Hexbug Hive Habitat Set & Glow in the Dark Nano Habitat Set Review

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Remember my son’s cool robot birthday party? At the party we featured the small HEXBUG sets that we had (because they are robots of course!), and then HEXBUG generously sent us several larger habitat sets for my boys to enjoy with their friends!

hexbug hive habitat set

We were so excited to receive the HEXBUG Hive Habitat set as we had been eyeing it for some time! Before we even played with it I liked this set because the entire habitat folds up into a carry case. Since we have HEXBUGs scurrying all over our house I was thrilled to have a specific container to store them in!

But the Hive Habitat set is more than just a carrier – it’s an entire playing apparatus too! It comes with the foldable habitat, 1 seesaw, 2 merry go rounds, 16 adjustable flags, 16 pegs, and 1 extremely rare HEXBUG Nano Mutation. You can place the flags, pegs and other pieces anywhere that you want so that your nanos have to maneuver around them. Pull them out and start all over again!

This really drew my kids in to interact with the habitat set.

hexbug hive habitat set

Plus HEXBUG generously sent us quite a few extra habitat track pieces and even extra Nanos!! My kids were thrilled!

hexbug nano bugs set

 If you’ve never been introduced to the HEXBUG brand let me introduce you – HEXBUG makes Micro Robotic Creatures and habitats/tracks for the nanos to “run on”. All of the “bugs” you’ll see in this posts are their Nano robots.

There are larger robots than these, some even with remote controls which all have a unique characteristic to them. I haven’t found one child who isn’t absolutely in love with these and they are simple enough for even the younger kids to thoroughly enjoy them!

hexbug hive habitat set

Look how the Hive Habitat set folds out and expands with the extra pieces added on! It quite literally took over my entire dining room table! Which actually worked out great because the boys & their friends had plenty of room to be on all sides of the table and still play!

The HEXBUG Nanos have a simple on/off switch which makes them vibrate and “come to life” when they are on. Then they scurry all over the place just like a real bug!

hexbug hive habitat set

The Hive Habitat has a lot of really cool things that make it more fun that just watching the nanos scurry around. Above you can see in the middle of the set that there is a ramp for the nanos to scurry up and down on.

hexbug hive habitat set

Here you can see the merry go round that the nanos can get “stuck” in which is really cool.

hexbug hive habitat set

And then here you see the entire habitat set folded up and ready to be stored! It doesn’t store extra track pieces in it but it does hold all of the nanos that we could ever dream of having!

hexbug hive habitat set

HEXBUG also sent us this Glow in the Dark Nano Habitat Set!! It includes 10 connector pieces and 2 glow in the dark nano specimens. We waited to pull this one out until it was dark outside.

hexbug hive habitat set

As you can see the track pieces are black which makes it very easy to distinguish which pieces are glow in the dark. I tried to get a video of it but alas, all the scurrying nanos sent my poor video camera into a tizzy!! It was really cool though.

Once we turned the lights off  the set glowed pretty awesome and all the glow in the dark nanos were neat too! In fact it was surprisingly difficult to keep up with the nanos when all you could see was a glowing strip on their backs!! Maybe I’m just getting old……

pig with hexbug nano

Check it out – attack of the killer nanos!!! Ok, just kidding, but my pig was quite interested in these scurrying “bugs” running around the table!! It’s not every day a pig gets to play with robots! One of our friends has an autistic son who just goes nuts over HEXBUG robots!

I wouldn’t be surprised if he sleeps with the nanos we gave him last year!! We are going to give him the glow in the dark set we received which I know will just feed his obsession but make him SO happy! 🙂

When my boys aren’t looking I play with the HEXBUGs – they are really awesome and a very affordable way to buy robots for your kids! I have never met even one person who doesn’t love HEXBUG. They are geared for ages 5+ and I know that every kid that has been to our house just thinks we are the coolest because we have nanos scurrying about!

My boys spend hours playing nicely together when we bring out the HEXBUG sets. I HIGHLY recommend them. They do come with the batteries that do eventually run out, but our batteries typically last a year or so before they run out…..and that’s usually due to my kids leaving them on and the “bugs” getting stuck in the on position under the couch or somewhere I don’t see them!


You can find HEXBUG robots at your local mass retailer (Walmart, Target, etc.) starting at under $10 which is a VERY affordable gift! Last year we stuffed my boy’s Christmas stockings with HEXBUG nanos! We have played at some point with almost ALL of the HEXBUG products and they are very durable.

Surprisingly even their more delicate-looking remote controlled Inchworm robots have not even been damaged in the slightest in my house even though my boys are well under the age recommendation for it (ages 8+). They are well built and made to last.

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this review. I received the above products to try in order to form my own opinions. All opinions are my own.

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10 Comments

  1. OMG you have a pet pig! How awesome :O) my boys have always wanted these ;O)

  2. Our children love hexbugs. We have some of the glow in the dark ones too. I love the pig!!

  3. Trisha G. says:

    I LOVE that last picture, lol! My nephew loves Hexbugs and that Habitat looks so cool!

  4. I never paid much attention to this product at the store. Thanks for sharing. This looks like something my son might enjoy.

  5. We love these products! Great review:)

  6. Your review is awesome it totally makes me want to go buy some hexbugs and my kid is afraid of bugs lol . Love your pig.

  7. Jennifer Clay says:

    My girls love Hex Bugs! Thanks for the review!

  8. Steph @momneedsworkout says:

    Oh wow! I have 2 little boys that will one day LOVE something like that!

  9. I got some of these last year at BlogHer. We still haven’t really played with them yet though. My girls aren’t too into bugs though =P

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