Roboraptor Robotic Dinosaur Review

Check out this review of the Roboraptor Robotic Dinosaur:

This is a review of the Roboraptor in two parts. The first part (below) was written by the purchaser and owner, my 8-year-old son Robin. The second part (below that) was written by me, Jack. Since we used both the Amazon and Radio Shack reviews while we were researching this toy, we’re posting this review to both forums.

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Robo Rocker
by Robin

I love my Robo Raptor. My favorite part about the Robo Raptor is the Roam mode, which means that it moves on its own. It’s cool because it’s kind of like a real cyborg animal. I like to do fights using the remote control with other toys, like my giant robot Mars Super Fighter. I would like to buy some army men for it to munch on.

I think the good reviews were completely right and the ones that say “this is just a piece of junk” were completely wrong.

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OK, so that’s Robin’s take on it. I want to add a few details to what he said.

Robin first became aware of the Roboraptor when he saw it at Toys R Us, over a year ago. For one birthday, one Christmas, and another birthday, it was the first item on his want list. Given the expense and our family’s previous bad experiences with expensive remote control robots (they didn’t work as advertised, they were played with for an hour then forgotten until yard sale time), Robin’s mother and I weren’t inclined to go that way again. We explained this to Robin, but he kept asking for it. Finally we told him before his most recent birthday that if he saved all of the birthday money he’d be getting from extended family, he would almost certainly be able to afford it. So that’s what he did.

Once he had the money, we sat down with Robin and the computer and looked at the reviews of Roboraptor on Amazon and Radio Shack. Robin wasn’t dissuaded by the generally negative judgment of many of those reviews, and his mother and I decided not to stand in his way; if this turned out to be an expensive lesson for him, well, so be it. He bought it, I helped him get it out of its ridiculous packaging (you need a moderately-sized screwdriver to liberate the poor thing), and I helped him go through the controls once and figure out where to point the controller. From there it’s all been his ballgame, and he’s had a fantastic time with it.

My own sense is that the long wait, the careful research, and the fact that he did it with his own cash has enhanced Robin’s pleasure with this toy, but only somewhat; most of his enjoyment is much more in-the-moment, e.g. making it dine upon his action figures.

I want to emphasize that we never saw any advertising at all for this toy. I get the impression from other reviews that there has been a moderately exaggerated marketing campaign around it. We never saw it, so we never had unreasonable expectations; it looked like a remote control toy, and that’s pretty much what it is. I’m not a robot fan, so I’m moderately impressed by how well it navigates in Roam mode–but it’s still not what I’d call smart or graceful, and it can get stuck in corners. We have hardwood floors, so we haven’t seen the reported trouble with carpets, but it also wouldn’t surprise me, given how ungainly the thing is.

A couple of caveats for parents: 1) This thing uses a fistful of batteries, which aren’t included. Robin bought his own, but be warned if you’re buying it as a gift. 2) There’s no mute button, and it’s pretty noisy.

Overall we were more pleased than disappointed, but our expectations started out good and low.