REVIEW – #Hexbug Nano Halloween Party

I recently received the awesome opportunity to host a Hexbug Nano Halloween Party. For those of you unfamiliar with the Hexbug, here’s the idea behind the product line.

By leveraging our robotics expertise, we entered the toy industry in 2007 with the launch of the HEXBUG Micro Robotic Creatures product line. HEXBUG was designed to give children a positive experience with robotics at a young age. Our passion for robotics, as demonstrated by our VEX Robotics program, was the main catalyst fueling HEXBUG’s inception. Hence, the brand was born! People are drawn to the HEXBUG brand for our products’ fascinating behavior, intelligent bug-like attributes and eye-catching packaging. Some of the products are so animated, they even fool cats, dogs and some humans into thinking they are alive!

We received EVERYTHING you’d possibly need to hold a Hexbug Nano Halloween Party including:

• 12x Limited Edition HEXBUG Nano Halloween Zombie bugs
• 15x Glow in the Dark HEXBUG Nano Galileo Collection bugs
• 2x HEXBUG Nano Glows In The Dark Habitat Sets
• 1x Glows in the Dark HEXBUG Nano Elevation Habitat Set
• 16x Hexbug Nano Replacement Batteries
• 1x mini screw driver

I thought it would be fun to celebrate Halloween by bringing all of the Hexbugs and accessories in to my youngest son’s school and having the party there. The kit I received contained far more then I could ever need, and there was just no way that I could pick one person to get more than another because every one of those kids is special. So I did something a little different – I decided to give most of the items to my son’s class, so that they can have something interesting to play with in school, as a reward, a part of group play or just some fun time.
These are the Limited Edition HEXBUG Nano Halloween Zombie bugs. Aren’t the coffin cases cool!

These are the Glow in the Dark Hexbug Nanos.

The Hexbug Nanos are really neat. They have little rubber feet, and move through the power of vibration. There’s a tiny switch on the bottom of each Hexbug, when you turn it on it makes the vibration necessary for them to move.
I had a little help assembling from Mr S, one of the staff in the classroom. He found the helpful little orange tabs that flip over and act as gates to keep your Hexbugs inside the track.

Here’s a better look at the track. See the orange things all over the place? Those are the gates I mentioned a moment ago.

We ended up putting two of the Habitat Set tracks together, to make one huge track.

And a better look at the track from above.

The day was quite full, with storytime, the Halloween parade and the Hexbug party, so we decided not to assemble the Elevation Habitat until another day. This is what the whole thing would look like if it was assembled.

So. All of that white and yellow that’s on the Hexbug track? That’s what makes it glow in the dark. Many of the Hexbugs also glow in the dark. The kids in my son’s class are going to check out the track with the curtains closed to darken the room, to make it a super spooky Halloween!
This is a Hexbug Larva. It’s a bit wider then the track so can’t be used on it. The Larva senses physical obstacles that are in its way and change their direction on their own.

Adults, as well as children, had a great time checking out the Hexbugs and playing with them!

Here’s a short video from our party, showing the Hexbugs in motion.

What I like best is that this is an affordable and versatile toy for children. The track can be configured any way you want, or combined with other tracks – making each time you set it up different then the last. The sets also break down into small enough pieces that they could be kept in a container and easily brought over a friends house.
The only thing I wasn’t nuts about is that the removable exoskeleton on the Zombie Hexbugs came off quite easily while they were in the habitats. They’re really easy to put back on but it did get to be a bit repetitious putting them back on. This happened when we had a total of eight Hexbugs on the track. I don’t think I’d put many more on there unless the track was either larger or laid out differently.
I do not know yet how long the batteries last, since this is my first experience with them. The Hexbugs take small batteries similar in size to that of a hearing aid battery. A two pack of replacement batteries retails for $4.99.
The Hexbug Habitat Set tracks retail for $29.99 each. The Limited Edition HEXBUG Nano Halloween Zombie bugs are currently available for purchase at Radio Shack for $9.99, hurry before they’re all gone! The other Hexbug Nanos are available to purchase for $7.99 online at hexbug.com. Kids will love collecting all of the different bugs. They’re affordable, small and easy to use so they’d make great items to collect, trade and gift, and would make terrific stocking stuffers.
MORE INFO
Hexbug on Facebook
Hexbug on Twitter
The product(s) featured in this review was provided free of cost to me as a member of Mom Select for the sole purpose of product testing and review. This review has not been monetarily compensated and is based on the views and opinions of my family and/or self. Please note that the opinions reflected in this post have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.