LEGO 17101 Boost Creative Toolbox Robotics Kit, 5 in 1 App Controlled Building Model with Programmable Interactive Robot Toy and Bluetooth Hub, Coding Kits for Kids & Just Dance 2022 (Nintendo Switch)

I bought this for an 11-year-old. I was worried that it might build a fantastic robot, which would do some activities, and that would be that, End of Story. In fact this is Lego at its best, remembering its roots as a construction set where you can do your own thing. There is no limit. This isn't one of those sets that builds a Car (and a slightly smaller car), but you need the engineering skills of George Stephenson to do anything else with the highly-specialised, weirdly shaped bits (here's looking at you, Lego Technik...). With Boost, the set models are just the start.Boost makes several main models, and they're very diverse. Each model is a longish build, with lots of challenge, but the builds are divided into stages. At the end of each stage you have a semi-functional model that can do something interesting, so you can try out the coding. At the end of the final stage, you have the full model, but even then the building hasn't finished: there are accessories and activities. For example, having completed the cat, you can make it a mouth-organ and explore how to code so the mouth-organ does things (plays tunes, makes it fart, whatever...). To give you an idea how Lego have achieved this: the set has a colour/distance-sensor, which in the cat model is cleverly built into the cat's mouth. Any brick placed near the cat's mouth can be recognised by colour, and the recognition can be used to trigger programmable events in the app. Sound comes from the app, not the robot, but this works better than I thought it would. The cat can also sense being moved and touched, which triggers other responses (again, once Lego have shown you the basic idea with some simple coding, you are free to code whatever you want).You can make your own accessories for the main models, or you can go free-style and make completely new robotic models. There are several ideas books available to help get you started.This set is ideal for the kid who likes lego, but tends to slide off to their iPad. It makes real hands-on building relevant to the screentime kid. You can build, you can program, and you can play, so it should appeal to anyone.Some tips: make sure you can install the app before you buy it (as the app does everything: it's the building instructions, and it controls the robots and makes them work). The app is fairly big, and we found it needed a little bit more memory than it said (it failed to install until we deleted some extra stuff and made space, then it was fine). Get rechargeable batteries, because you're going to use these models a lot. Try to work out how to turn off the screen-saver on whatever tablet you use, because it's irritating finding the thing has to be restarted every time you took a bit too long to find a brick. Get a big, low, flat storage box (we used an under-bed shoe storing container from a typical high-street cheap outlet) so you can scrattle around finding the bricks, and have somewhere to put your half-completed works. Get in lots of frozen meals and turn off the phone; arrange for bills to be paid automatically, and tell your kid's school that he/she has got explosive gerbil-pox and is in quarantine for 3 weeks. You're going to be busy...

Brought for my son for his 7th birthday as he is very into Lego and robots and is getting into coding. My son loves this set and there are so many different things he can create with him, it's kept him busy and engaged. Expensive but I think this is worth it as it has been educational as well as fun.

But the connection to the device was not always successful, we got there eventually and not sure how .

It is very expensive there’s no getting round it, but you actually get a lot for your money! Re whether you’ll be able to work the app, as long as you have an Apple tablet or phone running the latest IOS version it works fine. My daughter has a old iPhone 6S+ minus sim but with WiFi and it works great. But I see no reason why older devices that are capable of running the latest Apple IOS wouldn’t work. Make sure you build the robots first as it takes you through bag by bag. After that it’s all a jumble on the other ones for obvious reasons.We bought a cheap programmable robot one year and bitterly regretted it, we couldn’t get it to work.The app is great but don’t forget to turn the sound up on your device, otherwise you maybe left a little bemused. The robot doesn’t have a speaker so any sound effects are made through the device.There’s so much to build with lots of little programming tutorials along the way and we’ve only built the very 2 first things the basic robot and the all singing all dancing Verny robot. So for me this looking excellent value, the first robot is very basic if you want something quick and easy to build for younger children. Although if that’s the case I would suggest something cheaper maybe the roblox. As this is very high spec, this is brilliant for Lego mad kids. And requires little supervision and help!

My son loves Lego and loves robots, so this looked like the perfect present. Lego, as usual, have nailed the Lego side, but boy, the Lego Boost App is poor and the Bluetooth connection to a smartphone or tablet is awful.The App works on a universal basis, no language so anyone can theoretically use it, like Lego instruction pamphlets. The thing is, most children will be used to building Lego (as will their parents) but most wont have a clue about coding. The result is confusion. Lego simply need to produce an app with coding instructions in a number of languages. It’s not rocket science.The other big failure is that the App doesn’t Bluetooth to the Lego Boost device via settings on your smartphone or tablet. Nostradamus it attempts to do it through the App. My brand new and latest model Samsung Tablet failed to connect. My two year old iPhone connected easily but: 1. The screen size is small, a tablet would be better; 2. Every time we connect the App to the device, the App says it needs to update the software on the Boost device - EVERYTIME!Then the sound for the thing you’ve built comes through your smartphone/tablet but a glitch in the App means that the sound often goes, and the only way to get it back is to turn the App off and on and then update the software AGAIN (see previous paragraph).Don’t get me wrong, once built, the Lego looks great. Once working, it’s great fun, BUT expect issues with this product. If you’re not IT confident, don’t bother buying this. Lego does have a helpline but I could never get through. You can email Lego, but they say they’re so busy they’ll respond in 9 days! So you’ve spent a load of money on your kids birthday present and they expect you to wait over a week to get a response to yiur request for help (which undoubtedly won’t resolve the problem).Looking at online forums, the problems I have described above are common. My advice to Lego: great move combining robotics, coding and Lego, but you need to heavily invest in the tech side of things. Why not a Lego tablet that effortlessly connects to the Lego Boost products? More investment too in teaching kids the coding side of the product.My advice to consumers: as I mentioned above, unless you’re IT confident, don’t bother, to lie expect technical problems with this product.