💻 Coding · 🤖 AI robots, toys and kits · 🏫 Classroom tools
Marty the Robot
By Robotical. Visit Marty the Robot
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
Marty is a small walking humanoid robot with motorized legs, arms and eyebrows. It walks, turns, dances, kicks a ball and talks. Young children start with screen-free Unplugged color cards and a simple controller, then code in Blocks Jr, Blocks (Scratch-style) and Python through Robotical's free app on Chromebooks, Windows, Mac, iPads and Android tablets. A sensor dashboard turns its movement into data. Robotical, based in Edinburgh, sells mostly to schools and offers a free two-week school trial.
Our take: Great for schools that want a robot kids remember, from age 4 up; budget-minded families should weigh the $449 price and ask about the app's tracking.
Checked in a browser
A browser check on 2026-10-25: what loads, the ads and trackers we saw, and what a child meets first. Not a hands-on test.
| Child safety: 4 out of 5 | No ads or chat; this is a sales page for schools with BUY NOW and TRY FOR FREE buttons and links to 12 outside sites, mostly social media. |
|---|---|
| Data: 2 out of 5 | Before any choice on the cookie banner, the page loaded Google's ad network (doubleclick) plus Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Hotjar trackers, and set 43 cookies. |
| Ease: 3 out of 5 | A product brochure with long paragraphs and a cookie banner across the bottom; there is nothing for a child to do here. |
| Cost honesty: 3 out of 5 | A paid robot; the page leads with BUY NOW and a bulk-order promotion, with a free trial of the apps also offered. |
What we found
- Contacted 20 outside sites, including doubleclick, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter ads and Hotjar session tracking.
- Set 43 cookies before the cookie banner was answered, despite the banner offering Reject.
- First text: 'BUY 10 MARTYS, GET 10 COGS FREE' and BUY NOW / TRY FOR FREE buttons.
- This page is aimed at teachers and buyers, not children.
From the test: A sales page for a classroom robot that sets off social-media and ad trackers before you can say no; judge the robot itself in a hands-on test.
| Ages it suits | 4+ (maker says learners as young as 4) |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | Website terms (last updated 2018) say you must be the age of majority where you live, and adults may consent to let minor dependents use the site; no app-specific age rule found. (terms) |
| Price | Paid. Marty the Robot V2 $449 ex tax; class pack of 5 $2,225 (Robotical store, Oct 2026); app free with no subscriptions |
| Works on | A device, Web, Chromebook, Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad, Android |
| Account | No account needed |
| Ads | None |
| In-app purchases | None |
| The AI in it | No built-in AI; Robotical publishes guides for teaching machine learning concepts with Marty. |
What's good
- Walking humanoid is memorable for kids
- Free app with no paywall
- Unplugged mode for the youngest
Watch for
- Expensive for one robot
- App Store label lists cross-app tracking identifiers
- No app or child privacy policy found
Data and privacy
Robotical's privacy policy covers its website and store (orders, emails, analytics and marketing cookies) and says nothing about the app or children. Its App Store listing says identifiers may be used to track users across other companies' apps and websites. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
No independent study found; the maker's own claims only (more engaging than rolling robots, a path from unplugged play to Python).
In the Big Index
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Where these facts come from
- https://robotical.io/
- https://robotical.io/about/all-about-marty/
- https://robotical.io/shop/?currency=USD
- https://robotical.io/privacy-policy/
- https://robotical.io/terms-of-service/
- https://robotical.io/blog/why-is-ai-literacy-important/
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/robotical/id6739531583
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.