WhalesBot Rocky Smart Robot Car Coding & Remote Control Kit for Kids 8-16, STEM, Modular/Scratch/Python/C Programming, Educational Engineering Science Toy Set

Perfect Starter Robot for Young Engineers
I got this for my son who wants to be a roboticist and it’s been such a cool way for him to get hands on experience with building and coding. The kit is really well made and the instructions are easy to follow even for beginners. He’s already tried the line following and obstacle avoidance modes and it’s been fun watching him learn how everything works. The app tutorials do a great job teaching both the building steps and simple coding so it feels like a real introduction to engineering instead of just a toy. It’s educational, creative, and a great way to get kids excited about robotics.

Makes for a fun Father/Son time!
My son is really into robotics, he loves building them with Lego and trying to make them move. Since he recently had a birthday we decided to get him some STEM activities and found this.We both absolutely love it, it is a great father/son activity that we can spend a lot of time on trying new things.If you child is into any sort of programming, robotics or STEM activity this is a great way to introduce them to that world of creativity. Since you can code it in a variety of languages, it gives the kids a way to increase their skills in different computing languages.

What a Headache! Poor Support In English For Android & PC — Could Be Five Stars
Our experiences were completely different from those of the other reviewers. My 12-year-old son put this together in an hour or two, though he initially had the motor wires swapped so that forwards was backwards. This is a cool and fun little robot if you’re only interested in basic functions. If your kid wants to code it, that’s where we ran into trouble. There are two websites, one in Chinese (Whalesbot dot com) that looks good and looks relatively up-to-date, and one in English (Whalesbot dot ai) that’s not so much. We’d be fine if I could read Chinese, but I can’t. And I think Google can’t translate most pages because they use images instead of actual text. Too bad.Let’s start with one of the biggest issues: the language barrier. Things aren’t made as clear as they should be. Then there’s the issue of the correct controller, which refers to the unit with the circuit board and battery inside. Let’s clarify that Rocky is MC603 and a WOBOT. It took a bit to figure out which app to use on the phone and the PC. I don’t know about the Apple version, but the Android one was a pain. It forever kept hanging at 30% loading or crashed outright. Then when I finally got past the basic permission screen, it needed an update. Then it kept hanging at 100%. Turning the phone off and restarting the process several times finally seemed to work. Then, it needed complete access to my life to work properly. It needed phone, camera, mic, file, etc., etc., etc. I don’t understand why it needs access to all those things to interact with a Bluetooth-connected programmable circuit board. Seems iffy to me.Once you get past those hurdles, if you don’t mind giving a Chinese company complete control over the keys to the kingdom, you do get a tutorial that works very well. The problem is that you only get to perform the functions they want you to perform. It should’ve given students the ability to experiment further in whatever way they chose. A missed opportunity. So all that permission-granting was just so you could spend 30 minutes tops learning the ropes.Then, you go to the website. Figuring out which app to use (and I could only ever get one of the several apps listed to work with the robot) was a headache. Don’t bother going to the family apps page. They lead to dead Dropbox links. The educators’ page is the only one left, and of the several offered, only the Wobot one helped. Even then, I had a horrible time finding the correct controller to switch to. Remember, you need MC603. That program at first didn’t show the controller Rocky uses, so I couldn’t get it to work until I found and clicked a link in the upper right (don’t even remember what it said now) that took us to another page in the software that showed the right controller in the list (in the upper right drop-down menu). Finally, after several frustrating attempts, the software works with the robot.We still have four issues. First, the software is janky and wants to update to a newer version every time, but when we tell it to do so, it tries to download the update and hangs at 0%. Second, the mobile app wants to update Rocky’s firmware but cannot detect the current version. Third, several AI-related updates in the menu on the right don’t work with Rocky, or we can’t figure out how they do. It suggests things like a face recognition firmware update. But does that work with the limited sensors Rocky comes with? No idea. And the firmware numbers on each of these are lower than Rocky’s current version. Is that important? No idea.Between the jankiness of the website, the incomplete or outdated app(s) situation, the confusion of trying to navigate all of this even as an adult who has built computers and home networks, the lack of clearly marketed add-ons for Rocky (which should be there given the promotional materials), the fact that the English website seems like an abandoned afterthought, the fact that only one or two people have ever posted anything in their community hub, and the unease that comes with a foreign-made app demanding access to everything on your phone to function the way it should with just a Bluetooth connection (I had to specifically permit it to make phone calls for it to communicate with Rocky properly), I could only give this product a one-star review with a clear conscience. Yes, that was only one sentence. If you don’t give it all-encompassing access to your life, the mobile app on Android will not function.Do we like Rocky the Wobot? Yes, we do. It’s a great concept. If the parent company would invest the time, money, and energy into supporting the English-speaking side and apps that consumers deserve, I would give this product five stars without reservation. It does work. It is a sound basis for STEM experiments and experiences. It’s perfect for a niche that sorely needs affordable products for teenagers. Would I do it again? If I could get Rocky, knowing what I know now, so that it wouldn’t have taken me so long just pulling my hair out because I couldn’t find the path forward, I would get him again (without using the mobile app, which is what helped me understand a couple of the missing pieces). The one star is to get the manufacturer’s attention in hopes of them considering changing their approach, but it’s also to warn those who might be less tech-savvy to know what they’re getting into. I don’t understand how the other reviewers had such different experiences, but I’ve given you my honest review of how things went.Whalesbot! Expand your accessory offerings; improve your English language website, instruction guide(s), and app(s) support; and take a more pragmatic, conservative approach to phone permissions/privacy. Do these things, and your products will make a huge splash (see what I did there?) in the global market. As it is, I don’t know how well you’ll do outside of China/Asia. I wanted to give you five stars, but your choices made that impossible.