Erector Spykee - The Spy Robot
by Erector
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Our Price: $499.99 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $249.00 (click here) Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of Erector Spykee - The Spy Robot
Customer Review: Fun to use, tough build, not so durable.
Summary: 4 Stars
Got one of these for my seven year old son. Don't snicker -- he was surprisingly advanced for seven (he's nine now, and calls himself a 'hacker'). He and I spent several hours building this thing, and as is the norm today, the instructions were less than stellar. Had to remove a few backwards things because the pictures are hard to decipher, then put 'em back, and eventually we got it together. Now to connected to our home WIFI network - another fiasco! And I am a network technician for a living! Anyway, when it finally works, and it decides it wants to stay connected to our network, it's a whole lot of fun. The camera is great, the remote control functionality is very responsive, the speaker is a bit cheesy but it works, and we've never tried to VOIP because that's just silly. Took it apart a few months later, and the plastic inserts used as nuts to hold the metal screws have stretched to a point where several are unusable. The camera now flops over. But almost two years later, this toy still works. The motors are all fine, it still holds a charge, and the camera and speakers do function normally. It's a great project for the techie kid in your family.Customer Review: Couldn't relate to poorer reviews.
Summary: 5 Stars
I read several Amazon.com reviews before buying this robot. From what I had read it seemed I may have a 50%50% shot at enjoying Spykee. After recieving it I opened all the pieces and at first was a bit overwhelmed. Although the instructions were VERY CLEAR - Just read which parts are needed for each step and get your parts ready before doing each step. All of the parts have small numbers on them as well. Also someone mentioned that it was flimsy, and I didnt think that at all! The screws fith great, some a bit tight but with a minor effort they fit. Also, I have never built anything in my life from kits or models so this was a first.
ALTHOUGH prepare yourself and be patient. I was expecting the construction to take 3 hours, and it took about 3 and a half. This is a robot, not just a toy, and there are alot of great places with modifications to it online as well. I wouldn't recommend it for younger kids its not like a remort control car!
Overall it was challenging, but fun, and fun to use through the internet. I am looking forward to doing some modifications when I have time in the future.
Customer Review: Not worth the money!
Summary: 2 Stars
This product took way to long to assemble! I am a very capable 42 year old mom who had a tough time understanding the directions most of the time. It took me about 5 hours to assemble. Many of the suggested construction instructions had to be altered in order for the robot to stay together. It also would have been nice to have more extra pieces because once you use some of the plastic sleeves for the screws, they no longer work well if used over. I don't find it particularly educational since my son was not able to participate much in the construction. He would not have been able to put this together on his own.
Once we finally finished the assembly and loaded the software onto the computer, it was initially fun to operate. However, I can see that it is going to get boring very quickly. Spykee mostly just drives around looking at things. If you use an iPod, you cannot transfer your music (mp3 only) to Spykee. Overall, I don't find this worth the price. I would consider it if it were about $100 or so, but not over $200.
Customer Review: Fun Wireless Networking...
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, at first setting the robot up was a little hard - I didn't know a lot about wireless networking and even though it has Windows instructions my laptop has Dell's cool utility on top of that. Once I understood what the instructions were saying it was easy.
Putting the robot together was not hard, bu it was fun. I read the review below that said it isn't more educational than a pile of bricks. I disagree, I learned a whole lot about wireless netowrks, and remote control over the internet that I didn't know yet.
I wish it could climb stairs like it said. It can't. It's really cool how it can find it's home to recharge. I recommend it as fun and really cool
I didn't try technical support, but to say it's a waste makes it no different than any of the other tech support lines I call - cable tv, Earthlink etc. None of them are very helpful so I didn't even try.
Customer Review: need help?
Summary: 5 Stars
if anyone needs help with operating your spykee on any mode (ad hoc, through WiFi, Remote), or if you need help in installing and operating the iSpykee program (for your iPhone or iTouch), please e-mail me at [...]... it was difficult for me to do the programming in the beginning (took me nearly two days to finally accomplish the remote part of this Spykee)...but after a while, I got it to work...don't stress yourself out...try reading the youtube tutorials and the manual over again (note...try not to use the reset button so much...it's a pain in the but to start the whole programming process all over again)...if that doesn't work for you...send me an email and i might be able to help over the phone
If you're in Hawaii, I can physically install your Spykee personally for a small fee
Lynna