The Review Wire Reviews our 7-in-1 Rechargeable Solar Transformer

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Back to school doesn't only have to be all about supplies and books. I received this 7-in-1 Rechargeable Solar Transformers kit from OWI Robotics to keep the kids busy. This innovative solar science kit encourages children to exercise their sense of creativity and imagination. OWI is all about science, their Robotikits and OWIKits were developed to affordably introduce students to robotics, science and solar technology.

I gave this to my thirteen year old to build. He had it completed in about 20 minutes.

The five different vehicles that you can transform the kit into include: Solar Car, Concept Car, Bulldozer, Dump Truck and Concept Racer. He started with the charging station and the concept car. The instructions were a bit confusing but he managed to get it. You do need a sharp pair of scissors to cut the pieces away from their holder. Unfortunately, he found out the hard way when one of the pieces snapped in half. Luckily it was only a stabilizer piece and he was able to continue.

The first picture below is the power charging station that comes with 2 output plugs. One plug is for the solar recharging, which is shown with the black top and one is for the battery recharging, the blue battery that is sticking out to the right. The station opens and then folds compactly to resemble a truck. This recharging station can charge the battery in about 5 seconds and the solar panel in about 120 seconds.

The instructions state that the run time of the vehicle is about 50-80 seconds before needing a charge. But when we took the car outside with the solar panel attached, it just kept going...until the panel was out of direct sunlight. All the cars except the Solar Car can take either the solar panel or battery to charge.

My little one had fun chasing this around outside...who said science was boring!?