RipRoar - Creation Station
by Manley
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Our Price: $159.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $27.00 (click here) Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of RipRoar - Creation Station
Customer Review: Awful Camera, Tripod, & Software... Good Green Screen
Summary: 2 Stars
This product, as a package, is really very bad and not worth the retail price. Here is what you get and my comments:
1)Camera - Very bad image quality, but the built in LED lighting is fairly good. NOT standalone, must be connected to a PC.
2)Tripod - Just awful, seriously useless flimsy piece of plastic.
3)Door Clips - OK for what they are (plastic clips to hang the included Green Scree material)
4)Sticky Tape - OK for what it is (tape to hang the included Green Screen material to a wall, etc)
5)Instruction Manual - Not very good, poorly written
6)Quick Start Guide - Just useless
7)Installation Disk - This is a mixed bag. A) the software installation is problematic (see comments below), B) the editing software is somewhat unstable, C) the included "Bonus" material is actually fairly good and useful (include Sound FX, Music Clips, Video Clips, and Backgrounds)
8)Green Screen - Surprisingly good! This material comes in two sections with Velcro fasteners so you can use a small or large area. This fabric was worth the price I paid (see below).
9)USB Cable - A good quality cable, but a little short if connecting to a desktop/tower PC.
Installing the included software was a rough experience on my XP laptop and it ultimately failed due to, I suspect, my 1.0 USB ports (MUST HAVE USB 2.0). It was a much better experience on my son's Vista laptop, which installed it without much problem at all. As noted above, the camera quality was not very good and the editing software is hard to use.
My recommendation: If you are interested in Chromakey (Green/Blue Screening) buy the Creation Station at one of the auction sites (I found a lot of 5 for the retail price of 1 here), keep the included "Bonus" material and Green Screen fabric, use the Camera & Tripod as "props", buy a cheap web cam or Flip Video (just love that product!), and Sony Vegas 8 Studio (really good inexpensive editing software with Chromakey).
Customer Review: Bad product, do not buy
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this for my daughter for Christmas.
The software won't run.
I'm a technology professional and I did the software install. After a convoluted set of steps that required CD install, downloading from the internet, plugging and unplugging of the camera USB cable, and even a good old command line patch, the software won't run. Crashes everytime.
Undaunted, I uninstalled and reinstalled. Same problem again. It doesn't work.
I track down the customer service line for Rip Roar/Toyquest. Amazingly a real person answers. I speak to him for a bit, but he tells me that they can't support the Rip Roar Creation Station, that I need to use the 'Help' email address. I asked if there was a phone number to call, since solving software problems via email is usually useless. He said there was no phone number and that only the email address.
I expressed my concern that waiting for an email to resolve the problem for a Christmas problem was not good. He responded that the 'Help' email people should get back to me "in a few days". He also suggested that I could return the item to "my local retailer". Yes, I'll enjoy explaining that to my daughter.
All I want is for the camera & software to work. I guess that is too much to expect these days.
Don't buy this. Yes, it looks great, but it's a disappointment to the kids when it doesn't work. Look at the other reviews, this product is a lemon.
Customer Review: Not a great way to spend your money
Summary: 2 Stars
When I first saw this about a year ago it was the thing that I really wanted for christmas. When I got it, I opened it immedietly. My first problem was that the tripod is pretty must as useful as a broken twig. I mean that it is flimsy. I ended up almost completly covering it in tape to make it stand up. And when I finally got the camera to stay on, I realized it was only a foot off the ground. So I decided to carry the camera instead.
Then came the software. First of all, the CD is only a link to a file on their website. And when you finally get it to install, the chroma key tool is useless. Your screen has to be the color that they want it to be and you can't have slight differences in color. A.K.A. you need a studio, which is exactly what they advertise against needing. And it is only a two track editing program, but windows movie make is still better. After getting fed up with the software, I bought Sony Vegas. That was one of the best replacements I have ever made. Buy that instead.
The green screen is the only good part of this purchase; but that no reason for you to buy this. The screen is larger than I expected. It got me interested in chroma key video, and now I still use this screen for Vegas. But there are other good screens out there.
I gave this 2 stars instead of one because it got me interested in filming, and now I have made many home films.
Customer Review: 1 In 200 People Get It To Work. Buy at risk!
Summary: 1 Stars
I am a kid and bought this with a hundred dollar giftcard from my uncle to Toys R Us. I was so excited! I can make green screen videos with a real camera! NOT. I took it home and opened it. It was strange, it had the green screen, a piece of plastice shaped like a tripod, and another piece of plastic shaped like a camera. I was still excited since i was only 10. I spent a long time hanging the green screen up perfect. I installed the software on a Windows XP SP2 computer and opened the editor, pressed record and...nothing. It will not record for me at all. The editor also kept freezing up. Wait, i know what it is! i am using to old of a computer! I go to the basement with the camera and install the program. The editor looks better now, and it still won't record. I called Rip Roar and they said I had to email my complaint in. I wrote the email and checked the next day. They didn't reply but I had a message from Yahoo. It said "Sorry, your message could not be delivered at this time. The persons email you tried to send to has a full inbox and cannot accept more messages." Screw Rip Roar. Here is what you should do:
1) buy this for the good green screen, thats it
2) buy Sony Vegas (Windows) for $40 or Final Cut Express (Mac) for $100
3) Have fun making better videos. Also you need a camera
Customer Review: It does have it's issues
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased this for my son for Christmas because he's always watching me and my friends making movies (we have a small production studio) and asking for a camera of his own. This seemed affordable since I haven't been able to get the one I'd like to for him and it's a good way for him starting out and learning to be responsible with this kind of equipment as well.
Technical issues:
The tripod is very flimsy, but with a little effort can be made sturdy enough to hold the camera just fine.
I can't discuss the software yet other than it installed perfectly since we can't test it. The USB cable that the book claimed was in the box, wasn't.
Same goes for the camera. Can't test it without the cable. I have one for another device, but it seems to be hiding from me at the moment. The camera is very lightweight, but I'm sure will do the job just as any webcam would.
The green screen material was worth the price I paid (I bought it on clearance for less than a fourth of retail, so no complaints there).
Other than the missing USB, so far I don't have quite the problems others seem to be, but I do have experience and that no doubt counts. I've tried to pass this on to my son, so hopefully he won't have any problems either.