Earth Day Week: Recycled Tin Can Robot Review - Much Harder Than It Looks!

Well, now that we've had a few days of crafts this week to celebrate Earth Day week, I thought I'd try something a little different today! 

Honey Graham and I put together this Tin Can Robot so that Froot Loop and we could play with it. 

It's a cute little can robot that works standing up or a cute little can robot bug that crawls lying down. 

Froot Loop was really excited about this, and we ordered it from Amazon.

Originally, the plan was to build it together, but after looking at all of the pieces, I did not think that an impatient 5 year old could handle it! 

So after Froot Loop went to bed, Honey Graham and I went to work on it. It was a lot more complex than we thought! 

I am notoriously bad at following directions as I'm usually impatient and want instant gratification when it comes to building things. There were a lot of steps!!! 

Slowly, the different pieces started to come together.

And I only swore at it once! 

I'm VERY surprised the box says ages 8 and up... I don't know ANY 8 year old who could do this by themselves, and I don't really know any who have the patience to help an adult assemble it. 

The screws were TINY and annoying and actually pretty hard to get in. The wires didn't want to go where they were supposed to either. 

I have to admit though, it does look pretty cool. The written instructions were hard to understand and the picture was pretty much useless. 

The eyes are hilarious and adorable though. 

We did it! Finally! I am thinking I am going to cut down the straws though so his arms aren't quite so long. 

They included two full size bendy straws for the robot, and really, you only need the bendy corner and about a half inch to an inch on either side. 

There he is! (And yes, that's Mousetrap in the background... we were playing it yesterday, and by playing, I mean just rigging the trap part...)

It does work pretty well. It does what it's supposed to, but remember it's just a little toy motor, so you're not going to get anything substantial about it. 

I think it definitely could be an educational experience. Froot Loop is really into electronics and robotics so I'm going to use this robot to teach him about how wires work and how a battery works, etc. I'm looking forward to it. 

Of course, I also love that it takes a recycled can! We LOVE recycled crafts here! 

There are a couple other tin can robot projects: We have a Cable Car and the Robug, but there are a couple of other ones too. 

Do you ever play Mousetrap as the rules say? Or do you just build the trap and set it off?