That’s what Faruq Tauheed says to start every episode of the hit robot combat TV show BattleBots.
Our house is hooked!
On the weekends this has become our go-to choice of family TV viewing. Robot on Robot chaos where only 1 can survive!
We have a list of favorites in the house already, including Witch Doctor and Duck for Alyssa and Free Shipping is my personal favorite. A forklift flamethrower? COUNT ME IN!
Robot fighting is cool, the inspiration it caused is even cooler.
Fast forward a few weeks of watching BattleBots and the kid is as hooked as anyone. She’s drawing her own, coming up with new robot ideas, thinking about how SHE (at 8) can go in and destroy the competition.
You bet your ass I’m going to foster that moment.
She already has the Lego Boost kit which is incredible, and she’s built every combination one could imagine from that set. Something about BattleBots pulls her in and I’m guessing it’s the idea of going solo on your design.
Amazon link above just click the image to pick up a Lego Boost robot kit!
Yup, we started making little robots. HexBugs has the official BattleBots robot fighting toys/kits which are glorified RC cars that fall apart. That’s a secret and coming for her birthday at the end of the month and will be a ton of fun for us all to smash some bots.
The truth is, the educational value of robot building is the real win here. This simple STEM 12-in-1 kit from amazon was a steal at $25-30 and she can tear it down and rebuild it into any of the other kits from the instruction book. Perfect entry level.
I have created a monster!
She loves it. We’re building robots all the time and the biggest part that I personally love is watching her overcome the challenges this new passion of hers puts in her path.
She is smashing her own obstacles of learning new ways to build things. I did say I created a monster, right?
Google can be your friend, enemy, and biggest resource of “what’s out there” and this is no different. Turns out there are 1lbs and 3lbs robot fighting leagues for younger people looking to get started (and not incur the cost of building a 250lbs robot) and I’m already researching who/what/where in my neighborhood. Maybe that’ll be a 4th grade goal for her.
Steve, what’s the point of this post?
Do you just like playing robot overlord with your kid?
Yes. Who wouldn’t! With all of the garbage technology put in front of kids today it’s a breath of fresh air to do something fun and educational.
No YouTube video watching, no TikToks, no Instagram.
To my kid those things exist and she knows about them but now is not the time in her life to spend on them. If she wants to do that as a tweenager/teenager I’ll deal with it then.
Until then, I’m going to keep typing “robot kit” into Amazon and sending things to the house on a regular basis!