4M Hover Racer Science Kit, DIY Mechanical Engineering Airboat - STEM Toys Educational Gift for Kids & Teens, Girls & Boys

I confess: I saw this kit on Amazon several months ago, and kept coming back to it, thinking it might be a cool gift for one or both nephews. I've liked construction toys and figuring out how things work for as long as I remember, so I eventually realized I was probably interested in this for myself first. I bought it, and I'm really happy with the purchase. Materials are good quality, assembly instructions are mostly easy to understand, and the whole project comes together pretty easily. (I can see how this would be a fun kit to work on with a child, mainly because the grown-up really wouldn't need to do much but coach.)Like other reviewers, I did away with the soda can. That's a cool nod to learning something with materials on-hand, but it still looks like a soda can. I tried my hand at a couple of paper-craft models of aerial trams, which was a lot more fun. The result is cooler, too, and it would be fun to think outside the box with a child, too. I attached a couple of photos of my amateur efforts at a paper model--it's supposed to resemble the Roosevelt Island tram here in NYC, at least a little.Like other reviewers, I'd like to have had more of the string used as the cable included, just to see how a longer span would work. Failing that, I'd like to know the specs of the string provided so I could order a workable substitute on my own.

My 5 year old and I put this together today and had a GREAT time with it. She got it for Christmas and in the excitement lost the instructions and one of the connectors to hold the arm to the frame. We looked up a youtube video for the instructions and as there was no reading, she was able be the boss and do much of it herself. My job was tightening screws and peeling the adhesive off of eyeballs (which was really difficult!). We cut our own arm bracket out of a plastic blueberry box and it works just fine. We did have a problem with the axel slipping to the side when the can is standing - I think that we were missing a piece of the gear that holds it in place. We fixed this by putting a bit of leftover arm-straw between the rotating foot and the body, in case this happens to you. After building it my daughter carried it everywhere all day, showing it off to everyone and making it wobbly around. She's super proud and was able to learn some basics like why wires are insulated, how a circuit works, how to put things together without a drop of glue and best of all, how to improvise. If you're looking for a toy for your kid to do on his/her own, this might not be the one (go for a magic sand kit) but if you want to spend some time together building something, go for this great STEM set!

I purchased this toy to build with a 5 year old who currently has a fascination with robots, and it was a major hit! He loves it. His younger sister loves it. And after taking it to "Show and Tell" at school, he quickly discovered that his entire class loves it, evident by the fact that he heard the phrase "will you build me one" many, many times that day.The project was very easy to assemble, and contrary to many reviews I see here, I experienced no issues with "fragile, easily broken parts." (I'm writing this review 3 weeks after assembly, and the robot still looks mint, despite hours of play) Assembly took approximately 1 hour, but could have taken much less if I hadn't proceeded slowly to explain the how and why of things during the building process.Despite my overall positive experience with this toy, a couple of small issues slightly hurt the overall product --1) In the parts list section of the instructions, the 2 screw types are labeled incorrectly. This will become evident (and the problem resolves itself) as soon as you begin to use the screws, but the error did cause a few minutes of confusion during assembly.2) The 2 bolts used to connect the arm brackets are simply too short. They may work if you grind the bracket slightly, or simply force the bolts enough to reach the nut, hoping to not break anything in the process, but luckily, I had screws in my "scrap parts container" that worked perfectly. To avoid unnecessary aggravation, I recommend visiting a hardware store and replacing the 4 bolts with bolts that are approximately 1/16 longer. This will cost a few cents extra, plus a trip to the hardware store, but will help ensure a much more positive experience with assembly.Overall, we enjoyed this toy enough to order another robot from the same company (different model). I had fun with this project, the child is still having fun with this project, and he learned quite a bit about motors, current, why a battery makes his toys move, and why adjusting the cams (feet) impact the movement types. I'd call that a major win, despite the minor annoyances.

This is one of the cutest robots ever!!! That being said it's very difficult to assemble (at least it was for me). Maybe difficult isn't the correct word - more time consuming. the screws and nuts are so tiny that they are hard to work with. Once you get it together it's worth the time it took. I painted the can bright silver so this one really shines. I wish they would put extra screws and nuts in the kit because it's easy to lose one. Kids love this one!