Mould It! (HGL Mould-A-Foam)

Member Name: tb4ms

Product:	HGL Mould-A-Foam
Date:	02/08/09 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of extras in the gift set.

Disadvantages: Not enough tubs and no glue!

This Mould-A-Foam gift set was in the clearance section at Poundstretcher, from £6.99 reduced to £4.99.

Given that my niece had come to stay for the weekend and the torrential rain we had two weeks ago, the planned expedition to the local beach was out of the window and a quiet evening making things was therefore a necessity!

- Contents -

~ 26 pipe cleaners - a mixture of striped, plain and metallic.
~ 6 coloured feathers.
~ 4 small tubes of glitter.
~ 6 bags of moulding foam.
~ An assortment of goggle eyes in varying sizes.
~ 3 storage tubs.

- How to use the mould-a-foam -

There are instructions on the back of the box with coloured photos of a step by step method of creating different animals. They give examples of a cockerel, caterpillar, butterfly, dog, snake and scorpion which are useful to use for initial guidance.

The best approach that we found was to draw the outline of the animal on some paper, although it is suggested that wood can also be used. The attempt at making a 3D creature wasn't very successful so we were more than happy with the flatter animal.

My niece then chose her the colours that she wanted to use. She moulded the foam on to the paper, using the outlines that she had drawn.

- The properties of the foam -

The foam is very malleable and can be squashed and squeezed in to different sections of the outlines drawn. It doesn't set immediately which is a bonus in terms of being able to adjust any errors made. It set completely within one hour.

The foam is made up of tiny little white balls which have been coloured. I know that they are white as unfortunately some areas of the foam had dried out, making them colourless and unable to stick together.

It doesn't smell which is good for children to use.

- The gift set -

The picture shown by dooyoo is of the tubs of mould-a-foam which are currently selling for £1.94 on amazon.co.uk for three of the 50g tubs.
Given the price of 3 tubs, I don't think I did too badly with the gift set, considering all of the goodies that you get in it to add to the foam, e.g. the pipe cleaners for antennae of the butterfly and the goggly eyes!

We plan to use the feathers for making a cockerel or even a peacock, this weekend when she stays again.

- Overall -

This was a welcome activity on an extremely gloomy, wet July evening.... So much for the summer heatwave!!
My niece is 8 years old and got a lot of enjoyment out of this. The finished product was bright and colourful and met with her approval. It kept her occupied for a good hour and she didn't require any adult help once we had assessed the best way of creating the objects.

We did notice that the goggly eyes didn't have a peel back sticky option so we did have to use glue on the paper set aside for the eyes of the butterly that was made. This wasn't a problem for us as I have glue in the house but it would be a tad frustrating if you didn't and you had to go and seek some in order to finish the item.

Another small gripe is that there are only 3 tubs provided to store the opened foam when in my opinion there should be 6 in order to store and keep all 6 colours fresh and moist. As a result of this we limited the use to just 3 colours. I've since collected some tubs with lids so that she'll be able to use all 6 if she wishes.

In short, a good gift set, despite the slightly dried out foam in some of the bags. Not bad for a few good hours of creative fun!

Summary: A great gift set, priced reasonably for a good few hours of fun.