Customer Reviews Most Helpful | Most Recent | Highest Rating | Lowest Rating
Average customer review 
(based on 20 reviews)
 Force Trainer is a Force Fit
Written by Disappointed Dad from Phoenix, AZ
Nov 12, 2009
We were very excited to receive The Force Trainer as a gift. I'm all for bio-feedback and have paid for EEG therapy for our son who has ADD. Unfortunately, it does not work as advertised and appears to fit in the catagory of "you see what you want to see." Five family members (adults and children) used the product and had the same result: no matter what your state of mind, the trainer advances you through the first "Padwan" level automatically. Each phrase and ball movement is identical from person to person. It seems all it takes is a live person to make the ball move up and down.
The "Jedi Knight" and "Jedi Master" levels were similar: the ball and voice seemed to proceed in either a pre-programmed or a random pattern. There is no way to tell whether your brain waves are affecting the ball's movement or whether it is a programmed random change in the fan speed. You should be able to check this with the "free play mode" where ball movement and light indicators are supposed to reflect your brain wave patterns. However, in our unit the ball stayed in the middle position no matter how hard we "concentrated" or "used our feelings." The lights only blinked on and off in a regular pattern.
One other minor point: while it was cute at first to hear Yoda quote lines from the movies, he grew tiresome after the fifth time he quoted the same line, "Reach out with your feelings! Use the Force. Do or do not, there is no try."
All in all we were VERY disappointed in this item. And would highly caution everyone to stay away from it. It is overpriced at best and intentionally deceptive to children at worst. My son was so proud to achieve Padwan, I didn't have the heart to tell him it worked the same for everyone. They all got frustrated and quit at the Jedi Knight level as no amount of concentration or relaxation could move the ball in a predictable way.
The Trainer must measure some sort of brain activity or skin conductivity, however, it does not work as advertised. I do not see how the manufacturer will avoid some kind of consequence for putting this out with the claims it makes. I suppose they can say, "Not everyone is cut out to be a Jedi."
I am sure some will use the toy and see exactly what they want to see. They will thrill to hear Yoda and R2D2 verbally pat them on the back. If this item sells, as it surely must with the slick marketing and idea that "you too can be a Jedi Knight", I believe it has more to do with P.T. Barnum ("There's a sucker born every minute") than The Force.
(74 of 82 people found this review helpful)
 nice toy
Written by Ender from columbus, ohio
Oct 02, 2009
You put the headset on your head...make sure the contacts are in the right place(even fit a 8 year old's head). Then its easy in the first level. Just to start counting by 2's to make the ball move up the tube(will not be that easy in later levels). Our house is crazy and someone would wait until the person had the ball pretty high up and then say something funny and it was always funny to see the ball just drop from lack of concentration.
Well I had one for about 3 weeks before I took it back for the money. It was fun for about 2 days then even with 6 people in the house it sat pretty much unused for a couple weeks. That said there are 3 levels. The first level even the 8 year old beat. Second level was pretty cool and was the one that was the most fun. Third level was just to hard (understandably) for anyone in the house to beat even at the end of 3 weeks. This was still cool because it gave something to shoot for.
For the $130 this thing was in the store it was not worth it unless you have people over often. Then it would be a great conversation piece/toy on the coffee table. Very sturdy no real parts to loose and very close to five stars if nothing else because it seems the first of a kind. The ball just goes up and down the tube though. I will try the Mind Flex that seems a little more entertaining and less expensive hopefully next month.
Great product. Definitely worth playing with.
(45 of 56 people found this review helpful)
 Fun for the audience it's made for.
Written by J. Granquist from Lincoln, Nebraska
Dec 12, 2009
This is all that my son asked for for Xmas or his 9th birthday. At the time we asked him, it was well over $100. But he kept asking & it got decent write ups so the search began. I purchased his for just around $75 and it was a good deal at the time, I see that now on Amazon it goes for half that now. Such is life!
So he opened it last night and is still wearing the wireless headset this morning. He is intregued! The adults found it interesting but not for long. We adults can be finicky! But my 9 yo loves it, and that's all that matters. Whether it actually measures the beta waves in your brain or it's just completing a circuit, he doesn't care. It seems to work for him though. He can make the ball go up & down at will, at it was intertaining to hear his baby brother shout "up!" "up!" as big brother made it go up. Same with down.
All that matters to me is if it puts a smile on my son's face, and it does. He loves Star Wars and he loves this! I gave it 5 stars because if you ask my son, it is perfect. And that's the audience it was meant for.
(12 of 13 people found this review helpful)
This toy DOES work! READ HERE FOR HOW TO DO IT!!!
Written by Shauna M. Wertheim from Washington D.C.
Jan 07, 2010
I'm 18 years old and my friend and I, instead of studying for exams, spent 2 hours on this thing. It took me 20 minutes to get it to do what I wanted, but you're absolutely incorrect if you think this thing is random. It takes exactly what Yoda says, having a calm mind. Seriously, you just have to focus really hard on the section of the tube you want it to go to and if you're capable of maintaining that focus it'll work. I read about it on several scientific websites. It involves the device reading the excitement of your brainwaves. When it's in the right spot, you subconciously say "that's right" in your head and it'll stay there if you can keep focused. It'll also go up to the very top level if you focus very hard on something else, generally to the point of "daydreaming". When I thought of tons of random things though like going from staring at the ball to thinking "basketball, chocolate, girls" the ball would drop. If the lights are blinking on the device, that means that the probes don't have a good connection to your skin.
(2 of 2 people found this review helpful)
Ingenious!
Written by BookMan from Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
Jan 01, 2010
I first heard about this toy about a year ago - in articles on EEG and new, creative uses for EEG training (generally referred to as neurofeedback). To be honest, I wasn't aware that it had been released and came across it at Costco, which is currently selling it for just $33 (really)! So, I thought I'd buy one just to fool around with it - especially since I'm quite familiar with neurofeedback and also have my own eeg machine to use of home-training. While the "real" EEG device is far more sophisticated than this toy, I understood the premise behind how the Force Trainer works.
As neurofeedback requires patience and multiple attempts before you can begin driving your own brainwaves (especially since you don't "feel" anything), I was prepared for this to be somewhat difficult. To begin, I let my boy try it out first (kids usually respond quicker than adults, especially at first) and he was able to use "the force" within ten to fifteen minutes - now, he can do it much faster. So, after seeing his success, I gave it a try. Again, it was difficult at first but, with practice, I too was very successful!
I strongly suspect that some of those who have left negative reviews have done so because they honestly don't know what to expect and give up too quickly. At the moment, I'm looking for information on what frequencies are being trained (again, I suspect beta waves - probably those in the low beta range [SMR]). Assuming the SMR (sensory motor rhythm) is being trained, a relaxed but focused state is required. It's also possible that slower brainwaves may also be used by this toy (particualarly alpha waves) as those indicative of a relaxed state. I've got to look around a bit more to find out what the Force Trainer uses for their target brainwave(s). My recommendation is that if you are not having success with this toy, keep trying as you will eventually be successful (and have a lot of fun, once you are).
(2 of 2 people found this review helpful)
› Read more reviews... |