Teach Tech - Mech-5 Mechanical Coding Robot

Brilliant to keep those young minds motivated and excited about STEM

Honestly, I’ll need to update my review at a later time because as of this posting it still remains in the box. This has to be entirely put together and looks like one of those old model car kits I remember doing as a kid. Be prepared to spend some time in building this because it looks like quite the project. My 12 year old took one look at the contents and decided it was beyond his ability and that it was better left to an adult in the house to put together.

It's an amazing and fascinating mechanical device. My 9 year old son wanted to build a robot with Me. It's rated for 10+ so I knew basically I would be building it. He was able for find the pieces and snip them out. He did watch what I was doing and learned some things. I showed him how a small gear turning rapidly could cause a larger gear rotate more slowly. He also learned how it was necessary to work slowly and carefully. It took us several hours over a couple of days to build, but I could have moved faster working alone. We built the drawing robot first then took off the drawing pieces and built the soccer playing version. Works great. As I built it I wondered if at age 10 or 11 I could have built it by myself. I had learned to be careful and follow directions and those things are key.

Built with my 8 year-old and this was pretty intimidating at first (there are a LOT of pieces) but once we got into things it was a fantastic lesson in following instructions for her. Loved every minute of it and it worked just fine...a Sharpie works best for the marker drawing configuration but be careful that you have enough room for it to draw...we used the box it came in cut flat as a floor protector. Note that you'll definitely want some sort of precision cutters as scissors were difficult to use to cut the pieces out of the holders. I'll include a picture of the type we used that worked perfect although I assume linking to somewhere else to purchase them is a no-no.

Bought for my daughters 11th birthday. We purchased this and a more expensive robot to keep her busy, this was, by far, the better robot. It taught her to understand the inner workings of a gear driven motor. The parts on this robot stayed together after being completed. The more expensive robot was made up of what looked like cheap imitation legos. Every time that robot started rolling pieces fell off. I would highly recommend the Mech 5 Mechanical Coding Robot. Even after the initial set up she plays with it and changes the design. The age recommendation on the box is true, this is a 10 and older project.

Works for a few seconds until the rear wheel axel grinds and pushes the E1 out of place. I tested the motor along the way, everything worked great, every piece fit perfectly, but couldn’t get past this defect. Even with the whole gear box assembled (keeping the wheel axel in place), the same problem happens. After 4-5 times of opening the gearbox again and again, making sure even that the wheels are in the proper order, etc. I gave up. It was a fun Sunday morning that ended up in frustration

It is little high side of the age appropriate, it is good my kids loved it.

Bought this during the Christmas break when best buy was offering 25% discount on toys. It took around 2 hrs to build the complete robot but it was a fun family project. You need to be little gentle when assembling the parts as some parts can break easily. I broke couple of parts during assembly. I contacted the manufacturer and they sent me replacement parts free of cost which arrived in 2-3 days. Assembling the coding wheel into the robot was bit challenging but once you figure that out it is fun. I bought this for my 7 yr old kid and had to spend time with him in building this up. The box says it is suitable for 10+ yrs. So its better for bigger kids who can build on their own.