Imagine your old Rock Em’ Sock Em’ Robots, combine it with Wii boxing, add some clanging sound effects, and you’ll come up with Battroborg from TOMY. For anyone who watched Real Steel and wished they had a fighting robot to control, this toy is for you.
To use the Battroborg robot, the operator holds a controller in each hand and throws a punch. The robot moves and jabs with your punch. Moving the robots around the room can be difficult since you move forward by punching as well.
The most enjoyable part of playing with the Battroborgs is when the warring robots are in close proximity to one another. The arena can be set up in a way that the robots are forced to be closer together, which will cut down on the time spent getting the robots close enough to actually fight.
A fight is over when one robot either destroys the other robot (by breaking it apart) or knocks it out of the arena. In many cases, the robot falls out of the arena because the operator cannot move it forward.
Even considering the difficulty of moving the robot around, this toy is a lot of fun for kids to play with. Placing the robots close to one another will help the combatants get going with the action.
Pros: I’ve spent many hours in my life playing with fighting robots that stood still and simply won by a head popping up. This toy takes the fighting robot genre to a whole new level. I foresee spending many days sitting on my son’s floor as we battle with our robots.
Cons: I’ve already mentioned the difficulties with moving, but there is one more con. The charge lasts for around 20 to 25 minutes before the robots need to be charged up again. After the newness of the toy has worn off, I doubt that battling will go on for much longer than that anyway.
Price: $79.99
* The company provided a sample of the product for my review, but I was not compensated and the opinions are my own.
To read about a recent meet-up event involving Battroborg and the NYC Dad’s Group, click here.