Thames & Kosmos Ultra Bionic Blaster STEM Experiment Kit | Construct a Robotic Foam Dart Blasting Glove | Challenging Build, Learn About Mechanical Technology & Engineering

The Thames & Kosmos Ultimate Bionic Blaster, aka the Robotic Hand, is the closest thing my nephew has to becoming a superhero without the need for radioactive spider bites. He put it together faster than I can untangle Christmas lights – a true Christmas miracle!Now, he struts around like he's part cyborg, high-fiving and grabbing things with the precision of a bionic ninja. If only I could convince him to use his newfound powers for household chores. Who knew a robotic hand could turn a regular kid into the superhero of the family? Thames & Kosmos, you've given my nephew a bionic boost and turned Christmas into a high-tech adventure!

I've built several Thames and Kosmos kits with my kids - including the really complicated hydraulic hand. The other kits were great, so I bought this one cause it looks really fun.... But, it's horrible.First, you need a very small screwdriver and a pair of wire cutters that are not included. No big deal there.The problem is the build is EXTREMELY frustrating and it's VERY FLIMSY. The whole top part of this that hold the bullets doesn't secure on in any meaningful way and it comes off easily. The little sights fall off easily. The spring that is supposed to help raise and lower the launcher part is not only difficult to put on, it unhooks constantly.I took this thing apart and reassembled it several times. I must have spent a minimum of 3 hours just trying to "fix" this.I'm the end, I can't get it to work as intended. The handle jams up and won't compress, gets stuck in place, or does not generate enough force to compress the springs in the back because the gears get caught up. One half of the handle slides up more than the other and then it gets stuck. I poured oil I had on this over liberally over every single gear, contact surface, and spring trying to get this to function.It'll launch a bullet if I manually pull the air generator apparatus back, which is tricky to do, but I know that part works.It's the handle and gears of this thing... Which is also really annoying because the handles have multiple tiny screws in them add its a total pain to have to deconstruct them again and again.I did not enjoy this. The fragile construction and unfuncrional results are disappointing and just frustrating. Frustrating.... And I feel Iike I should type that about 5 more times.

It took a long time to assemble, we broke it up over several days, but the end result is very cool and my son was proud that “he built it”. I would recommend, with patience.

My son is 12 and with some assistance he assembled this. After is was put together it could not fire any bullets. It seemed like when you would pull the trigger, the green pieces known as E7 did not push the pieces known as D1/D2 (connected to the air cylinder)back far enough create pressure. I disassembled and started at steps 65 to see if something was put together wrong. I didn't see anything wrong, assembled and it still did not fix the issue. I then disassembled the arms and the trigger. I believe this was the problem. On the arms I made sure everything moved freely on the gears. It does say in the directions to not fully tighten the screws. When I assembled the trigger I made sure it extended as far forward as I could get it. I then connected the arms and trigger and things felt better. I then started at steps 65 again, and completed the bionic blaster. The difference this time is the trigger had some resistance like it was ready to fire. I tried it, and it worked!!! It also made the nerf "thunk" sound. Time for a beer or six!!! The last quirk is that you may have to push the air cylinder forward if it doesn't shoot. I added pictures so you see the what the trigger looks like fully extended, the start position of D1/D2 before trigger is pulled, the end position of D1/D2 when the trigger is pulled and the last one pushing on the air cylinder if it doesn't shoot after you have it working. I hope this helps those who could not get it to work.

Very fun idea. Bought for 12 year old grandson who LOVES to put together things. Even though he is very adept at reading instructions and building things, he struggled to put together and when it was finished, they nerf bullet shooting part didn’t function.

My son had a lot of fun building this and playing with it

The media could not be loaded. Got it for the kid to spend times in the raining day. Not difficult to assembly

The plastic feels weak relative to the price of the kit.I expected extra screws or axles considering how small they are but none were provided.The blaster itself underperforms even compared to the 2005 Nerf Maverick Rev6.The concept is nice with visible gears and teeth that move displaying the engineering that goes on behind everything which makes it all the greater shame that the end product feels so fragile and weak.