I typically try to avoid toys that rely on technology as giving my kids acces to the iPad is basically allowing them to stare at a screen and play games for hours in end. But with the kids at home due to the pandemic and not getting access to the STEM classes they would normally have at school, when I saw this set go on sale over Prime Day I decided to get it as I knew playing with Star Wars droids would motivate my son to really get into coding. While the set appeared very promising at first, after a week or two I realized it completely fails as a STEM toy.

The Instructions

Just like Lego Mario, this set does not have instructions but instead requires you to access them via the app. I'm definitely not a fan of this, but at the same time it is understandable with this set as all three droids share the same mechanical parts, so the app can explain to you how these parts are to be removed and reassembled. You also need the app anyways to control the droids, so I guess Lego saved a few trees taking this approach.

As for the instructions, this is a fairly complex set with lots of technic and moving parts requiring plenty of advanced building techniques. It has an age rating of 8+, which I feel is appropriate as my 7 year old was able to build pretty much all of it on his own. Although there were times where you need to push pins through two holes or connect some technic parts that were just too difficult for him (and weren't easy for me either). Yet, the instructions are written like a 4+ set. Most steps attach a single brick and I don't recall ever seeing more than three bricks attached in any step. As a result this set has an insane number of steps. The mouse droid is 158 steps and R2 is 365 steps! Not only does this mean that the building experience has been made way too simple, but to a kid that doesn't understand it has been dumbed down, seeing over 100 steps (and especially over 300 steps) is just way too intimidating. Sure, my son got to step 50 in 10 minutes, but there was still over 100 steps to go!

Of course one other unique aspect of these builds is that you have no idea what you are doing as you build it. The insides of these droids look nothing like what you would expect a droid to look like. So there is no guessing ahead and it is hard to figure out what exactly you are building until you have a substantial portion of the set built. This is definitely one of the better aspects of this set, and it is amazing how the Lego designers figured out how to create these elaborate, mechanical constructions, and still allow them to look like the droids that kids are so familiar with.

The Mouse Droid

At first my son was going to build R2 first, after all, he is the main draw of this set. However, he accidentally hit the mouse droid on the iPad and decided to just go with it. So after building the mechanical components in bag 1, he skipped to bag 10 and was freaking out about how he was going out of order! The build was doable for him, but he did need some help at times with a few parts going on backwards (something he never does). Quite honestly, this was the most difficult build he had ever seen before. The trickiest part is connecting the mechanics as you need to hold the cables in place and out of the way, while the wheel base does not have very much clutch with the droid and needs to have technic brackets attached to keep everything together. As a result I had to take over at that point as there was no way my son could hold everything together while at the same time keeping cables in their proper place and connecting technic parts!

Once completed you get to play with the droid and it was really amazing what it can do. Of course it can drive around, but it can also open up its sides, sense objects and colors, and react to and make sounds thru the iPad. And that's without adding any accessories. I'll get to the accessories and the app later.

R2-D2

After playing with the mouse droid for a while and teaching my 4 year old daughter how to play with it a bit, it was time to build R2. But at 365 steps (the app shows you which step you are on out of how many there are total), my son was just totally overwhelmed. After doing about 20 steps he had me complete the rest of bag 3 for him at which point I said it was bedtime. When I woke up in the morning, R2 was complete, so it is a very doable build for kids, just long

Gonk Droid

I forget how many steps are in this build, but it is somewhere around 250 I believe. This build is a little fragile and fitting in some sections, particularly the window for its eye, can be a little tricky. I had to rebuild a part of this for my son, who had completed it on his own.

Other Builds

Finally, you get a whole bag of parts to be used for other builds. These parts make up targets, obstacles, and arms for all 3 droids. As a result, you are constantly assembling and disassembling them as you take on new missions. This is possibly the most fun thing about this set as you are constantly building, and this certainly justifies the need for computer based instructions. However, it still seems as if each step only adds one part. This really is a problem if your child gets overwhelmed by the sheer number of steps, kids don't realize that each step is incredibly easy.

The App

So this is a set that requires use of the app to control it, and the app is a lot of fun for kids. You start off on Tatooine and as you finish missions you are able to travel to more planets. I forget all the planets, but I know two of them are Alderaan and Hoth. Each planet has a handful of missions for each of the three droids, and every mission needs unique builds to accomplish your goals. We've had this for a month and still haven't finished all the missions, and going back and redoing missions is a lot of fun, especially the ones that don't always work if you don't line up everything perfectly, this creates a fun little challenge for kids.

Coding

The coding aspect of the app is why I knocked off two stars from the overall rating. I realize Lego spans many countries and languages, but there are no words in the app. Now that may be ok for my son who is just learning to read, but as an adult, there's nothing intuitive about this app and learning how to program with it, and that of course is the real downfall. Even if my son can't read it, I still would be able to and could teach my son how to code. It wouldn't have been that difficult for Lego to hire a handful of translators to put this app into multiple languages. In fact, they could of just done it English only as I'm not aware of any programming languages that aren't in English, it would have been an excellent learning tool for kids who aren't native English speakers but will grow up in a world where programming requires sufficient knowledge of English.

So each mission requires you to program a droid, but the app tells you place this function here, place that function there. You don't need to understand what each function does, you don't need to think about how to achieve a goal, you simply need to be like Emmet at the start of The Lego Movie and blindly follow instructions. This app does not teach your child how to code.

My son has no idea what he is doing or why he is doing it. Of course he doesn't care, he is having fun. He doesn't even know what Greedo or the other characters are saying, but who cares, it's fun. If you're buying this set for your child as a toy, then fine, they will love it. However, if you are buying it as a STEM toy that will teach coding, then all I can say is, these are not the droids you're looking for.

Overall

I was looking forward to my son learning how to code, especially since he isn't getting the opportunity to do so at school due to the pandemic. However, it turns out that I just got him a really awesome toy that allows him to get more screen time. I'm very disappointed that Lego put out this incredible educational product based on Star Wars that could really get kids excited about learning how to code, but then they screwed up on the delivery of the lessons and pretty much negated any educational value that this product has. Now I'm going to have to find a new coding toy, and it is going to have to compete against Star Wars and Lego for attention. All I can say is that I'm not a happy parent.