Springende robot

My kid assembled this in one afternoon and the look on her face when it actually jumped for the first time was priceless. The build process itself is a nice crash course in how springs and levers work together.

My kid assembled this in about 20 minutes and the jumping action actually works on the first try—watching it spring across the floor made her shriek with glee. A perfect little intro to gears and levers for a curious 8-year-old.

The mechanism is surprisingly robust for a kit this size—my robot clears a solid foot off the floor every launch. I was skeptical about the "really jumps" claim, but the spring-loaded legs genuinely deliver. The build itself took about an hour and taught my kid a lot about tension and release.