My three year old is a huge bubble fan and like most children of this age loves blowing them and trying to catch them especially in the garden where the wind lifts them up. This bubble wand was something my mum gave him last year and he has loved playing with and if I am honest so have I.

This is a large plastic wand with cylindrical holder; it is about 40cm long. The one my son has is blue but I believe it comes in other colours too. The wand itself is attached to the cap and handle of the tube as most bubble wands are. I find that the fit of the cap is quite tight and seals very well. This is useful for us as it often ends up falling over in the cupboard and this tight seal stops it leaking all over the place.

The wand itself is easy for me to hold but my son finds it a bit large for him to hold it in just one hand and often ends up holding it in a similar way to holding a cricket bat or golf club with two hands. At the begin he was a little confused about why you didn't blow through the hole to get the bubbles and when he did try to do this it would more often than not end up with no bubbles being produced at all. Now that he has the hang of waving it slowly in the air we are able to produce some nice big bubbles to play with. He does enjoy making the bubbles himself and his favourite way to do this is to turn madly in a circle to see how long and big he can make them. He equally enjoys me making the bubbles for him to try to catch them. I find that on a windy day the bubbles don't work quiet as well as they seem to get caught on the breeze and become a bit smaller.

The tube I find can get a little trapped with bubbles inside from the frequent ducking and often after a bout 5 minutes of bubbles we have to stop and let the mixture settle down. The reason for this is as once there are a lot of bubbles inside the tube the wand then doesn't seem to fill up in a clear and seamless way that seems to be needed for the bubbles to be produced.

The mixture inside the bubble tube did seem to last about 3-4 weeks the first time. So I tried to make some with washing up liquid and water as I did as a child but I can't seem to get the water to washing up liquid ratio right as I never seem to be able to produce good enough bubbles with my own mixture. I have filled it up with bubble mixture from the super market and small bubble bottles and this has worked well and enabled us to keep using the large wand. It is however a bit fiddly to fill them up due to the small opening at the top so I find it best to do this over the sink with a small jug.

I also have to say my son does prefer bigger bubbles to the normal size and if we are doing bubbles in the garden he will often ask for big bubbles I think this is because they are more impressive but also because he likes the whirling and twirling he does to make them.

Overall
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This is a great big bubble wand set and is wonderful for producing large bubbles. The handle is a bit large for my 3 year old to hold in just one hand but is just right for my friend's 5 year old daughter. I am not sure where my mum bought this from but it does appear to be available from Tobar direct on the Internet from the following page http://www.tobar.co.uk/rkmain.asp?PAGEID=36841& ;CTL_CAT_CODE=2172 so give them a whirl this summer is my advice as with bubbles bigger is better in my sons book.