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Toy Fair 2017: RoboTami
Thursday, June 29th, 2017 at 8:45pm by Danny, BZPower Reporter
Today's entry in our slow-drip coverage of competing toy lines at Toy Fair 2017 is RoboTami, a robotics platform from Japan aimed at the educational market. RoboTami is similar to both the LEGO Mindstorms line and the now-popular Vex IQ kits, but not directly compatible with either. Like other platforms aimed at kids and classrooms, RoboTami creations are programmed in a flavor of Scratch (a kid-friendly graphical programming language) - and kids can quickly upload programs over USB. Conveniently, RoboTami's kits address some apparent gaps in the market - their sets feature everything you need to get started in the box, include instructions in the box for several different models, and have attractive price points for the aspiring roboticist on a budget.
Many of our readers will also be excited to see a few pieces seemingly inspired by LEGO innovations: is it just me, or do these claws look similar to Bionicle claws like those found in LEGO Mindstorms NXT kits? Speaking of LEGO, the upcoming Boost kit aims for the same "gap in the market" that RoboTami is designed for - but the LEGO offering has the advantage of working with other toys you already own.
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