Intro:
Building the Hexbug VEX arm was quite the rewarding endeavor. The arm took me 3 sessions over the course of 3 days. Total time spent was about 5hrs. Playing with the robot is quite fun but you really need certain items to pick up. I found that the gripper has difficulty with smooth objects. I would suggest a simple rubber gromet or rubber tip or even rubber bands to be placed on the fingers.
Pros:
- Attention was paid to the design and branding of the directions and kit.
- The instructions are full color and separate steps into a coherent order. Difficult steps draw attention to piece orientation.
- The internal part packaging separated look-a-like parts. Specifically, the various angled pieces, this made finding the correct piece convenient.
- Part quality is high.
Cons:
- While, the parts and directions are good, I found myself forgetting parts needed for steps. I think this is due to how the parts header spans two pages.
- Some parts are very similar looking. The black male headers with the side slots and angled pieces aren’t easily distinguishable.
- I found myself fatiguing quite quickly and having to repeat steps. I think this is because of lack of contrast in thedirections. Most things seemed grey or black.
Conclusion:
Playing and building the robot is fun and rewarding. However, I did fatigue quickly and had to repeat steps. I believe it was my own unfamiliarity and concentration that caused any difficulties. The box also hints that it is a level 5 difficulty, as I have never completed a VEX set before, I’m not sure what that translates to. I don’t believe I will assembly the other 2 forms of the kit, as I have another kit and many other things to attend to. All-in-all I’m very happy with my purchase and recommend it.