RS Tri-Bot

$100, Smart Toy

Teaches: remote controls, some limited programming

CTR Rating: 76%

CTR Review

"Cool but annoying," the WowWee RS Tri-Bot is one of those toys that has a big novelty effect, but fades faster than the first set of batteries. According to our single test family with two children (ages 7 and 10), it is "one of those toys that should come bundled with a bottle of aspirin."In terms of movement, this robot is impressive, with three large wheels (hence the term Tri-Bot), giving it the ability to spin faster than any other robot we've seen. So how does a three-wheeler move forward? Because each large wheel has 10 smaller roller pins on the rim, the robot can move forward or backward like a regular two or four wheeled robot. You need to watch a demo to get the idea of how it moves as it takes a bit of time to explain. The arms, mouth or other facial features don't move. Using a remote, it is easy to simply steer the robot around--and scare a cat or dog. Other modes include a free-roam mode (the robot will move until its infrared sensors pick up a wall) and a sentry mode (the robot will wait quietly until it detects a motion). The blessing and curse of this robot is the personality, described as a Sponge-Bob sounding comedian that some will find funny, and others will find annoying. For some reason, we consistently found the voice to be un-funny, which is perhaps why our single test family RAN it out to our car, put it in the drivers seat, and said, "I don't ever want to hear that thing's voice again." So is there any educational value to this? There is a Program Mode, where you can store up to 40 movements, that can be replayed. Other features include two battery saving modes, which is important -- the robot requires eight AA batteries (for the robot) and 3 AAA batteries for the remote.