Thames & Kosmos RoboRails The Robot Monorail STEM Kit

We have had so much fun with this RoboRails kit! The age recommendations are 8+ with help, and 12-year-olds on their own. I would agree with this, however, it has been really fun to do together! My kiddos have spent hours playing and designing the kit. A high quality, great alternative to video games :)

This is such a great item. It is very easy to assemble, has more than one option for layout, and the build part has easy to follow directions. This was a gift for an 8 year old, but the whole family participated and had lots of fun!

Amazing educational project for kids and adults. It is challenging but not too difficult. Everything is explained well and organized well. The little robot is pretty cute so it is fun while being a great way to learn.

My son is 10 and he was able to put this together with just a little help from me. He had a lot of fun with it. The only part he didn’t like was the plastic pieces being the ones you have to separate yourself but other than that he said it’s a 10/10 and he would’ve requested it for Christmas if he didn’t already get it.

This Thames & Kosmos RoboRails: The Robot Monorail System did take about 4 - 5 hours to build with my son and his dad and following the directions. There was 186 pieces and with all those pieces, there are 26 tracks to build separately if you want to do that. We only built one track with the robot because it took a good while to build it. The manual has 32 pages with very detailed and colorful directions. The robot after it is assembled, it is a motorized gyroscope unit. The robot balances on a single wheel and it glides along a monorail track because of its fast moving internal gyroscope and monowheel, it uses ball bearings as its weights of the gimbal which is almost frictionless as it keeps spinning. The robot is completely steady on the track as it moves around it. This product is for kids of eight years old and above with help of adults and kids 12 years old above can build this on their own or with help of others.

This is a STEM child's dream project. We bought this not knowing it would be this hands on but this is a good thing to us. He meticulously is taking a part each piece from the mold and following instructions to clip and file down the burrs. It's his quiet after dinner project as I work on my own embroidering. We have a ways to go but he is very excited to get the pieces all ready. It takes a lot for me to not help but it is incredibly satisfying for him so far and we aren't even at the building phase!! Each piece he unmolds he looked into where it will eventually go. You see the gears in his head whirling. I am very happy that this project is so interesting that even my 8 yo is looking forward to the next phase. I would caution that this project will be a bit of instruction reading and have on prepping. If your child needs to learn how to follow instructions and the importance of it in a task this would be a great project. 180 pieces

Absolutely fantastic robotic monorail system that is perfect for kids to learn STEM and programming. Neat way to learn different design techniques and experiments. Highly recommended!!! Will look for other Thames and Kosmos items!

What a great stem toy! This is great for all kids, kids interested in sciences, and those who need to work on something that can be ever changing! My nephew has autism and he loves this toy! He can put it together and keep changing the track to feel new! It really got him interested, plus he loves the marbles and the robot! I highly recommend this toy!!

Pretty cool toy. It was more of a one hit wonder for our household. After assembly, they haven’t touched it much since. I wish it was a continuous entertainment as it is a nifty toy. Lasted about an hour or so of play time.

Need good strong scissors (or diagonal cutter as suggested in the instructions, which we don’t have). Also they tell you to only cut the pieces out ONLY WHEN NEEDED. We cut them all out at once. Oops. It took me 10 minutes to cut just one of the black holders. Then once cut, you get all these sharp tiny nubs on each piece - they call them burrs - that you should snip off with diagonal cutter or nail file! With my 12 yo daughter, it took us 25 minutes to just cut out the pieces with good scissors and our hands are sore! We are already frustrated with the initial setup and she has given up. The kit will take a few hours for her to setup on her own. Great project for a weekend when she’s bored. Oh, and you need the smaller Phillips screwdriver, which luckily we had. I think with the special tools and time it takes to cut out ( and file the burrs) this project just isn’t for us. Others may find they have the patience for all the cutting, filing, and construction.

This is a great stem activity and can see how they can learn and have fun with the robot. With all the small pieces I would be careful with keeping around kids under 8 especially toddlers. Will probably need parents help but great activity together.

This was a bit of a headache. We had a hard time getting the pieces apart. My 11 yr old got pretty frustrated with it. He loves Lego’s and things like this but he didn’t like this one. Also after completing this and adding batteries to it, it didn’t work. I would give another one a try but this one was a dud.

This robot was a great addition this brought my kids and I together and they are pumped they get to build a robot. We are almost complete with putting it together and it already looks like we will be using it daily. Directions are straight forward. The robot was named Archie by the family.

My 11 year old son enjoyed this. He is really into robots and building things and this was a great outlet for him. He liked that there was more than one way to built and how easy enough it waa for him to build without anyones help.

The robot part was a bit challenging to put together, but easy enough for a 13 year old to do it. The tracks were very simple to assemble. There are quite a few different ways you can set up the tracks and it’s hands-on because you have to pay attention and switch the tracks in time for the robot to go over. My boys liked this a lot and they spent hours putting it together and playing with it and alap experimenting with the cool robot.

Though my son enjoyed building it. The Robo Rails was a bit difficult to assemble together. He did have to take it apart & reassemble it a few times to get it right. My husband did have to help him a bit to get it right. It does come with a lot of tracks to create your own robo rails to your liking.

Thames & Kosmos Roborails: The robot monorail system is for intellectual young minds who love to build, put things together, understand how things work (physics and engineering) and overall love Stem projects. My oldest son is almost 10 and absolutely loved this project! It did take a few days and lots of patiences but it was so fun to see him so focused and determined. It's ideal for 8 and up with an adult to help them or 12 and up they can complete this themselves. In our case, our son really wanted to do everything himself and if there was any questions he would ask us for guidance. There are 26 ways to create the different tracks which is so much fun to see how the robot goes on there. It also comes with oil for the gears as you assemble this set together, something new for my son. It comes with a guidebook or you may view the instructions on a phone by scanning a QR. My son is more visual and preferred to follow the instructions on the phone. Watching him putting the small pieces to make the robot work brought me back to 9th grade when I had my project; It's incredible that at such a young age he's able to complete this on his own. I love to see him challenged, interested, and eager to learn how things work! This is so much better than screen time and great quality time together with my husband or I. It gives the child such a unique experience and a huge satisfaction when things are complete. One of the best presents you can give your child, grandchild, or a family friend as a gift for a birthday or holidays! It's a lot of pieces so plan on plenty of time to get this project done.

This set definitely takes some work to just get all the pieces out to play. Each piece has to be cut out as they don’t snap out of the plastic. Our 13 year old was excited to put it together though! And that’s saying a lot because he’s not often excited about toys anymore.

My son was so excited to put the robot together with me. He helped with getting all of the pieces out, with the help of our clipper tool. He helped with some of the bigger piece in putting the robot together, but there are a lot of small pieces and screws, which I had no trouble helping him with. It takes a bit of patience because it’s so many parts, but he really enjoyed once he got to get creative with putting the track together. Once we got the robot on the track, we had no issues. He and his little sister watched it for a good hour, amazed at how it balanced itself. Overall, this is a great experiment to get the whole family involved, as I’ve always had a love for building and putting things together.

My kids (11&9) really enjoyed putting this together. My daughter did most of the work but they were both excited once it was done. It did take them a few days to get it together and have only made a simple track so far. It does take it a little to get started on the track where it will balance and move without falling off.