More like a colour damp squib (Crayola Colour Explosion - Rainbow)

Member Name: azana

Product:	Crayola Colour Explosion - Rainbow
Date:	15/03/09 (194 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Filled a rainy afternoon

Disadvantages: Not as good as we thought it would be

My eldest daughter is rather enthusiastic and creative on the art front at the moment - let's just say that our recycling bin is a little full (I do scan her better efforts), and at home time when reception all come out I am the mum who is most "blessed" with rockets made of boxes and the like.

I bought this colour explosion set as part of a 2 for £8 offer at Asda, thinking it would be a good way for her to draw in a different way. The set is comprised of a spiral bound notebook with black pages (20 in all), 2 special pens that only work on the paper, there is also a stencil page. I thought that maybe the opportunity to draw on a black page to reveal colour patterns underneath would be a good way of encouraging her to draw in a different medium and good fun to boot.

The set came in a sealed foil pack - so would be perfect for taking on journeys or holiday. My daughter and I had a quick look at the instructions in the pack - mainly advice to avoid using the pen on other surfaces and how to use the pens, and then she started drawing. The two pens provided are black with "colour explosion" written on them and look like normal felt tips with a colourless nib.

Each black page has a different design under the black coating. This was of great interest to my daughter, the problem was that the pen takes a little bit of time to dissolve the black covering and so she couldn't draw as well as she normally would have done. She then spent most of the time just randomly scribbling to see what the pattern was rather than producing the lovely firework pictures that I had envisaged. I don't like to be too prescriptive when doing creative stuff with my child so I didn't want to stop her, but the results were quite disappointing. She did do a few stencils, but to be honest the pictures she produced weren't very inspiring and the 6 different patterns were just a bit blobby and not that great.

It might be that my daughter was just a bit too young for this item (rising 6 rather than the age 6 it is recommended for) but I thought that this was not great. Other crayola products we have tried are much, much better (the colour wonder range is great) but I don't think I would buy this again. I do remember spending hours when I was a kid doing scribbles, putting black crayon over them and scraping off to make pictures, so maybe I will try that with her, it would be cheaper and perhaps more fun. At 20p a page even on offer this was a small amount of fun at a price.

Overall I wouldn't rush out to buy this item again, though at £4 it could be a useful party gift. I think from the packaging both my daughter and I were expecting this to be a lot better than it was, it was alright but more gimmick than actual "colour explosion".

Summary: Draw with the magic pen to make patterns