I got the Lego Droid Commander Boost set almost a week ago. Being curious about the Boost platform and coming from the Mindstorms world, I wanted to see what you could do with Boost. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that you could do quite a bit with it!
The three droids are a triumph and just work, coming to life immediately with personality and functionality. The R2-D2 model in particular is one of the most functional I've seen for its size. The Gonk model can walk forwards and backwards and change direction - all using only one motor - freeing the other two motors up for attachments and such. The Mouse droid works pretty much as you'd expect.
The last bag of parts is 100 or so parts used repeatedly to build attachments and accessories to complete the missions. The missions themselves range from bog-standard "move backwards if an obstacle is sensed" to very clever ones like "get the code from the central computer" and "death star trench run". There is a special surprise at the end when you complete all the missions.
Each droid has a functioning auxiliary rotating axle to attach mechanisms and props to (the Gonk droid has two!) Given what the missions demonstrate, each droid is easily adapted to play sports like golf, soccer, basketball, etc. There are also examples of projectile firing, jousting, making the hub a game controller, etc. Switching the hub, motor, and sensor from one droid to the next is easy, and they give you specific instructions to install and remove for each droid, so you're never lost when you do it. A few of the missions really expect you to "think like a child" and may actually stymie your adult frame of reference!
I did all the app stuff on a Samsung Galaxy S7, so it works on a phone but I recommend a larger phone or tablet. Each droid gets its own remote-control mini-app, and programming blocks/environment. Not all the Boost programming blocks unlock, for some reason (some have the advanced math blocks unlocked, some others don't, very strange coming from Mindstorms). Each robot goes through a "calibration/wake-up" sequence hidden by the software (probably resetting motor tach counts and measuring the accel/gyro readings, definitely needed for the Gonk droid's walking mechanism), but that and the code for the custom droid-specific blocks are hidden away.
All the mission programs can be modified by you, and you can easily repeat missions you mess up on or want to reset, at any time. The app takes you from planet to planet of the OT, but only ends at Bespin. There's also an undisclosed spot in the Jawa Scavenger for something. Makes me think that more missions may be added in the future?
Still, it's easy to program and give life to the droids. I made a simple block of code that basically had R2 whine repeatedly if he was knocked over, until he was brought upright. Speaking of which, there are tons and tons of Star Wars sound effects and music to use (all played by your device, none of this goes on board the Boost hub unlike Mindstorms), and comes with a vocoder to record your voice and change it to Vader, 3PO, Jawa, etc.
There are plenty of parts, and some gears, but doesn't have the big wheels or treads of the standard Boost set. Still, I'd think you could build lots of custom robots anyways.
Battery life is not the best, so get out the rechargeables.
