. He said there was no phone number and that only the email address.

I expressed my concern that waiting for an email to resolve the problem for a Christmas problem was not good. He responded that the 'Help' email people should get back to me "in a few days". He also suggested that I could return the item to "my local retailer". Yes, I'll enjoy explaining that to my daughter.

All I want is for the camera & software to work. I guess that is too much to expect these days.

Don't buy this. Yes, it looks great, but it's a disappointment to the kids when it doesn't work. Look at the other reviews, this product is a lemon.

First off, let me say; I have a BS in Computer Science and a Masters of Software Engineering. I design Software for a living. I am actually MORE tolerant than almost anyone and can work through almost any WORKABLE issue.

I installed this buggy garbage on one machine. First off, it does NOT have auto start. You have to run some program in one of the folders after browsing to it, then all that program does is download another program to your desktop. Then, after running that, I got an error with some 'Install shield script' and it kept running the installer only to fail later. After many attempts later I gave up and tried on another machine. On this one things looked more promising. It appeared to install ok. The installer is HORRIBLE, it even runs batch files that pop up in the install process. Many cumbersome steps, etc. Anyway, it asks to reboot. When I reboot and plug in the camera, its says 'USB Device not recognized' and the software won't load because it HAS to have their horribly cheap, crappy camera to run the software. Then it started rebooting machine over and over, even without the camera plugged in! Now I have to boot into safe mode and go back to a restore point to even be able to use that machine. I was going to try on a third machine but I don't want to hose it up either.
Oh, and to the guy who said he gave this 3/5 stars but didn't actually run the software? Review AFTER you actually get this up and running.
Their documentation is actually FULL of typos, poor grammar and confusing diatribe. The camera feels like a McDonald's happy meal toy. It is complete crap. Oh, and to use it, it HAS to stay plugged into the computer. And get this, this is a perfect example of what morons they are at riproar (the makers of this crap), they recommend that you plug the included USB cable from the camera into the back of your computer but only give you 3 feet! It will take you about 2 feet to even go from the camera to the back of your computer! The tripod only goes to about 3 feet and feels even cheaper than the camera if that is at all possible.
One pathetically small positive...the green screens were slightly larger than I was expecting...whopee. Good job on the green screen tools. Now try actually getting your horribly crappy software to actually work.
SUMMARY: THIS PRODUCT DOES NOT INSTALL AND WILL NOT WORK BUT PROBABLY FOR 1 OUT OF 7 PEOPLE HERE! DO NOT BUY THIS UNLESS YOU ARE THREATED AT GUNPOINT AND EVEN THEN ONLY BY A LARGE CALIBER GUN!
Mike

This product, as a package, is really very bad and not worth the retail price. Here is what you get and my comments:

1)Camera - Very bad image quality, but the built in LED lighting is fairly good. NOT standalone, must be connected to a PC.
2)Tripod - Just awful, seriously useless flimsy piece of plastic.
3)Door Clips - OK for what they are (plastic clips to hang the included Green Scree material)
4)Sticky Tape - OK for what it is (tape to hang the included Green Screen material to a wall, etc)
5)Instruction Manual - Not very good, poorly written
6)Quick Start Guide - Just useless
7)Installation Disk - This is a mixed bag. A) the software installation is problematic (see comments below), B) the editing software is somewhat unstable, C) the included "Bonus" material is actually fairly good and useful (include Sound FX, Music Clips, Video Clips, and Backgrounds)
8)Green Screen - Surprisingly good! This material comes in two sections with Velcro fasteners so you can use a small or large area. This fabric was worth the price I paid (see below).
9)USB Cable - A good quality cable, but a little short if connecting to a desktop/tower PC.

Installing the included software was a rough experience on my XP laptop and it ultimately failed due to, I suspect, my 1.0 USB ports (MUST HAVE USB 2.0). It was a much better experience on my son's Vista laptop, which installed it without much problem at all. As noted above, the camera quality was not very good and the editing software is hard to use.

My recommendation: If you are interested in Chromakey (Green/Blue Screening) buy the Creation Station at one of the auction sites (I found a lot of 5 for the retail price of 1 here), keep the included "Bonus" material and Green Screen fabric, use the Camera & Tripod as "props", buy a cheap web cam or Flip Video (just love that product!), and Sony Vegas 8 Studio (really good inexpensive editing software with Chromakey).

i got this for my son. you should see the videos he makes... made himself look like he was doing weather reports, then took pictures from my wife's business trip to Pheonix and did a funny dialogue over the pictures for her birthday.

the green screen was bigger than expected, and the software definitely has a learning curve, but we were able to post videos pretty quickly.

if he likes this video editing stuff enough, maybe he'll move to hollywood and become famous? fingers are crossed...

I always read the reviews of products before I concider a purchase. Unfortunatly there wasn't one for this product before I bought it. A great idea, but not well made. It might work, but I guess I'll never know because the product broke within one minute of ME, not my 11 year old, putting the camera on the tripod. If you already purchased it... good luck.

Ignoring the bad reviews I decided to get this for my son as a present. Most of the bad reviews were pertaining to installation problems, so I decided to open it up and install it on my pc before giving it to him. It was almost too easy to install the software. I had to explore the disk to find the installation file, but when I did find it the installation & update went really smooth. I had no problems installing it on my son's pc either. We both use Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2.

My son really loves this camera, but he does not get to play with it much yet. We are going to rearrange the living room so he can have a better place to put the green screen and make more movies. The only problem I have is that the camera needs to be connected to a pc/laptop to record and I'm not moving his computer to his room.

Other than the restricted location, I think the creation station was a great buy. I would definitely recommend it to others.

Its a cheap internet cam on a even cheaper tripod that can't hold the camera up. Slightly move the USB cable and the camera shot freezes. The cable is way to short. There is no way they used this camera for the commercials. The software is memory hungry and slow. About the only good thing is the green screen blankets

This is such a poorly made product. The USB cable that came with the kit fit poorly into the camera. The camera would freeze up and shut down the computer. I uninstalled/re-installed this program 7 times!

I went to the RipRoar website for tech support only to find out that they ONLY correspond via email. That's not going to do when your child is dressed up and ready to make their movie. This is rediculous. I saw the poor reviews but the product had been reduced 70% at another retailer, so i thought it was worth taking a chance.

Let me tell you it's not worth your time, money and most importantly the heartbrake of your child. Please head this review and DO NOT purchase this product.

I bought this for my 9 year old son who has been into writing screenplays lately. Sounded wonderful at the time, but there were no reviews when I bought it so I just researched around the internet for a bit. It came without a USB cable, though that was listed on the box. The tripod screw broke off in my son's hand with the first attempt to put the camera on it. The software.....well, after much trying it is downloaded but we can't get it to open up. What a disappointing Christmas present. I'd have been better off getting him a cheap 'flip' video camera and inexpensive green screen software. This thing is heading back for a refund.