I tested for you: 17101 LEGO Boost Creative Toolbox

Today we are talking about the set 17101 LEGO Boost Creative Toolbox, the new LEGO kit which intends to reconcile plastic bricks and multimedia functions and which will incidentally prepare your children to enter the Mindstorms universe.

The alibi of learning to program is often put forward as soon as we talk about this product, as if the educational guarantee had become essential to sell a toy of this type. Rest assured, it is indeed a toy.

If you want to give yourself a good conscience by offering your offspring a kit at 159.99 € that will allow them to get a job as an engineer at NASA, go your way. Here, we have fun above all and the programming side is in fact a few icons that we move in the interface of the application so that the robot performs a few simple actions. Those who discovered the concept Scratch at school will be on familiar ground, others will quickly adapt to this simplified programming interface.

As with the kit LEGO Education WeDo 2.0, you just need to know how to recognize the pictograms on the different icons to bring the different robots to life and have a good time. Nothing very complicated.

Those who already know the Mindstorms concept will not be disoriented here, with a kit from the same barrel which is aimed at a younger audience and which highlights the new connectors Power Functions already present in the new boxes of the LEGO Education range.

While waiting for a new version of the Mindstorms Kit integrating sensors equipped with these more compact connectors, the younger generation will therefore be able to get their hands on this LEGO Boost kit delivered with a main brick (Move hub) which manages the Bluetooth connection and has two motors, an interactive motor and a motion, distance and color sensor.

In the box, 840 pieces that will be used to assemble the five models offered. Impossible to assemble them all at the same time with the supplied inventory, it is necessary to disassemble at least partially one of them to build another one.

I (re) specify in passing that you must have a tablet under iOS 10.3 and above or Android 5.0 and above to take advantage of all the interactivity promised by LEGO. Bluetooth essential.

No Windows version, so exit the use of Surface tablets and other clones. Lego ad upcoming compatibility with Fire 7 and HD8 tablets sold by amazon and that's good news: these tablets are affordable.

The use of the application provided for programming the various elements is essential here. All interactivity is also deported to the tablet on which the application is installed. For example, the sound comes out only through the speakers of the tablet. Ditto for the acquisition of sound orders which will go through the microphone of the tablet. The magic of the concept is a little attenuated.

The application will have to be quickly updated, its ergonomics can be improved. Navigating the menus and sub-menus is a bit laborious due to many slowdowns even with a latest generation iPad. The instructions are sometimes difficult to read in low light and the app drains the tablet battery really quickly.

No paper documentation in this set, everything goes through the tablet too. It's a shame, LEGO could have at least been able to print the assembly instructions for the different robots even if the choice of mixing assembly phases and discovery sequences of the interaction possibilities offered by each model justifies this choice.

The learning phase is highly scripted, you will have to get to the end of the giant tutorial to then be able to give free rein to your imagination if you have not given up by then. For each "robot", you will have to go through different stages that detail the functions one by one before getting down to business and accessing an even larger inventory of creative programming. What seemed like a good idea quickly turns into a painstaking process that will strain the patience of the youngest. The child will at least discover the notion of perseverance ...

The assembly steps presented on the tablet are identical to those usually present in the paper format booklets. No 3D rotation of the assembly in progress, which would however have been useful to allow the youngest to better understand the placement of parts from different perspectives.

The "smart" brick, the Move hub, is powered by six AAA batteries which will also quickly run out. Fortunately, these batteries can be replaced without taking everything apart. A rechargeable battery with a micro-USB port would have been welcome, we are in 2017 ...

Please note, this is not a radio-controlled toy to be controlled as you see fit via a virtual remote control. You have to assign specific actions and then launch the sequence that allows them to be carried out. Vernie the robot, often put forward in communication around the LEGO Boost concept, is not an autonomous and intelligent robot either. It will only do what you ask it to do through the app.

I have only built two models out of the five offered and I am far from having toured all the possibilities offered by this set, but this forced coupling between LEGO bricks and multimedia device looks in my opinion for the moment more like an attempt not yet completely convincing to divert the attention of all those children who prefer to play or watch videos on their iPad than to a really successful concept. The promise is enticing, the realization is a bit disappointing. Hopefully, by Christmas, LEGO will have fixed the few flaws in the app that are spoiling the experience a bit.

LEGO mentions that this set is intended for children between the ages of 7 and 12. It's a bit pretentious. I think a 12-year-old kid today expects a little more from an interactive toy than what LEGO Boost has to offer. With a little help navigating the different menus, the youngest will get by. The application contains almost no text outside of the initial configuration phase. Everything else is based on illustrations and pictograms.

In short, if you already have a (very) recent tablet and you are ready to let your children monopolize it for long hours, go for it, you will make people happy. Stick around, they'll probably need your help moving forward without dropping everything along the way.

Special thanks RobotAdvance, official distributor of the LEGO Education range in France, who provided me with this kit. Do not hesitate to contact the brand via his website or his facebook page if you have any questions regarding the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 ranges, LEGO Boost or LEGO Education.

Note: We do as usual, you have until September 30, 2017 at 23:59 p.m. to manifest yourself in the comments.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.