eskualdun's Full Review: V_Bot Radio Control Transforming Vehicle, Candy Re...
My son saw the V-Bot advertised a few weeks before before Christmas and thought it was the best toy ever!
I thought it might make a nice Christmas present and went online to check it out. I found for sale at ToysRUs.com and Target.com and a couple other places and, right off, I was shocked by the price: $130! I became a bit less enthusiastic about it, but read a few reviews/articles and watched a YouTube video and decided to go ahead and order one when I saw it at Amazon.com for $100. (Before it arrived, the price dropped to $90 and they provided me a credit.)
About the time I was getting ready to wrap it, I noticed the fine print on the the package. The V-Bot operates on 1 9-volt battery and SIX C-batteries!! (So much for the $10 I got back...)
Christmas morning though, it was a hit. After untangling it from the mess of screws and twist-ties that fasten it to its box, we put the batteries in it and grabbed the manual trying to figure out how to make it transform.
The V-Bot arrives in its robot form. It transforms into a vehicle and back to a robot with the push of the button labeled 'D' on the remote control. Its transformation into a vehicle left a bit to be desired, with not all of its parts quite reaching their final vehicle position. (We wondered if maybe it needed to break in a bit?) The transformation back to a robot though was impressive. Either in the vehicle or robot configuration, the remote control controlled the vehicle well running either on hard floors or our low carpeting. My son enjoyed playing with it.
My son played with it for about 20-30 minutes that morning and again a 10 minutes the next day and then the 6 C-batteries were all but dead. They still had power, but only enough for the V-Bot to make noise; it could no longer transform or roll along the floor.
So, we put in a second set of 6 C-batteries. My son continued to play with the V-Bot for a bit and we noticed that not only it was still not transforming into the vehicle completely, but it was actually transforming even worse than when it was new.
I was becoming disillusioned. My son was still kind of liking the V-Bot.
Then we realized that we hadn't yet tried the MP3 player portion. So, we read through the manual and hooked up my son's MP3 player. We could hear the music over a very tinny obnoxious speaker, but the V-Bot wouldn't dance. We hooked up another MP3 player, still no movement. Then, by chance, we tried one of the 4 function buttons labeled as 'C' and it started to kind of dance. (This feature is not terribly clear in the manual.)
Disappointingly, the V-Bot only knows one 'dance.' It does NOT dance to your music, but 'dances' one 'dance pattern' to ANY music. The movements don't even change speed based on a fast or slow beat of the music being played through it.
At this point, my son lost all interest, feeling that it was not at all what it was advertised to be.
In my opinion, for my money, this toy is not worth it. The way it doesn't transform into the vehicle properly, the way it doesn't really dance but only methodically moves, and the way it eats up batteries, its novelty quickly wears off.
The V-Bot has been returned. We'll find something else that my son can truly enjoy. This wasn't it.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 90 Type of Toy: Radio Control
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years
2-in-1 toy transforms from vehicle to robot with push of button Makes sounds to go with actions and plays music from MP3 players Remote control with 6...More at Amazon Marketplace
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