Learning Resources Botley the Coding Robot 2.0, STEM Toy, Ages 5+

I bought 4 of these robots for my K-2 graders to learn to code. Only 1 works the others just turn in circles. I have done all the trouble shooting with no luck. I could not get any customer service to help me.

Worked a few times after that it’s completely useless and the opposite of fun. Child is rather disappointed and the thing is just sitting home

Wow. At first we thought this was great! The kids loved it. Then, for no apparent reason, it stopped turning in one direction. I opened it up and found that a plastic gear (cheap plastic) had broken. So, I called the company. They had me send a lot of information, including a video. Finally, they said they would replace it if I sent them our original. So we did. And we heard nothing. I tried contacting the company multiple times in different ways with no success. It's been over a year, and we have no Botley. Extremely disappointed. For the money this cost, we got 2 months of use of it, a lot of hassle and then complete silence. I will never purchase an LR item again because I know the customer service is absolutely horrible if something goes wrong. We've had some LR items that were great, and others that were chintzy, but for this price, it should have been a much higher quality.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This is a great device to use with coding for all elementary students.

I spent a lot of money on this product to work 3times super bummer.

We bought this for my 4 year old for his birthday with the intention that he will grow and develop into the toy. We have been so impressed with it as he can turn Botley and the remote on and code him to make a train and a frog all by himself. It's brilliant that it has so many funny features as well like lights and dance mode which he can now do by himself. When Botley follows the line he loves the whistles and noises Botley makes while he is going along. We haven't tried out obstacle avoidance yet or playing with the balls and blocks which will come as he develops. A great toy and brings so much joy, we will be using this for many years.

If you are thinking of adding a Botley to your child's toy collection - you will not be disappointed! We were first introduced to Botley last year and bought the original one for our son's 6th birthday. He adored it, whilst he was able to make it complicated if he wanted too. Often he would use simple codes to create patterns, hours of fun have been spent setting up towers for Botley to crash into and knockdown! We noticed that Learning Resources were bringing out a Botley 2.0, to begin with, we were inquisitive surely no upgrades could be made to an already great product? Well, we were wrong! After seeing it on several social media pages, we knew the new features such as lights and sounds would be perfect for our son. Our Robot obsessed six-year-old was so eager to try it - plus Botley even works in the dark (How could we say no?) Botley 2.0 has not disappointed! Whilst many features are familiar to the Original Botley, users will immediately notice that the controller has additional buttons allowing for Botley to move at different angles (creating more sequences/coding opportunities). It also has an on/off switch on the controller - something that the original Botley lacked! Botley 2.0 also contains many secret codes, to allow him to transform into a character - They are so much fun and get all the family involved! We've enjoyed many hours of Police Botley - For us Dinosaur Botley is our favourite! Botley is so user friendly, with an excellent set of instructions included. There are no limits! Our six-year-old son has been so impressed with Botley 2.0 and even our nearly 3-year-old has been able to use Botley! Learning Resources have created a fantastic robot, which compliments the coding framework our local primary school follows. We cannot say enough great words about Botley 2.0!

The Botley 2.0 is a fantastic way to teach children coding. I teach my children from home, so spend a lot of time planning lessons and setting up, so the Botley 2.0 is a dream, as there is no need to plan or set anything up!.. My 6 year old can get him (yes, they now think of Botley as a pet) out of the box by himself and set up any blocks or accessories he may or may not want, into whatever he wants to do. He picked up the coding very quickly, and within 15 minutes he was programming him to bring him his snack to the sofa! The remote control is very chunky, without being to big, so is ideal for young hands to grip. Botley 2.0 came with a large accessory pack, which includes double sided boards, flags, blocks, bricks and more, which gives you lots of ideas of obstacle courses to make and programming ideas. My 3 year old especially liked the way you could get him to follow a line, so had lots of fun building him a cave to direct him into, and with his light up eyes, this made it especially cool! Botley 2.0 comes with 2 different pairs of goggles and arms, so you can change his look very easily, and we soon found out that you can slip a chunky felt tip pen easily Into his hand, so you can place him on a large sheet of paper and direct him to draw shapes! The instruction book is very easy to follow, and includes 'hidden codes' which allow you to program Botley to become anything from a frog to a police car! Botley turns and moves very smoothly and seems very robust which is great when you have two very heavy handed boys! Botley also has very good battery life, turning itself off if you leave it for more than 5 mins. My boys have had a full day today of playing with him, and he is still going strong!.. Overall, Botley 2.0 is a fantastic way to teach coding and S.T.E.M. The accessory pack really adds to fun, and they don't even realise that they are learning! I thoroughly recommend Botley 2.0. If you want to teach children coding and have lots of fun!

There is honestly so much to do with Botley and so many ways of playing with him! At the simplest level you can just play the coloured light game where you simply have to follow the coloured sequence of lights Botley chooses. You can also create your own coloured light display which looks so effective with all the lights turned off. In the 'line' mode Botley will follow the black lines on the boards and my 7 year old loved creating her own track just using a roll of white paper and a black marker. It was really exciting to see if Botley recognised our homemade track! Then there are all the amazing things you can instruct Botley to do, from moving the balls using the headgear and getting it to change direction to go through your own obstacle course. Botley is a fantastic problem solving and thought provoking toy that your children won't ditch after 10 minutes. I'd definitely make sure you're up to speed on how to work Botley before letting your children loose with it!

Great edutaiment Robot for kids aged 5+

My family love this robot, it really challenges my eldest daughter but is also easy enough for my 6 year old son to play with. Making Botley into a train or Dinosaur is also a favourite activity!

He's a clever Robot! There is ALOT to him, for a 6 year old, parently revision before hand is highly recommended. He comes with so many bits, his eyes light up, his remote control responds to you, he is fabulous. The best bit by far are the boards with the lines, with Botely follows. He suits all levels as he is interactive to all, but to use to full potential, adults need time alone to work him out! For 8+ maybe that can be done, but for 5-6 there is a lot to him! Pricey if not used to full potential.

My daughters are big fans of the coding critters so we were keen to try Boltey. After emptying the box the girls were keen to start, they loved all of the accessories and adding the stickers. First activity was putting the line puzzle together to get Boltey to follow - this was great fun and so simple!! They enjoyed building different tracks and watching him. The girls, 3 and 6, didn't have the patents to work through the instructions to do all of the other things, but after I got to grips with it they were happy to be showed and even my 3 year old can program basic tasks. There is still lots more to discover . . . . . I would suggest for younger children it maybe helpful for the adults to learn how to use it first, but it would be a fun challenge for older children to work through. It is straight forward it just takes a little time. Its been in our kitchen for a couple of months now and is played with regularly by both girls. My eldest thinks it is very cute and loves setting the accessories up to play with, her favourite thing is that his eyes light up and it makes fun noises.

The best coding robot I've seen. Botley 2.0 is super cute and easy to use. Love that it comes with a remote control device to code. Which is super for younger children with no need to connect to any other device. My children love this little guy. He can dance with a light show in code mode. Or perform little tricks, jumping like a frog or chug like a train! In line mode he can follow a back line in any pattern on the floor. Loads of extra bits come with him too. For example little bricks he can be coded to knock down or as a course to navigate around. Has provided endless amounts of fun learning through play.