Challenging Lego
My 11 year old loved this ship. It was challenging enough to make him think, but it wasn't so difficult he could finish it on his own.
I think it was too expensive, but I think Lego knows they've got a product that endures and they make us pay BIG for it!

Lego Star Ventor (8039)
It is good and educational, the only thing is it is finished quickly and the joy is over. There should be a possibility to change it, upgrade it, reconstruct it with some additional partss.

One of my son's favorite birthday presents
My son asked for this weeks before his 11th birthday and was really excited to get it. He and his brothers spend a lot of time building and playing with it and then later he tore it down and built it all again.

Good for boys!
My son is 10 years old, really enjoying building the set. It is less challenging than I thought, but a good hand-on exercise. Some structure is not sturdy enough. Overall, my son is happy with the set.

Unhappy Lego Builder
My son has built many LEGOS of all types: Star Wars, Space Police, Pirates, Castles, etc. This LEGO was not any harder or more complicated than any other but it simply wouldn't stay together. Pieces were constantly falling off. Don't see any reason for this -- it's not larger than others he has built. Very disappointed -- especially for the price.

A Robot with Promise
The Roboni-i is a new toy/robot/educational hardware that can be enjoyed on many levels. At its most basic level, it is a very responsive remote control vehicle. It moves quick, responds well and performs at a high level (including its ability to chomp battteries in a hurry).

At a deeper level, it is a good introduction to programming and artificial intelligence. While major computer geeks may find the robot limited, most people, especially the children this is aimed at, will find it interesting and new.

Sadly, even with a recent 90 dollar price drop here at Amazon, it remains cost prohibitive for some of its most promising features. Namely, I have not been able to play games against other robots. Its a 160 dollar machine with a very limited first run, finding someone else with a Roboni is pretty hard. Watching trailers for the Roboni online show games with 4 or six robonis working with and against each other, firing their lasers and scoring points. This appears like it would be a blast, but the cost would be tremendous to owning several robonis for this purpose. Clearly the hope is that it will take off like a video game system, but is this too niche and pricey to accomplish that? Maybe.

Either way, it is a fun toy with great promise, especially for a kid who is into computers. But be warned, either you'll need freinds with a roboni or a whole lot of cash to get to its full potential.

What a Robot - what a difference
Roboni- i was recommended to me by a friend that had purchased one and then a second for her younger son. I bought one for my 12 year old.
From unpacking to start up took less than 10 min. I installed the software (running on Vista) and went through the normal process. We are all technology junkies in my household, so this is so down our alley. The robot immediately caught our attention, he (the robot, my son named him) was immediately running around the house - on its own as well, if you ignore the chap. Leaving the base station switched on also gives him a new character! We did buy the recommended re-chargable batteries, and I suggest getting good ones, this robot eats power. The first night Roboni- i took the test for over 1 hour and 38 minutes before I had to remove him. My son is inquisitive and a natural problem solver, and has sat working with Roboni-i everyday since. We are getting into the programming aspects of the robot -so cool and user-friendly. Have been able to programme variety of robot responses so far - I personally like his "shiver" a happy movement! It's not the noise of the robot that bothers me, but my son constantly calling me to come see what Roboni- i can do. He loves it! The down side is that my younger son wants one too. My older son has now taken it round to friends trying to get them to buy one so that he has competition. Well let's hope.
I really like the repeat play experience. There are some seven games included allowing my kid to play on his own for now - Colors - simply gathering specific colors as illustrate on the remote controller and depositing them at a loading dock in limited time. Good for coordination and memory development. Space Pods game allows multiplayer gaming which can be played according to the rules or your own. There are no rules printed, you have to access the software to get ti the tutorials. At the moment we play against time in like a soccer game fashion. For the price, computer learning experience and fun aspect it has hours, days and months of use ahead. We have only scratched the tip of the ice-berg, and so much more to learn. This robot truly has an extended life ahead. When I considered the price, it was in line with gaming prices for things such as Wii and PSP, in fact cheaper once you start adding all the game cards required for these games from time to time. Roboni-i is really a whole lot of stuff in one - a RC toy combined with lots of repeat play games and exposure to programming by plugging it into your PC. Can't wait for online world to go live as well.

I strongly recommend the following:
1. Purchase the highest quality rechargable batteries (expensive, but much cheaper in the long run.)
2. Read up on Roboni i. Check out the video clips and media material online. This will give you a good insight.

Strenghts:
1. Lots of variety and clearly sustainable interest potential
2. So much value in computer learning experience and accessories
3. As far as robotic toys go, if one may refer to Roboni i as a toy, it stands in a class of it's own based on the super software and gameing diversity

Weaknesses:
1. Definitely adds to the fun if a friend has one. I guess as this robot gains more exposure more children will have one, making the interactive experience so much better. It strikes me as having one of the first few cell phones around. Difficult to phone people who did not have one.
2. Eats batteries.
3. Noisy if you do not turn the volume down (in the Command Center).

I recommended it for the inquisitive, and active mind with imagination.

Awesome Robot
This is one of the best birthday gifts I have ever purchased for anyone. This robot is unreal. I purchased this back in September for my nephew's 12th birthday. I was looking for something special for him, and this was it. He can program this robot to do virtually anything he wants it to do. What has impressed me with this robot is that it's been over 3 months that he has had it, and he has not put it down since he opened it. The last robot I got him, was cool for about 2 hours and It has been collecting dust ever since. This is one of those toys that the more he plays with it, the better he gets at it and the more he gets into it. It has been very durable too, he's not exactly easy on things.

I installed the software for him with no issues. The software is very good, in that it makes it very easy to program without having to be a programmer. He is now getting into creating his own games with the software. This is the first toy that I have ever seen where I feel the possibilities are endless and that it will be played with for many years. It seems like it is a little bit ahead of its time with all of the technology packed into this one robot and with the way you can customize it. The games are a blast and very different than any other games I've seen, the programming takes this thing to a whole other level and I am so impressed with it and what my nephew has done, I am buying 2 more as christmas gifts. My niece and other nephew have shown a lot of interest in it. I think this robot is a great blend of education and entertainment and is a good way to get a child interested in programming and robotics. I bought them each one for Christmas; she is almost 11 and my other nephew is 15.

I can't wait for Christmas day so that we can have insane robot wars, blast each other and compete against each other in games. Perhaps I should get one for myself! At this price this is a smoking deal with free shipping too! I paid a lot more for it back in September. I give it 2 thumbs up. Hands down this is by far the best toy I have purchased in a very long time. You won't be disappointed in this cool robot! It is a lot of fun, keeps a kid's interest and teaches some programming basics.

fun interacctive robot
Compared to othe reviewers, I have to say I have NO experience with robot technology. I wanted to see how my young grandsons enjoyed this, and well as their fathers! For our family, it was a lot of fun. I experienced some difficulty downloading the software on one of our computers, but had no trouble with another, that has Windows Vista. And the robot is ready to roll out of the box, with some simple abilities that amused us all. He performs some stunts with the accessories that are included and he roams around on his own. He is capable of more complex interaction as you play with him and you can program him on the computer to personalize him . The online feature is not up yet, so I can't comment on that. Roboni-i takes 12 AA batteries, so be prepared to invest in those. We have rechargeables, the only sensible solution for this robot. This is will be a teaching tool for all of us as we learn to customize and use the more advanced features.

ROBOT with an attitude!
Robotics runs in our family, My Wife teaches Robotics to kids 5-8 grade, my daughter 13yr old obviously is completely involved in this, she and her team are now in regional level First LEGO League competition (FLL 2009) which involves building functional robots using LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (8547) kit. This year's theme is all about Smart Transportation.

Having given the background, let me share the experiences with ROBONI-I

Roboni-I Programmable Gaming Robot is a "TOY" that can introduce your child into world of gaming and robotics at the same time teaches your child some concepts of programming; it has good education value and hours of engagement and fun for the whole family.

Robotics is an expensive hobby for most, Roboni-I is no exception, however, this is truly the first attempt from any company to commercialize robotic gaming and the future surely looks bright for this company as my daughter already given me a thumbs up for this robot! And soon many will follow as she shares this information for others in the school and her FLL team.

Roboni-I Programmable Gaming Robot can be really enjoyed the best when you pair with your friend or against a team of players controlling other robots as the robots are designed to communicate with each other.

The Robot construction is truly space age with gears and wheels and has tons of sensors that provide feedback to the robot. I will not go over the specifications as you can find that on the website and product manuals.

Roboni-I uses tons of AA batteries, total of QTY 12, before even you start using the product I strongly recommend buying heavy duty Sanyo 2,700 mAh AA NiMH Rechargeable Batteries (4-Pack)

Software installation was hiccup free for me when compared to others seen here; I have an older Windows XP (SP3) based Laptop which was used for this task, as the drivers are not "WHQL" certified and digitally signed it will give you warning during installation. If you abort the process the Robot will not be recognized by the software provided. If you run into that situation, re-install the software with Robot connected to your PC via provided USB cable and install the drivers that are not digitally signed.

It is a very agile robot with very high degree of flexibility in motion, Agree with others here that it is bit on the "noisier" side, but hey! It is a toy and this one has attitude too :-)

The robot can be programmed and his behaviors can be changed from the control center software and can be told to do different actions, At this time of the review, we have not fully mastered the control center commands yet and we will update the review once we are able to program the Robot to do other activities.

The Online World as advertised by Roboni-I is not operational yet, when you try to register your Robot Online to play against other robots online it says "Under Construction "...

This clearly shows that [...] has rushed this product out the door to capture the holiday shoppers without fully delivering the features promised on the product, But If they keep up their promises I am sure it will be accepted by the community as there are always some hurdles to overcome when you launch a new age of technology online.

The included accessories will provide days of fun for any robot enthusiastic person, while the instruction manual is very basic, the software has good instructions about the things one can do with the Robot. It is little too overwhelming at first, but I am sure kids can easily learn to get over the Menus with little practice.

PROS:

[+] Fully functional ROBOT right out of the box
[+] Very agile and can do lots of tricks for you.
[+] Good set of accessories included
[+] Plastic but sturdy construction

CONS:

[-] Online world is not available yet
[-] Needs a lot of AAnbatteries
[-] Drivers are not WHQL certified and digitally signed.

While this is not as robust and fully supported by community as LEGO Mindstorms, Roboni-I provides a different type of educational and gaming experience for kids especially for the competitive minded. Roboni-I's greatest advantage is that it comes fully ready to use when compared to LEGO Mindstorms kit and your child can start enjoying the robot out of the box and when he or she gets bored with the included games, the programming aspects and future ONLINE gaming experience will keep your child busy educationally and intellectually for months to come.

It is a decent buy, Make sure you get two of them for competitive robot gaming!