When I first saw the Robo-One competition at the RobOlympics I was stoked. I knew right then I had to get something like that to play with for myself. So when www.sozbots.com offered to let us check out one of their Kondo KHR-1 kits, I couldn’t resist.

The KHR-1 Kit runs $1,645. It requires assembly and you must teach it how to do the moves you want it to do.

The assembly of the kit is pretty straight forward. It is not very complex -- actually, if you can follow the instructions, it is very easy to build. The instructions that come with it are in Japanese, so you must download the English instructions and software from the Sozbots website.

Here's what comes in the kit. It is completely unassembled, but like I said: Don’t worry -- it's easy to put together.

You can see from this pic that the instructions are very explicit and easy to follow. I would recommend printing out the instructions; I found it easier to follow than when trying to view it as a PDF file on my computer.

You assemble the extremities first.

Then the chest.

Here you see all the mechanics completed, but the wires are not organized yet.

All done.

All in all, the build took me about four hours. Now comes the fun part: hooking it up and playing!

The program interface is pretty easy to understand. There is an English version of the software available for download if you don’t read Japanese. You simply place the servo in the position you want through the program interface; and through a series of animations, you record the movements you need for the action you want. This is done by telling it the number (0-180) and the speed that you want it to move. Once you get into complicated series of motions, it gets a lot more difficult.

As the motion of the robot will affect its balance, you have to keep trying it until you get it just right. But hey -- it’s all playing, isn’t it?

Overall Opinion:

I love it! It provides endless hours of fun. It fulfills the dreams of lots of little boys the world over. The only thing left is for it to follow me around and do my chores around the house… I do not consider the cost a problem -- look at the Sony Aibo, which goes for about $1,800. This robot gives you much more satisfaction in my opinion. You get to build it yourself, and your imagination and patience are the only limits to how cool you can make it.

Its only drawback is that the battery pack lasts about 20 minutes, and I did not have a spare… If you decide to plop down the loot for one of these bad boys, make sure you invest in some extra battery packs or even an AC/DC power supply so you can run it without worrying about the power going out.