Vexed building VEX IQ

I spent a half an hour this morning attempting to build the robot base to see how involved it is. I may be underestimating the skills of the grade school kids involved, but I think VEX can still learn a lot from LEGO on how to give good building instructions. In thirty minutes I only accomplished three steps using a total of under a dozen parts. Most of the time was spent wondering which of several similar looking parts they were talking about. (edit: Much later I found out from a forum that the big poster I had ignored had all the parts on it. That helped a ton, but my Lego comment still stands.)

I don't want to sound negative against VEX IQ. I think the remote control robot, like a radio controlled vehicle, is an aspect that most people can latch onto. I think that with better labeling of parts than the bags and instructions initially give and careful handling (there are a few bags of tiny parts) it can be accomplished, but it may take more careful supervision of a smaller groups of 3rd graders to do VEX IQ than with LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3. This unfortunately seems at odds with the age limits of FLL vs VEX.

I could see a completed LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 or (especially) VEX IQ bot being introduced to the after school club kids to interact with in a controlled way, but I wouldn't recommend allowing much contact with the competition team's robots until after the season is over.