Activity Toy Reviews

We just got this microscope for my son's 10th birthday. We finally got to view a slide provided but the image was not good at all. The eyepiece is too small. The lenses seem to be out of line with the viewing hole in the platform. The projector did not work at all. The filter wheel does not turn. My son did not have a happy birthday with this item and this is what he wanted most. We will return it.

We purchased this microscope for our adopted Chinese 11y son, as his first microscope ... he wants one for Xmas.

We found the built in illumination good, the optics good, the prepared slides very good, and the instructions OK. Wish they had provided more experiments, slide making instructions, etc..

We found the camera mounting accessory rather weak, but we can use strong rubber bands to assist holding the digital camera we got to use with it.

The projection accessory seems good for such an inexpensive set. We tried it in a dark bath room.

We found that one must be careful when screwing in the eyepiece lens, so one does not mess up the threads.

All in all ... we think, for the PRICE, that this will be a great first starting science learning toy/science tool for a child at age 11. Remembering back to the 1960s when we had them as kids, this is much better than what we had.

We also like that everything fits into the case and can be safely and nicely put away in a boys room, without being scattered all over the place, or in shoe boxes.

This has really been great for my daughter who is 3 years old. We keep it in the car and she uses it while on longer drives. We also take it into restaurants with us and it keeps her busy during the wait.

We purchased this toy for our son last Christmas. First of all an eight year old will not be able to put this together. It might even be difficult for an adult. When we finally finished it we put it on and it was having major problems. The gears kept skipping. We called the company to see if there was something that we could do and they told us "Well, really this toy is not ment to last" a lot of help they were. So over all it was a giant waste of money. It has made it's final resting place in the dump.

I purchased this for my son's 8th birthday. He was delighted. Unfortunately the excitement quickly faded when we discovered that two crown gears were not included in the box. I contacted the company and they quickly agreed to mail these to me. Two weeks later, the geers have not arrived. When contacting the company again, I was told that these were air mailed the day of my original contact and that I would now need to contact my "local dealer". A web site was provided. Unfortunately the local dealer is a full days drive away. This has resulted in a very disappointed boy and little confidence in the company or their customer relations.

Some others say they purchased the toy for an 8 year old. That is a mistake. It is much to complicated for your average 8-year old. I am age 12 and i thought it was a great toy. Although, I am the kind of kid who can program a website with PHP and create a light seaking robot from scratch. The only bad thing I can say about it is that it didn't have an age range displayed. I would recomend this toy for a 13-year old to an adult as it is rather complex. All in all it is a good toy. It could be a little cheaper though.

Got this book as a gift for my son and although it's cute, he has zero interest in it. My son LOVES books and can't get enough of them but he has never liked activity books at all and this one in particular is very boring. The price tag is a joke, I'm glad I didn't pay for it. I would pass on this unless your child is VERY interested in activity books (there are a couple of flaps to lift and that's pretty much it).

This book is very cute, and despite other comments I found it to be well made. My son is not real interested though but maybe he will later on. I just think that it doesn't have enough pages and interactivity for the price you are paying.

I rec'd this as a baby shower gift, and am very suprised to find it's retail is $35! I do have an older version (no music) but, my son is now 18 mo and still loves "reading" his book before bed. So worth it none the less.