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Green Science Box Robot
by firasha
I got this kit quite a few months ago to review for izziwizzikids. I was not really sure what to expect from it but when I saw the age was recommended as 8+ I was not sure whether or not my 3 year old would really get anything out of it but actually he did, we made it together with me, him and his auntie and he did enjoy the process. ... However if a child was around 8 years+ they would probably be able to do quite a lot more of it by themselves and may find that more rewarding.
The main point of this kit is that it is supposed to be very eco friendly as you use the outer packaging that it arrives in, to make the robot. When you open it up there are all the little bits and pieces inside to attach to the box and a little black pen to decorate. It has motors and screws so it looks quite complicated, i actually had to concentrate myself to get it done but then I am not particularly technical.
It took us quite a while to get the whole kit made and we all quite enjoyed doing it, it was nice to have a little project to do all together. My son really liked the finished robot, which he played with afterwards although it only lasted about a week before parts started to fall off which is a shame as it would have been really good if it lasted well and withstood a lot of play but unfortunately that's not really the case and kind of defeats the eco aspect of the kit when it breaks fairly quickly and so cant be kept.
I have seen this robot kit available for around ten pounds which I would say is a bit too much on the expensive side really, but if you get it on a cheaper offer then it is a good kit to keep children busy for an hour or so but bear in mind if they are on the younger side you really will have to fully supervise and do the project together with them. I am not really sure an 8 year old could do it without supervision either, i feel its quite likely they will need some level of help.
We made a video review of this at the time we got it, so here it is if anyone would like to see the robot building in action!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZucF_NLDqc
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Airfix Supermarine Spitfire Mk1A - Series 1
by thedevilinme
Its 70 years to the month when the Americans got their butt kicked at Pearl Harbor and they haven't looked back since. But can you name the only battleship not to be sunk at Pearl? Well, believe it or not but the USS Phoenix did indeed rise from the flames and was later purchased by the Argentinean navy and served for twenty years in the ... South Atlantic - yep, the General Belgrano no less!
Mrs. Thatch sunk the 400 ton warship and earned 323 crosses on her bedstead, the Belgrano anchor no doubt nailed up over her gold plated toilet! All Cameron could muster was a shell case from munitions recently fired at Libya from a British frigate, the projectile bit merely clipping an olive seller's market stall, the plan to use it as a doorstop at Number Ten his war trophy. What a man! But Airfix could have stopped all that nonsense, Galtiere and Mrs. T meticulously making their models of the Belgrano and the sub that sunk her in their downtime and then going head-to-head in a bath tub somewhere between Buenos Aries and London to reclaim the islands, winner takes all. Think Michael Bentine to complete the picture. Who knows, they might have got on!
Whereas as in my day working-class lads fought their wars in their bedrooms and back gardens with Airfix Supermarine Spitfires shooting up ME109s, today's lower class youth are doing the real thing and rucking over oil and gas in distant lands, most infantryman killed in modern wars under 22. The flyboys are much safer these days, of course, and rarely lose people, why it was great to be a kid back in the 1970s when a childhood was so innocent. Making kits of all manner of military equipment was a fabulous time, Airfix the preferred supplier although Mattel pretty good too, and we didn't lose our limbs if we stepped on an IED in our bedrooms as we played out our wars.
As kid my bedroom was littered with kits and I still have some survivors today tucked away in boxes, my war trophies. In my youth the bedroom ceiling was a frantic air war between George Lucas and David Lean, the Millennium Flacon swooping in on a Japanese Zero, skillfully suspended with cotton, but a legendary game of footy in the room with my brother wiping out half the Luftwaffe. I was always cruel to my ME109. Maybe because I didn't want to admit that it was as beautiful as the Spitfire. Now kids fight their wars on the XBOX and I have to say it's just not the same thing. Running down the garden with a Lancaster bomber you have just built to bomb the blue/mauve German paratroopers (also from Airfix) and their half-track advancing across the lawn is as good as the real thing as far as I was concerned.
Not only where there Airfix kits for just about anything from the war theatre over the years but you could buy the paints and varnish from the same company to paint them. I recall Humbrol paints were better though and the world's smallest paint cans and extremely overpriced. But Humbrol, who owned Airfix, collapsed like Jordan's knickers and another beautiful British company (as Al Murray would proudly bellow!) would save them, Hornby now the owners of both.
Building your kits was the whole point of the experience, of course, no doubt the spark of interest for many young engineers today. My first kit was the Apollo 1l, which, after me and dad spent ages on it, melted on top of the gas fire to earn a leaning tower of Pizza look. If you don't get your glue and heat mix right its reactor meltdown time.
The kits had the coolest boxes ever and very welcome in your Christmas stockings, a project for later on in the Christmas holidays. I remember one year that I got some aluminous dinosaurs in kit form and was absolutely over the moon with them. Funny how memories pop into your heads when you attack nostalgia on the keyboard. Airfix are a box of nostalgia for me.
The pieces to make the Spitfire kit and the like are typically attached to a plastic scaffold that has numbered tabs to break them off from so you can follow the instructions to put all the pieces in the right place to make your plane. Of course there was always something left over and other bits that were just too fiddly ad irrelevant that you didn't bother with the excruciating task of sticking them where they needed to go. Cockpits were a nightmare because you would get glue all over the plastic glass and it would start to melt as you 'tweezered' in the joystick between the pilots legs. The real hardcore Airfix kids (and dads) would have painted everything separately and that joystick already in place, the required level of pedanticness your choice. I was more of a stick the big bits together first kid and then put what's left in the gaps, which inevitably meant the undercarriage wouldn't come down and the flaps glued in the same position.
The next job was to paint the thing with your Humbrol paints, which I found the most satisfying as fresh paint caressed the roughened plastic wings and fuselage. The Spitfire looks especially beautiful when fully liveried and one of our greatest inventions. Once that was dry you would then take out your decal sheet and dip the in warm water and then slide them of on to the planes wings and body, finally bringing it too life and ready for take off. All you had to do know was buy the Airfix ground crew and the build the control tower. I even had the fueler's truck. I think I made my own windsock and ground radar.
Because you only ever bought one of everything your assembled air force would look awkward and your dogfights always predicable, the 'Spit' going up against the cumbersome but cool JU88 'Stuker' dive-bomber, or the Mitsubishi Zero having a tear up with the awesome Mustang P51. I also had the B17 and B29 Flying Fortress, magnificent bombers.
If air battles weren't your thing then Airfix did cars, boats and all manner of models. Warships were always fun as you hoped they would float in your bath and if you were clever enough you could seal weights in the hull to achieve just that, then a straight battle of Midway between your kits and Lego boats.
So in conclusion if I had kids I would definitely buy kits for them, educational toys like Airfix at the right age surely growing the kid's brain. The sense of achievement of putting together one of these from start to finish was special. Sadly, today the 12-year-olds growing out of basic toys would rather sniff the glue and have their wars on the X-Box than actually stretch their brains. The Spitfire and the like costs around £4.99 on Amazon and £7.99 on the high street. For a toy that will keep your kids occupied for a while with an end product to be proud of that's not a bad deal - unless dad takes over, of course...
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Green Science Tin Can Robot
by Mephit
The Girl spent her pocket money on this project to do in the half-term. It's a kit to build your own walking robot out of a tin can.
In the box, you get:
an instruction leaflet (this is detailed and has clear diagrams)
body rings (to go round the can),
2 legs (one shorter than the other, so your robot can ... either be horizontal or vertical),
2 straw attachments for the arms, plus bendy straws to make the arms
2 gripper hands (which fit into the straw arms. They do not grip or move independently, they're just shaped hands),
1 toy motor with gear,
screws, bolts and nuts, terminal caps and various gubbins to make the circuit
plus two eye plates, wibbly eyes and wires to attach them. (The eyes are just those ones you can put on cards and craft projects, with adhesive backs).
You also need a clean, recycled drinks can and one AA battery, which were not included. To put the robot together you need a small cross-head screwdriver. There's no need to pierce the can or anything like that, and safety guidelines were included in the instruction leaflet.
The Girl (11) started off working on this project on her own, but found the instruction sheet a bit confusing. It used some terms and words she was unfamiliar with, which made it difficult to understand. It could have done with a glossary as the assumption of knowledge was too much for a kit designed for ages 8 and over, in my opinion. Obviously it's an educational project, but it would've been handy to have explanations for some of the terms used with the kit.
With my help, she was able to put the robot together within about twenty minutes. It has lots of small parts, so you need a clear workspace and sharp eyes to spot any escapee screws!
When it was done, it was a handsome robot. Unfortunately the thing didn't work!
We redid the whole thing and checked its wiring, replaced the battery, all to no avail. It became clear after much experimentation that the motor provided was a dud.
This was terrifically disappointing (there were tears) as the Girl had been so looking forward to making it and had worked hard on putting it together. It was a bit of a learning experience in that we had to talk about what the electronic terms meant, and it was fun to do it together, but the fact that it didn't blooming work kind of outweighed the pluses! Unfortunately as we'd lost the receipt, we'd no way of taking the kit back or getting the part replaced. When I've a bit spare I might buy a new motor for the robot and see if it'll work then, at which point I'll update this review.
When it does function, it is supposed to walk in a wobbly way across your floor.
The Girl has no comment to make other than "I wish it had worked!"
She spent £10 on it at the shop we got it from, poor lass. It's available online from Amazon and other sellers at £11.99. I wouldn't recommend it as a buy, because ours was faulty, but if you did want to try it, it would probably be best to test the motor before you put the whole thing together!
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