NEWS$show=/search/label/news

Here's where you'll find all the latest news about technology for children. We love to follow cool new inventions on Kickstarter and we hunt out all the latest announcements about tech toys and gadgets for the coming Christmas holidays. You'll also get our take on children's technology stories in the media.

REVIEWS$show=/search/label/review

Our kids technology product reviews are intended to help you work out whether a toy, gadget or kit is a good fit for your child or family. There's lots of cool stuff available, but is it the right choice for the child or teenager that you are buying for? We'll help you make the right choices and get the best value for money.

GIFT GUIDES$show=/search/label/gift%20guide

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends assemble. We create gift lists to help you make good choices for kids technology which helps them develop the right skills for the future. We research the best in Coding Toys and Games, Making / Craft Tools and Kits, STEM/STEAM related gifts, Programmable Robots, Electronics Kits and Gadgets for Tech Age Kids and Teens.

PROJECTS$show=/search/label/project

Get crafty with technology. Here we'll post all our ideas and projects using technology to get creative and making with kids. You'll find anything from making a lemon battery to a glow-in-the-dark Minecraft sword. Our projects are tried and tested on our own kids or at events we run, so we are sure you can have a go at home with your kids. Some of our projects use specific tech gadgets which we provide links for you to purchase.

STEM$show=/search/label/stem

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In recent years there is an increased focus in these areas of study. We like to include Art and Design too, so we often talk about STEAM (A stands for Art). At Tech Age Kids we believe Coding is a new literacy and children need to understand how technology works, practice making skills and grow in their curiosity to make a better future for us all.

CODING$show=/search/label/coding

Coding is increasingly being recognised as an important skill for children to learn. Some will learn to code at school or at a coding club, but it's brilliant if they get support at home too.

ELECTRONICS$show=/search/label/electronics

We think it's really important for kids to get hands-on with electronics and learn how to make circuits and write code to control hardware. Younger kids can start with conductive playdough. For kids who like to combine craft and tech, littleBits are fab. And we love SAM Labs wireless electronics components for making it easy for kids to make Internet of Things inventions. Lots of electronics kits for kids have support for the Arduino microprocessor environment. The DuinoKit Jr is one of our favourites. Arduino is a fab skill for older kids and teens to develop.

ROBOTICS$show=/search/label/robotics

We love robots at Tech Age Kids, especially programmable ones. We've got lots of them and write reviews and projects that use them. Our programmable robots for kids buying guide is a good place to start if you're not sure what's available. Roby the mBot Meccano robot dog is one of our popular projects and has been with us to lots of events. Our Ozobot LEGO trailer is fab for kids who love LEGO and robots.

MAKING AND CRAFT$show=/search/label/making

We're advocates of the creative use of technology, but this needs to be balanced with developing physical skills such as papercraft, woodwork, clay modelling, technical drawing and soldering. If children don't develop these skills as they grow up then physical making projects can become frustrating rather than fun. The Maker Community uses the term 'making' as a broad term to include all sorts of artisan skills or craft activities. Being able to make things can lead to life-long hobbies or even careers. It's a great feeling to be able to take a project from an idea in your head to a real object that does something. We're particularly interested to explore products that combine maker skills with tech skills such as electronics but others focus purely on the physical making skills that are still important to modern making.

Robot Wars with HEXBUG BattleBots - Review


Hexbug developed a set of battling robots inspired by the popular TV series BattleBots (USA), a spin-off of Robot Wars (UK). Both TV series have experienced a revival in the last couple years and growing in popularity.

There seems to be something really appealing to watch robots battle it out for survival and marveling at the engineering ingenuity of the roboteers. The Hexbug BattleBots Arena lets kids bring that experience into their own homes without needing to build their own robots. We hope kids using this toy, however, will be inspired to build their own robots in future. I took a look at the toy with my two kids aged 8 and 6.


Disclaimer: Hexbug sent us a BattleBots Arena to review. As always our opinions are our own.

History

Robot Wars TV series started in UK first broadcast on BBC in 1998. In 2004 the series was axed, but returned to TV in 2016 with a new arena, house robots and presenters. It was hugely successful and future series were confirmed for the next 3 years.

Mark Thorpe was the brainchild of Robots Wars and came up with the idea whilst trying to make a remote controlled vacuum cleaner!

Robot Wars is centred around the sport of robot combat teams of roboteers fight robots against each other avoiding arena hazards and "house robots" - some household names include Shunt, Matilda and Sir Killalot.

The American version of Robot Wars, BattleBots, and screened on Comedy Central in 2000 for the first time. Like Robot Wars, BattleBots TV series have experienced a revival and returned to ABC in 2015, with 7th season in 2016 and another to be confirmed.

HEXBUG BattleBots Arena - What's included?


Two remote control battle robots, Tombstone and Witch Doctor, two push pulverising hammers and the arena.  Batteries are included in this set.



Building the Arena

The arena comes "flat-packed" and you need to build it. My 8 year old, with the help of his younger brother, attempted the build.

There are a number of fiddly bits, especially slotting in the corner pieces. I would suggest adult support making sure the arena cardboard base doesn't get damaged whilst trying to slot in the plastic upright corner pieces.

Once the corners were in place, the kids managed to build the rest on their own. It's important to get the clear screens fitted properly as pieces do tend to fly off in all directions during combat.

The arena is fairly sturdy, but will not withstand heavy handling. My biggest bugbear is that it can't easily fold down and this is a big negative in a small UK home!



Pairing the Remote Control with a Robot

The battle robots are motorised and controlled with an IR remote control. It's the classic small HEXBUG remote which allows you to move the robot forwards, backwards, left and right. There's also a "weapons" button on the top to control the robot's weapon.

Pairing the remote with your robot was a trial and error experience. There are 4 channels available, so essentially you could have 4 remote controlled battling robots in the arena.

Make sure you pair on robot at a time and that the remotes are on different channels. You may have to move into a different space with one robot to achieve the pairing. Much to my kids delight, sometimes one remote would control both robots!

We did manage to pair the robots with a remote each and the combat could commence.



Know your BattleBots


Within the HEXBUG BattleBot range there are motorised robots and push-activated robots. It's good to know which are which and what you'll get and how they work together.

The BattleBots arena comes with two remote controlled robots, Witch Doctor and Tombstone. They are also available separately without the arena.

Then there's the Tarantula twin pack, which includes two remote controlled robots. These should be able to work with the other robots in the arena - you can have up to 4 remote controlled robots in the arena.

The Bronco and Bite Force robots are push activated but can also be played in the arena as they are dimensionally the same size as the remote controlled robots. But be careful of fingers and flying parts during battle!

See Inside - How the robot works

It's great you can see "inside" the robots. The body of the robots attaches with small magnets so they can "fly" off during battle. HEXBUG made the housing for the "engine" of the robots see-through so you can see the motors, circuit board, and wires.

It makes the BattleBots more interesting as a toy, as kids can see how the motors work and in the case of Tombstone see a pulley operating the robot's weapon. Allowing kids to see inside the "big black box" lets them better understand how things work and hopefully inspire them to make and invent themselves.



Tracy's kids were so inspired last year by the launch of Robot Wars in the UK, they started to design and make their own battling robots.

Play Value

Pros

My kids were really excited to play with the BattleBots. It's an exciting toy and provides a lot of entertainment value. If your kids are big fans of Robot Wars or BattleBots TV series the HEXBUG BattleBots is a great way for them to have robot battles at home.

It's THE toy that all the friends want to play when they come over to our house.

You could play with the Robots without the arena, but just make sure you keep an eye on small pieces which are only attached to the robots with weak magnets.

Cons

In my mind the play is short lived and my kids soon moved on to other things. The arena is not easily collapsible and so we end up with a rather large toy that can't be easily stored in a small UK home.

HEXBUG BattleBots is lots of fun and entertaining for kids and adults. So in case you want to play your BattleBots HEXBUG Robots by the combat rules, here they are...

Robot Wars Combat Battle Rules

Robot Wars is a knockout game and robots can be "out" when they are:

  • immobile for 30 seconds
  • flipped out of the battle arena
  • falls into the pit of oblivion

If none of above was achieved in combat the following criteria would be judged:

  • Aggression - how much battling the robot engaged in
  • Damage - amount of damage caused by opponent robot
  • Control - robot driver ability to move around arena, avoid hazards and battle opponent






24 days of Scratch coding book cover and cute penguin
Name

2013,13,2023,1,3d printing,5,3DTin,2,accessories,1,activities,1,adafruit,1,advent calendar,2,adventure games,1,amazon,13,amazon fire,2,amazon prime,1,android,6,angry birds,1,animation,6,anki,1,app,19,app toy,4,app toys,8,appcessories,1,apple,1,apps,25,arcbotics,1,architecture,4,arckit,9,arduino,33,art,1,artificial intelligence,5,astronauts,2,astronomy,1,augmented reality,11,automaton,1,awards,1,battle bots,2,battling robots,2,bedtime,1,big kids,103,big tablets,1,bigtrak,1,bike,1,binary,1,birthday,4,bitsbox,1,black friday,2,blockly,1,blogging,1,bloxels,1,bluetooth,2,board games,7,book,2,books,35,boolean box,1,breadboard,2,bricks,1,brixo,1,buying guide,11,camera,4,cameras,1,card game,1,careers,2,catroid,1,celebration,1,cellphone,1,ces,2,chemistry,2,chess,1,christmas,44,circuit cubes,1,circuit playground,8,circuit scribe,10,cleaning,1,climbing,1,code clubs,1,code-a-pillar,1,codebug,1,coder,2,coding,173,cognitive learning,1,communication,1,comparison,1,competition/challenges,9,computational thinking,3,computer,2,computer games,2,computer science,2,computer vision,2,computers,1,computing,1,conductive playdough,2,connected toys,7,construction,40,conversational ai,1,cozmo,1,craft,34,craft cutter,3,creative thinking,1,creativity,3,crochet,1,crowdfunding,120,css,1,cubs,1,curiosity,1,curious chip,1,cyber monday,1,dads,1,data,2,deals,4,dens,2,design,10,design process,1,design thinking,7,digital parenting,2,digital skills,13,disability,1,disney infinity,1,dog tech,1,dolls,2,drawing,2,drones,2,duinokit,1,earth day,1,Easter,4,ebooks,11,eco,1,edblocks,1,edison,5,edtech,1,education,79,egypt,1,electricity,1,electronic pets,2,electronic toys,2,electronics,141,electronics kit,4,electronics kits,1,electtronics,1,elementary,1,elenco,2,energy,1,engineering,17,entertainment,1,ereader,2,ereaders,6,esafety,1,escape the room,1,event,21,ewriter,1,exercise,4,family,12,family tech,2,fathers day,1,Festival of Code,1,fiction,1,fire,1,fitbit,1,fitness,1,fitness tracker,3,flotilla,3,flow charts,1,flutterbye fairy,1,flying,1,force awakens,2,force friday,2,future,2,gadgets,36,games,35,games console,2,games consoles,8,gaming,3,gift guide,55,gifts,12,girls,24,giveaway,4,glow in the dark,1,google,1,grace hopper,1,grove,1,hackaball,2,hacksoton,1,halloween,13,halloween costumes,1,hardware,3,headphones,1,health,1,hexbug,3,hexbug aquabots,1,hexbug project,1,high school,1,history,26,home,1,home education,2,homeschool,4,hot toys,7,hour of code,3,html,4,humanoid,4,ICT,1,in app purchasing,1,indiegogo,13,industry event,9,innotab,5,innotab 3,3,innotab 3s,1,internet access,1,interviews,1,invention,4,ios,3,IoT,4,ipad,7,ipad mini,1,iphone,2,jacquard,1,japan,1,java,1,javascript,5,k'nex,7,k'nex robotics,1,kano,8,keyboard,1,kickstarter,92,kids,3,kindle,7,kindle fire,8,kit,2,kits,5,kodu,1,kubo,1,label printer,1,languages,1,laptop,1,laptops,1,last minute,1,leap motion,1,leapfrog,2,leappad,7,leappad 2,3,leappad ultra,3,leappad2,1,leapreader,1,learning,5,learning resources,5,learning tablet,2,learning tablets,9,leds,2,lego,36,lego boost,1,lego chain reactions,1,lego mindstorms ev3,5,lego power functions,2,lego technic,5,lego wedo,2,let's start coding,1,lights,1,lightseekers,1,little kids,110,littlebits,16,logiblocs,1,logic,3,logical thinking,4,loom,1,machines,1,magnetic,1,make it,2,makeblock,16,makedo,1,maker,6,makey makey,6,making,54,mardles,1,mars,1,mars rover,1,marty,1,math,3,maths,1,mbot,6,mbot ranger,1,me arm,1,meccano,6,meccanoid,5,meccanoid 2.0,1,merge vr,1,mews,1,michael faraday,1,micro:bit,9,microbit,6,microcontroller,5,microscope,1,microsoft,2,middle school,6,miles kelly,1,mindstorms,3,minecraft,21,minecraft mods,1,mixed reality,1,mobile,2,modular electronics,2,monsters university,1,morse code,2,mothers day,4,motion capture,1,motors,2,mover kit,3,movie,1,movies,4,mu,1,mu toys,1,munzee,1,music,10,my first robot,2,national dog day,1,nature,1,new,1,new year,1,news,170,news coding,1,nikola tesla,1,nintendo,2,nintendo switch,3,ohbot,3,ollie,3,on the web,1,opinion,19,origami,1,osmo,4,outdoors,13,ouya,1,ozobot,10,papercraft,3,paperwhite,1,parental controls,2,parenting,34,parrot,1,pc,1,people,8,pet tech,2,pets,3,phone,1,photography,1,photon,1,physics,3,pi day,1,picks,2,pimoroni,1,pinoccio,1,pixel kit,1,pixelart,4,play,2,playstation 4,3,plezmo,1,pocket code,1,pocket money,1,pokemon,4,pokemon go,4,poll,1,pre order,1,pre-teens,2,prehistory,1,preschoolers,42,primary,41,printable,1,products,34,professor einstein,1,programming,15,project,102,projects,12,puzzles,4,python,10,racing,1,raspberry pi,29,reading,12,reivew,1,remote control,1,research,3,resource,34,resources,2,retro,2,review,223,rights,1,robot,11,robot dog,1,robot fish,1,robot wars,3,ROBOTERRA,1,roboticals,1,robotics,32,robots,140,role models,1,role play,1,romo,1,romotive,1,root,1,rover,1,safety,2,sam labs,6,samuel morse,1,sandbox,1,schools,3,science,16,scratch,48,scratchjr,3,screen time,2,screenless,15,screens,1,sensors,5,servos,1,simbrix,7,skills,1,skylanders,3,skylanders superchargers,1,skylanders swap force,1,smart pens,1,smartphone,1,smartwatch,1,snap circuits,2,social media,1,solar power,2,soldering,2,sonic pi,1,sony koov,1,sound,3,space,9,sparki,2,speaker,3,speech sythesis,1,sphero,12,sphero mini,1,spider,2,star wars,6,stars,1,STEAM,1,stem,10,stikbot,1,stop motion,2,stop motion studio,1,storage,1,story,2,strawbees,2,students,1,subscription,5,subscriptions,1,sugru,1,summer,7,swift,1,tablet,3,tablets,23,tangible coding,2,tech,3,tech age,1,tech craft,4,tech is bad,7,tech is good,4,tech toys,21,tech will save us,10,technology,2,technology will save us,3,teens,64,teknikio,3,tekno,1,teksta,1,tenka labs,1,tesla,1,textiles,1,thames & kosmos,2,the extraordinaires,1,tim berners lee,1,tinkercad,1,tinybop,3,toddlers,9,toot-toot,1,top pick,9,touch,1,toy,1,toys,5,travelling,1,TTS,1,TV,1,tween,1,tweens,119,tynker,2,typing,1,ux,1,vehicles,1,videos,3,view-master,1,views,10,virtual reality,8,voice assistants,1,voice recognition,2,vr,4,vtech,8,web,2,websites,1,wifi,1,wii,2,wii u,2,windows 8,1,wonder workshop,9,wowwee,2,writing,7,writing. education,1,xbox one,2,xyzprinting,1,
ltr
item
Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children: Robot Wars with HEXBUG BattleBots - Review
Robot Wars with HEXBUG BattleBots - Review
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyA26oGuH3z3L5hsEHU3xIGy3m4JAhR03rEZOKly_MV_Xd6sEDT33JkhBGWfxoQGiAYke9VH6bxzo9W05gpZhxlN4o3UGia_t8l_4liwb8hM8hQ-1GSa1kIajcPux95kwEZz-4X81pJV8/s640/hexbug-battlebots-review-head.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyA26oGuH3z3L5hsEHU3xIGy3m4JAhR03rEZOKly_MV_Xd6sEDT33JkhBGWfxoQGiAYke9VH6bxzo9W05gpZhxlN4o3UGia_t8l_4liwb8hM8hQ-1GSa1kIajcPux95kwEZz-4X81pJV8/s72-c/hexbug-battlebots-review-head.jpg
Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children
https://www.techagekids.com/2017/05/robot-wars-with-hexbug-battlebots-review.html
https://www.techagekids.com/
https://www.techagekids.com/
https://www.techagekids.com/2017/05/robot-wars-with-hexbug-battlebots-review.html
true
15639169850959392
UTF-8
Loaded All Posts Not found any posts VIEW ALL Read more Reply Cancel reply Delete By Home PAGES POSTS View All RECOMMENDED FOR YOU LABEL ARCHIVE SEARCH ALL POSTS Not found any post match with your request Back Home Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat January February March April May June July August September October November December Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec just now 1 minute ago $$1$$ minutes ago 1 hour ago $$1$$ hours ago Yesterday $$1$$ days ago $$1$$ weeks ago more than 5 weeks ago Followers Follow THIS PREMIUM CONTENT IS LOCKED STEP 1: Share to a social network STEP 2: Click the link on your social network Copy All Code Select All Code All codes were copied to your clipboard Can not copy the codes / texts, please press [CTRL]+[C] (or CMD+C with Mac) to copy