KiwiCo Tinker Crate Walking Robot Review + Coupon

Tinker Crate (from parent company KiwiCo) is a subscription box for kids and tweens ages 9-16+. It arrives every month with all the materials and instructions needed to create innovative hands-on STEM projects along with a Tinker Zine full of educational information and additional activities.

KiwiCo offers boxes for different age groups: Tadpole Crate for 0-36-month-olds, Koala Crate for 3-4-year-olds, Kiwi Crate for 5-8-year-olds, Atlas Crate for 6-11-year-olds, Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate for 9-16+-year-olds, and Eureka Crate for ages 14 and up. There really is something for every age with this company.

This review is of the $19.95 a month Tinker Crate, for ages 9-16+.

This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

About Tinker Crate

The Subscription Box: Tinker Crate

The Cost: $19.95 per month + free shipping

ACTIVE DEAL: Get 50% off your 1st month! No coupon needed - just use this link.

The Products: Detailed instructions and materials to create innovative hands-on STEM projects along with a Tinker Zine full of educational information and additional activities.

Ships to: U.S. for free, Canada for $6.95 per month

KiwiCo Tinker Crate "Walking Robot" Review

In our box, we received this Tinker Zine which is full of educational information related to the month's project. This month's theme is Radical Robots to go along with our Walking Robot project. They included some information on robots and some of the robotic technology we use today.

They also included a section on meeting a maker, a page on the Mars Rover, and a few new designs to test out once you have your robot built.

The instructions for our robot came on a separate sheet and as per usual with KiwiCo, they are incredibly detailed and include pictures for each step by step direction.

The first step was to build the body. I simply bent this cardboard piece at the creases to prepare it for the next step.

Next, I took this yellow motor and stuck it to the marked spot on the cardboard using these foam adhesive squares.

Then I threaded the wires through the hole and then wrapped the cardboard piece around it securing it with more sticky foam squares.

Then I added these longer clear strips to the top and bottom to secure it further.

I then added a dowel through the top and placed these foam wheels on either side to hold it in place.

I added these little handles to the pieces of the motor that stuck out of the side of our body piece.

Next, I added more foam adhesives before adding our battery pack.

They provided a battery and some instructions for how to insert it correctly. Once it was set up I stuck it onto the foam squares on the side of our body.

Then it was a simple matter of connecting the black wire to the black wire and the red wire to the red wire.

Here are the pieces for the front of our robot. They also provided some brads for us to use to put him together.

First I connected the two pieces of the arm.

They provided these two wooden pieces for our legs.

I added these orange pieces to the bottom of the legs and secured them using the gray screws they provided.

Then I slid the leg piece onto the body we had built and added the arm. Then I used more of the little foam wheels to hold them in place.

I repeated these steps for the other side as well.

The last step was to stick the front of our robot to our body and he was complete!

Once we slid the switch on the battery pack to the on position, our robot was up and moving! So simple and cute!

They also gave us instructions on how to make our robot walk backward. All we had to do was switch the wires and match the red to the black and it reversed his direction.

Now that we had our robot designed, they provided a few extra pieces and instructions on how we could redesign our robot and add our own creative touch to it.

Verdict: It's always fun when you get to make your own robot and this month's Tinker Crate provided us with everything we needed to do that! I love that we can use the basics that we learned from this project and apply our own creativity to it to really make it our own. I also appreciate that everything is so well organized and that the instructions are so clear and easy to follow. This is a great STEM learning activity and for $19.95 + free shipping it was a fun, educational experience!

To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this box if you sign up today? It is possible you might get this crate, but it is not a guarantee. From KiwiCo:

Crates are assigned each month based on availability and your crate history - not all subscribers receive the same theme each month.

ACTIVE DEAL: Get 50% off your 1st month! No coupon needed - just use this link.

Check out all of our KiwiCo reviews and the best subscription boxes for kids!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

What do you think of Tinker Crate?