Rokenbok

[RobS]

Anyone out there (or your kids) have a Rokenbok set? My eight year old is dying for one after playing with it in a kids museum. He's saving his own money and looking for ways to earn more. Trouble is, this stuff is seriously expensive. I'm concerned that it won't keep his interest and we (mostly he) will have spent a lot of money and be disappointed. Thoughts anyone?

BTW, Rokenbok is a building set like Legos but it is centered around remote controlled vehicles that perform construction oriented tasks. No doubt it is a nice toy, but basic starter set is over $60. Add some reasonable accessories and you're well over $100. Maybe I'm being too frugal /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Jeff396]

We have a big set. I think we have a starter set and construction world. We also have five of the vehicles and some extra chute and girder sets and two additional paddles for multiple users. I wouldn't have bought so much but when I got it the Learningsmith stores were going out of business in Tucson and all of the Rokenbok was 30 percent off. I walked out of there about $500.00 lighter.

We've had our set for 3 years now and the kids (now 4 and 7) will still play with it on occasion. The biggest problem is that the setup can get large and it's really not made to be put up and taken down or changed often. I have found that some of the pieces will get brittle and the tabs that hold them together will snap off. It also can be difficult to get the layout to fit together properly so dad gets to do the designing with guidance from his little foreman.

My opinion....this is a great toy. I have to admit that I will play with it as much as my kids will. We had a dinner party one night for my car club and I don't think there was a person there who wasn't laying down on the floor playing with it at one time or another. It's addictive!

Jeff

 

[Jeff396]

Oh, and don't forget the batteries. The batteries last for longer that I would have expected. We ended up getting rechargable batteries and a charger from Radio Shack for an additional $100.00. We didn't ever try it with conventional batteries so I'm not sure if they would hold up as long as the NIMH rechargables we got. Each car takes three AA batteries if I remember right.

Jeff

 

[RobS]

Thanks for the info Jeff. I KNOW I would play with it as much as the kids but you have confirmed a couple of my concerns.

Actually, I'm trying to steer him into Lego Mindstorms. I think it will serve him longer (I hear of college kids still using it) and we already have a boatload of conventional Legos to work with.

Nice looking set up you have and that's hilarious about your car club visitors /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Jeff396]

Lego Mindstorms? Is that the stuff that leads you into robotics eventually? I have a couple of nieces that started out in some sort of lego thing where there are national competitions held throughout the country with the finals held in Disney Orlando. One is ready to graduate with an engineering degree so I guess it served her rather well. We are just now starting to look into whether there is any of that going on around here.

Jeff

 

[RobS]

Jeff, yes Mindstorms is Legos robotics system. Here's the link <A target="_blank" HREF=http://mindstorms.lego.com/>http://mindstorms.lego.com/</A>. I haven't done much looking into it but plan to before my son gets too involved in something else /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif