Building a Robotic Arm With VEX @BestBuy @Hexbug #TechToys

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

When HEXBUG first came out my boys fell in love with them. I mean how could you not love silly little electronic bugs? Well to expand on their robotic line they have creation contruction kits inspired by real industrial robot arms.

We got the chance to check out the VEX Robotics Robotic Arm, which won a 2016 Toy of the Year Award, and it has been a hit in our house. What makes it so neat is not only do kids get to build it and then actually use it but they are learning at the same time. It is considered a STEM product as it uses STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) principles through hands on learning.

My 8 year old took two days to build this as he took a break and has been playing with it ever since. I will say it is very important to check every single piece against the instruction book parts list first to make sure you have everything. My son got half way through his build and realized he was missing two pieces. I following the instructions and emailed VEX about the missing pieces. They did miss my first email but when I followed up the following week they apologized for the delay and mailed me the parts I was missing. The parts took just a few days to receive and yes they were free. I do like that they don’t charge for pieces but it was frustrating that there was pieces missing to start off.

Once our VEX Robotic Arm was built though my son hasn’t stop tinkering with it. He is simply amazed that he built it all by himself and that it actually works. He just keeps picking up small toys and rotating them around. The Arm stands about a foot tall, rotates 360 degrees and has a 5.5 inch grip to pick up objects. To use you just crank the back and turn some knobs. There is a motor you can buy for an additional cost but my son hasn’t asked for that yet.

While my son doesn’t want to take apart his Robotic Arm, there are two alternate builds available in the instructions for a Chopper and Scorpion.

Even though we had the hiccups with the missing pieces, the VEX customer service was very easy to work with (yeah for email and not waiting on hold on the phone) and we had the replacement parts in no time. My son has asked for additional VEX sets and I can see the little engineer coming out from him. I do feel they are educational but fun toys!

Check out the VEX Robotic Arm at your local Best Buy store.