Robotics Kits Technology

A nice robotic toy for a starter., December 27, 2009

By 

Nuknuk (Springfield, VA United States) – See all my reviews

  

Durability: Fun: Educational: 

This toy bug robotic ant runs fast. Catching it is a challenge, so be careful where you let it go. Uses two button batteries. The switch is at the back. Unlike the Hex nano, the ant can run on carpets. It has six legs or wheels (whichever you want to call them).

Compared to the nano, the ant cannot flip back to its feet if it happens to flip upside down. It also is more likely to get entangled on wires or strings.

A nice robotic toy for a starter.

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Eh, Not Bad, Not Great, February 7, 2010

By 

goonius (a room in a house on a street in a city just like any other.) – See all my reviews

  

Durability: Fun: Educational: 

The Hexbug Ant isn’t a bad miniaturized robotic creature; once you get one that works, that is. Our first one went backwards, but refused to go forward, so got stuck a great deal. Fortunately I ordered from one of the sellers currently offering this toy through Amazon, Fat Brain Toys, and they have fantastic customer service, so another was dispatched immediately and arrived pretty quickly. The second one worked as advertised.

The properly-working Ant has front and rear sensors that alert it anytime it encounters an obstacle, reversing its direction so it will keep going. There is a little switch on the rear of the Ant to switch it on, and once on it is in constant motion until you manage to catch it; it is quite fast. The Ant is powered by six rapidly spinning three-prong wheels; three on either side as you’d expect from an arthropod. The leg/wheels are joined up to one another by small gears, and the one huge annoyance with the Ant is that the leg/wheels and accompanying gears like to pick up every little bit of dust and pet hair on your floor. Ultimately a little dust bunny is all it takes to bring this little creature to a halt. You then have to pick it up, switch it off, disentangle the pet hair and fluff that it picked up from – say – underneath the dresser, and give it another go. I thought I had a clean house until I invited this little critter into it, and I’m rather insulted by all the fluff he’s finding under our furniture. Where does he keep finding all these dust bunnies? I vacuumed like two days ago…

Of course, an easy fix for this would be using some blocks to set up an obstacle course for it, not allowing it to find all the hidden dust bunnies under furniture, or maybe you’re fortunate enough to own a Roomba or something that gets all those hard to reach places that the Ant finds and gets gunked up in.

If you can keep the Ant from critiquing your housekeeping skills by getting locked up every time it ducks under a piece of furniture, it’s a pretty cute little toy, especially for the price. I like the transparent casing and the overall style of it. The speed is pretty entertaining, and I can see the cat getting a kick out of it… and then dealing it the final blow with a big puffy hairball.

I don’t know that I’d buy it again, all things considered. If I’d known about the pet hair/dust bunny issue I might have sprung for a pricier slow-mover like the crab who also seems to have better clearance from the ground.

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Fast, Attention-Grabbing Toy, July 23, 2010

Durability: Fun: Educational: 

Bought this as a gift for a 5 year-old nephew. He loved it. Goes super-fast, changes direction easily at the slightest obstacle, and was simple to use right out of the box. Not sure on durability, but for the price, even if it only lasts a week, it was money well spent.

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