Lego Wedo 2.0: What You Need To Know (Complete Review)
Lego WeDo 2.0 is one of the lesser-known kits from the Lego Group. It sits between Lego Technic and Lego Mindstorms, giving motorised, codable models that are simple enough for the younger kids and those getting started. After-school classes often use this set for their introductory courses, before moving to Lego Mindstorms in more advanced classes.
Originally, Lego WeDo 2.0 was designed for classroom use, but it’s becoming more common for home use, and is well worth considering. It’s designed to give an entry into coding and robotics skills, using the Lego pieces that we’re all so familiar with. But how do you know if it’s right for you?
Liam has been using Lego WeDo for a while now, so we have fully explored its potential and pushed it to its limits. If you need some help deciding, read on for our experience, and leave a comment if you have specific questions that we could help with.
Lego Wedo 2.0 At A Glance
Lego WeDo 2.0 Pros
Lego WeDo 2.0 Cons
Key Takeaway
Lego WeDo 2.0 is a fantastic kit for getting started in coding and robotics. It’s got everything you need to follow along with the tutorials in the Lego WeDo app, and heaps of great ideas and inspiration.
It’s not intended for complex robotics, so if you want to design custom projects, you’ll need a few more parts.
Why should you listen to me?
Liam has been using Lego WeDo 2.0 for around 6 months. He has loved Lego for years, and been getting really interested in building and coding his other robots. Bricks 4 Kidz began running some after school classes at his school in mid-2021. It booked out within a few hours, and Liam was really sad about missing out. So we found out that they were also running classes at the local library on Saturday mornings. That has been such a great piece of luck! The weekend classes are tiny, so he gets to work one-on-one with a teacher and push the limits of the project. Liam is in the second level of classes, where they use Lego WeDo 2.0. Until he started there, we hadn’t even heard of this kit. Every week Liam built a new project, often an animal or a vehicle. He loved his classes, but wanted to do more work with WeDo outside of class. We started by getting just the smarthub, motor and sensors individually, and using them with our existing Lego at home.
Liam’s not particularly strong at following instructions, and always wants to skip ahead. As a result, we haven’t done many of the tutorials in the Lego WeDo app, but skipped straight to the ambitious stuff. Liam took inspiration from Yoshihito Isogawa, Mi 2 Tom, and other creators he found on YouTube. With a bit of practice, he started creating his own. Check out some of his original projects…
Over the last 6 months, Liam has learned a huge amount about gears, coding and design. The structured classes with Bricks 4 Kidz have given him a great foundation, and his creativity has taken him the rest of the way.
We’ve tried coding Lego WeDo 2.0 with both Scratch and the Lego WeDo app, and had lots of success with both platforms. Liam prefers coding on the Lego WeDo app, because it’s easy with the pictures, but his grandma gets involved as well and prefers to code in Scratch.
Compatibility with other Lego products
As you would expect, Lego WeDo 2.0 is compatible with all the standard Lego and Lego Technic bricks. That makes it very easy when you want to add extra features. For Liam’s Christmas Tree project, he wanted all red and green blocks, so pulled out everything he could find in the right colour. You could also add extra legs to a spider (or this dancing crab) by using more Technic beams.
Be aware though, it’s not compatible with the sensors, motors or hubs from other Lego kits, including Power Functions, Mindstorms, Boost or Spike. They use a different type of connector, and we haven’t found a way around that.
Great for teaching mechanical concepts
Lego WeDo comes with a range of gears that are great for demonstrating mechanical concepts. With small, large, bevel, worm and rack gears, you have so many combos. Learn what happens when you connect a small gear to a larger gear, by observing the speed of the second gear. Then swap them over and see how it changes. By testing out different combinations, you can expand the speed range beyond what the motor can offer directly.
Combining Technic beams with larger gears allows you to create hinge actions, like this Inchworm project, and wedge belt wheels can be used to make a flywheel or pulley system. Bevel gears allow you to make connections at 90 degrees, which is useful for driving a wheel axle. We used the worm gear for Yoshihito Isogawa’s Swinging Monkey, by fixing it directly to the motor with an axle and placing a 24-tooth standard gear above it to drive the arm rotation. With the gearbox, both these gears are held firmly in place, and are very unlikely to slip.
What gears are in the box?
- 4x rack gears
- 2x 12-tooth double bevel gears
- 2x 20-tooth single bevel gears
- 2x 20-tooth double bevel gears
- 2x 24-tooth standard gears
- 4x 8-tooth gears
- 1x transparent gearbox
- 6x wedge belt wheels
- 1x worm gear
Lego WeDo 2.0 Pricing
There are a few different ways to get the Lego WeDo components. The easiest is to grab a Core Kit, with everything you’ll need. Here are the best deals local to me in NZ. If you’re overseas, try looking at websites for teaching supplies, as Lego WeDo 2.0 is designed as an education resource.
- Office Max ($430.04)
- Amazon ($396.95 plus shipping & taxes)
- Modern Teaching Aids ($359.64)
The alternative solution is to get the smarthub, motor and sensors, and then use a parts list like this one on BrickOwl to figure out what you’ve already got and what to top up.
Lego WeDo 2.0 Competitors
There are a lot of robotics kits and codable robots out there on the market, so it can be hard to choose the best fit. Here’s a brief overview of the alternatives, in approximate order of age/complexity.
Ozobot
Liam used Ozobot in his Year 3 (age 7) class at school last year, and it comes with a free app and Ozobot simulator. There is no building involved with Ozobot – it’s ready to code straight out of the box. You can work through multiple stages of coding, with increased difficulty as you gain more experience. The Ozobot kit comes with marker pens and ‘roadmaps’, along with a list of sequences. Different combinations of marker colours give different instructions to the Ozobot as it follows the map, so kids aged 5+ can start enjoying it straight away.
Tobbie II
Liam began using Tobbie II when he was 5, and still loves it. It needs to be constructed, the same as Lego, but once you’ve it, it stays together. Building Tobbie exceeds the patience of younger kids, and came close to exceeding mine as well. It took a dedicated 8 hours, with each piece needing its edges filed smooth before it came together. Tobbie uses a microbit as his brain and controller, coded in Microsoft MakeCode. He’s got a full set of 12 downloadable programmes so you can start interacting with him straight away. When you’re ready to start creating your own code, hop into MakeCode to get started.
Lego Boost
Lego Boost is the home-equivalent of Lego WeDo 2.0, so you’ll often see it at toy retailers. It’s aimed at the same 6-10 year old group, and functions in much the same way. Be aware though, it’s not compatible with WeDo, Mindstorms or Spike. The hub is motorised to drive an axle, and a second separate motor comes in the kit. Other than that, there’s only a combined colour and motion sensor. Lego Boost doesn’t have a tilt sensor, so won’t work if you want to build controllers like joysticks and steering wheels. The pictorial coding is very similar to what you see with Lego WeDo. Connect it to Scratch for more advanced coding.
Sphero Bolt
Sphero Bolt looks similar to Ozobot, but is used in many schools as an introduction to coding. It’s designed for age 8+, and has a tough, waterproof shell that stands up to enthusiastic use. Bolt has heaps of sensors – compass, light sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer, motor encoders and infrared. Scratch-style block coding is used to create programs for Bolt, and Sphero runs global competitions and challenges that users of all ages can participate in.
Edison
Edison is one that I’m considering getting for Liam sometime in the next 6 months. It’s ready to use straight out of the box, and the dots on top are Lego-compatible. Edison uses a custom coding platform very similar to Scratch, called EdScratch. It’s completely free and easy to use. I like EdScratch because it has the ability to flag incorrect coding, eliminating a lot of frustration!
To make the most of Edison, you really need a pair of them. It adds a bit to the price, but is still one of the more cost effective options on the market, and allows you to build more complex projects like cranes. It’s a very popular classroom kit, because they’re easy to get started and very durable.
Lego Mindstorms
Lego Mindstorms is a more advanced system than Lego Wedo 2.0, and suited to older kids, around age 11+. It’s a bit pricier, but you definitely get more out of it. Mindstorms comes with 4 motors, a distance sensor and a colour sensor as individual components, while the hub has a 6-way gyroscope, LED screen and a speaker. The free Robot Inventor app uses text blocks for coding, which look very similar to Scratch and MakeCode. If you’ve got the budget, and a future robotics whizz, this is a fantastic set.
Lego Spike
Lego Spike is designed for the education sector and classroom environments more than for home, but don’t rule it out straight away. It’s aimed at the 10+ age group and with 3 motors and 3 sensors, it’s got a lot of potential. The pricing is similar to Mindstorms, and seems typical for that age group. The coding app has Scratch-style and Python options to allow more advanced coding.
Makeblock mBot2
The Makeblock mBot looks awesome! It’s about half the price of Lego Mindstorms and Lego Spike kits, because it doesn’t have lots of different project designs. You build it once, and then focus on the coding. The mBlock coding platform starts with Scratch-style blocks, and then moves to Python, much like Lego Spike.
One of the cool things about mBots is that they can talk to each other and create local networks to share information. Many more sensors are available with the mBot2 than with any Lego set, so if you want more advanced sensors, inputs and outputs, this is a great option.
Who is Lego WeDo 2.0 right for?
Lego WeDo 2.0 is fantastic for younger kids, around age 6-9 years old, who want to get started with coding. The building instructions in the app are easy to follow, and the designs are fun. Kids this age will enjoy creating animals, vehicles and machines that they can control. The pictorial coding is easy to use, and you can ‘upgrade’ to Scratch when they’re ready for the more advanced block coding. You’ll get endless hours of learning and entertainment, and by combining with other Lego parts you can build custom designs.
Who should avoid Lego WeDo 2.0?
Lego WeDo isn’t for everyone. Older kids from 11+ may benefit from going straight to Lego Mindstorms. This is because Lego WeDo 2.0 is designed to work with pictorial coding blocks, which can be too simple. In addition, you can only connect two components to the smarthub, which is very limiting. Liam is frequently wanting to make vehicles that can drive and turn, and it’s just not possible unless you combine two full sets together.
Kids who are younger but are good readers and have a mind for coding and robotics may also outgrow Lego WeDo 2.0 fairly quickly. If you’re able to put the time into helping them get up and running with Mindstorms, it’s worth considering.
Conclusion
Whew! Thanks for sticking with me!
We’ve been using Lego WeDo 2.0 for a while now, and it’s been fantastic for Liam. He can design, build and code almost anything he can imagine, and then demolish it easily for the next big idea. The Lego WeDo app is a bit basic, but connecting to the Scratch platform is a great way to extend the possibilities. If you’re looking to design your own projects, it’s worth investing in some extra pins and connectors, to avoid a lot of frustration.
Lego WeDo 2.0 is designed for the education sector, so have a look at websites that offer teaching resources in your region. Because they primarily market to businesses and schools, the prices are usually lower than retail stores, but they’re totally happy to ship to individuals.
If you’ve got other questions about WeDo that I haven’t addressed here, please get in touch using the contact form and let me know what I can help you with!
