2016 is definitely the year the robots want to come home to play. There are stationary robots, semi-autonomous robots, and others that seem more like RC vehicles of year's past. Mebo is in the latter group and there is nothing inherently wrong with that, if the design only worked better.
Let's address the pros to this purchase at the outset: It is big! It dwarfs over the Anki Cozmo or Sphero BB-8. It looks like a mashup of something from NASA's next Mars rover and the kind of robot you see police use to examine and detonate bombs. Mebo drives around on six wheels. Sitting atop is a large articulated 5 axis arm and camera. The entire device is controlled by your smart device, phone or tablet.
You can see what he sees, command him to make various sound effects designed to appeal to a 12 year old's sense of humor, and even speak through him. The camera features a fairly impressive (for a toy) resolution of 720p.
The idea is pretty sweet, but things fall apart in execution. Mebo doesn't always respond promptly to your commands, our testers found him difficult to drive accurately, a serious problem when you have such a large device hurtling through your living room. We feared for our furniture. The arm does have incredible abilities to move, but in practice the testers weren't very adept at making Mebo do things with that arm. Also, the arm can only lift 8-12 oz, and doesn't have the strength to open a refrigerator door, So, you can forget about those Jetson-inspired dreams of sending it to get a can of whatever for you. Also, there was a lack of consistent responsiveness in the way it operated.
We weren't able to control the robot over the internet as advertised. We found it best to control it in a 20-30' radius zone of operation.
Kid testers reported enjoying the toy, and took the limitations in stride. There is a lot of imagination-stirring promise here, and if your kids don't mind supplying some of the details, helping the robot with tasks that are beyond it, many will enjoy what it offers. However, this is a classic situation where the implied (and sometimes explicit) promises on the box don't quite match with the reality of what is inside.
