Hexbug Nano V2 Black Hole

$50, Smart Toy

Teaches: playing with robots

CTR Rating: 82%

CTR Review

The Nano V2 bugs can now climb up vertically, horizontally, around corners, through tubes, and to the top of any Nano V2 habitat set. The Black Hole features an evolved Nano with a new look with three rubber spines on its back, as well as a new system of tubular tracks that highlight the Nano V2's multi-level climbing abilities. The Nano V2 has a sense of balance, capable of crawling through tubes on its feet or on its back, can pass another bug in a single tube to avoid a traffic jam, and even flip to its feet when landing on its back on an open flat surface. The Black Hole lets you customize the design and layout of the three-story set and features special accessories including a spiral tube which the Nano V2 will "pirouette through as it searches for a more expansive view atop the crow�s nest, the highest point of the set, at which point it will venture back down to free fall through the black funnel, emerging out of one of three exits in order to explore new territory". Other features let you control the flow of traffic by filling the attachment points on the two HEX cell bases with accessories such as fixed pegs and rotating flags that help direct where the Nano V2 bugs go. The Black Hole set contains: two Nano V2 bugs; one spiral tube; one crow�s nest; one funnel; two straight tubes; nine curved tubes; three Y tubes; 20 connectors; six stand-offs; two HEX cell bases plus removable walls and gates; four curved tracks; eight fixed pegs; four rotating flags; and one button cell battery AG13 (LR44) included with each bug. The tracks and parts are all modular and fit with one another. Scott Traylor talks with Innovation First's Lindsey Carlin about the next line of Hexbug accessories, featuring a modified Hexbug with has the ability to move up through tubes. See the video at http://youtu.be/A_xNGzPwRQE