
Ask HN: 3 yo loves robots. What robot for 4th bday? - MrTortoise
She loves creative play,telling stories, drawing etc.<p>So something that she can play with without it being active would be huge.<p>But also something where she can make it do things to build stories around and bring other toys into.<p>They have loads of transformers, hotwheels, playsets and Lego. She loves vector but can&#x27;t talk clearly enough but he is her little friend.<p>Any ideas?
Please don&#x27;t respond if you are going to suggest &#x27;go outside&#x27; etc, it&#x27;s not helpful.
======
aketchum
Anki Cozmo is cute and has a pretty solid set of features

~~~
ChrisGranger
Anki is no longer making robots.

~~~
verdverm
There are still some around, it is a fantastic toy, even adults love him.

------
a-saleh
I did buy my kid Lego Boost.

I chose this, because I like robots as well, we already have Lego, she loved
playing with duplo and with help could manage to build a smaller 5+ lego set.

It is not cheap, but you can build several things out of it (I remember a
Jhonny 5 style robot, a buldozer/tank(?), a guitar and animatronic cat.

The programming interface is simmilar to Scratch Jr, and she can manage it
fairly well (mostly playing with the sampler set included with some of the
builds, i.e. when robot-cat is supposed to sing :-)

The builds itself are fairly complicated so you'd be doing most of those.

~~~
MrTortoise
Yeah just got this for my 6yo, he's enjoying it but v hard for him to build.
... Then the whole needing an unlocked tablet thing.

~~~
a-saleh
Yep. That is why we mostly end up in the music section :) You don't really
need to rebuild i.e. the guitar for it to be a prime noise-maker :D

------
warpech
I have a soon-to-be 2 yo, so I can't help you, but maybe I can learn something
from you. Are there any robotic toys suitable for a 2 yo? For now we play
Duplo, role play, etc.

~~~
MrTortoise
Probably a bit young.

Kids are v different. One of mine would get bored quick because they move and
it messes up her games.

The other would enjoy. We had a robot that took cards and had sine games on
it. Both looked that can't remember it's name though

------
Spooky23
Check out Ozobot. It’s tiny and will follow lines and take actions based on
colored dots.

Super simple and doesn’t have the distractions associated with iPads, etc. My
son’s school used it for mapping unit... each team of kids drew a pirate
treasure map for the bot to follow.

My parents bought a few sphero bots for my kids when they were young... they
are a little too abstract for most kids until about 2nd grade. Now (age 8), he
loves the Sphero Ollie.

~~~
schappim
The Ozobot is probably too delicate for a three-year-old.

The Sphero is solid, however I agree w/ your views on it.

We’ve found the best bang for buck is the Photon Robot.

Another option is the Cubetto which is also age appropriate.

Credentials: Owner of (and perform testing on) a 7, 5 and 3yo +
littlebird.com.au which sells all of the above.

~~~
Spooky23
Thanks for the pointer to you site and the Photon bot... definitely will check
that out! I will say that Ozobot has survived 2-3 years with 2nd graders, but
would agree that it isn't the most durable.

------
tropo
Kids usually like real things better than things meant as toys. Get her a
floor cleaner robot. Let her use it for her messes.

~~~
MrTortoise
Lol we thought about that but my eldest put his hand in vacuum once. Got
friction burns from brushes ...

So something like that unsupervised is a bit worrying for us.

------
murkle
I saw this at BETT in January - very clever as you don't use a compputer/iPad
etc to program it. Just the cards
[https://kubo.education/](https://kubo.education/)

~~~
MrTortoise
Yeah I've been looking at that.

Looks quite good

------
saluki
Lego Mindstorms, it's something you can do together at first.

Check out Lego First Lego League for when they are a little older.

~~~
murkle
Lego have just launched Lego Spike - supposed to be a bit more plug'n'play
than Mindstorms so maybe better for younger kids. Haven't looked at it in
detail

~~~
MrTortoise
That looks like it's the step after boost. It's more general and has more
interesting bits from the pictures.

Bit old for someone that young I think .... Although I'll try her on the boost
stuff I bet she would love it actually

------
trumbitta2
That thing with a Nintendo Switch and cardboard? Nintendo Labo?

