“Hydrobot Arm Kit”, Hydraulic Kit, STEM Building Toy for Kids 12+

My 9 y/o son who has a robotics fascination needed to understand the principles of hydraulic actuation before we got into pumps, valves and accumulators. This was the perfect starter kit. A word of warning—this is not really a kit for novices. The systems won’t work really well unless you are diligent in following the instructions to bleed each of the cylinders and water lines. It’s a lot of tedious assembly work for a younger kid that should be overseen by someone with at least a little mechanical aptitude. But for the price it is a fantastic teaching tool and precision toy.

With some engineering background, we put it together successfully right away. It took several hours to assemble and I will admit, getting the hydraulics loaded correctly is a bit of a challenge for any 12-year-old without adult supervision. Even then, I could see a lot of folks being overwhelmed by the challenge of not only assembly, piece by piece, with no room for error, to the water-loading hydraulic portion of the assembly. Set aside plenty of uninterrupted time, "roughly" first 40 pages are robot assembly, second 40 pages are hydraulics/pumps/tubing. If you're looking to get your kids interested in robotics, STEM/STEAM, or engineering/manufacturing this is a relatively inexpensive introduction to test the staying power of this low-level technology and their interest. It will also test your patience. Although we've played with it enough now that it's already showing signs of wear and the parts/levers are getting loose. Overall, great introductory toy to robotics!

Very well made small precision parts. The instructions are very clear and well done. Don't plan on finishing this in one sitting.

This thing is pretty sweet. Saw it on sale so couldn't pass it up. My son and I put it together and he has played with it for hours.

Sooooo excited

A fun kit. I was totally amazed at the lay out of the peices. The engineering of the kit is astounding... the assembly is is very well layed out, I didn't have too many issues. There is a good online presentation for reference. The fit of the snap together pieces is very accurate. I give this kit very high marks..

~ {"Good Product, Arrived as Described in Great Shape, Well Packaged & Fast Shipping with Super Service by Seller, Made it a Very Pleasant Experience ~ {"Thank You"} ~ "Rocklahoma^Rock^n^Roll"...

My son and I tag-teamed and assembled it in an afternoon, though it requires patience and a steady hand to clip the burs off all the plastic parts. What’s great is that you can tell whoever designed this knew what they were doing and didn’t cut any corners (like a lot of cheap science sets). It’s sturdy and the hydraulics work really well. There’s an hydraulic GLOVE kit that I recommend getting first, then follow up with this for a perfect combo.