Cheap Electronic Playground 50-in-one

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List Price: $24.99
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The Electronic Playground reminds me very much of the type of electronics kit I had when I was young. I bought this for my son who is 6. While the instructions and details were a little above his head the kit was not. The projects are very straight forward and the the wiring guides are as easy as "connect the dots" (really!). My only minor complaint is that the frame is a bit flimsier (paper and plastic)then I would like.

My son and I did two projects in about 2 hours (two of the smaller ones) and I was able to use the kit to make some customizations (leverage the variable resistor add a light to the electronic buzzer etc.) and show him how circuits/components can be expanded and improved.

But beyond the ease of use the instruction booklet is really quite an excellent resource on basic electronics. For an older child the kit could/should provide a pretty good grounding (pardon the pun). The combination of straight forward instructions (so you get get things to work) and well written explanations (so you know why they work) is great.

I really can't wait to do more projects with my son or ....

maybe I'll just borrow it at night and do them myself.

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I got this for my ten year old son who was interested in electricity and electronics. We have been going thru the lessons one at a time and he has been learning a lot. The book that comes with the toy is written so that he can understand the concepts of resistance and capacitance which is as far as we have gotten so far.

The toy is lightly built and would probably be reduced to junk outside of adult supervision but it is sturdy enough for him to use when supervised.

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We bought this for a boy (age 10 1/2). He found it interesting for a while, but grew tired of it quickly. If you have a child who is really into tinkering with electronics, etc., then this might be a good choice. Otherwise, it might become boring too quickly. Once the user gets a feel for how each of the included circuits, resistors, etc. work, then there's not much left.

As a parent, I will add that the guidebook which comes with this kit is very informative. It provides a lot of easy-to-understand introductory information on circuits and similar topics. My son seemed interested while we did a few of the lessons and projects together during some "father/son" time. I think this type of information is good for developing brains, since it gives children a brand new topic to analyze and absorb; it also gives them a basic understanding our our "electrical world".

In summary, I have mixed feelings. If you have a child who shows a liking or interest in this type of toy (assembling, testing, doing small projects, taking apart his/her current electronics toys to see how they work, etc.), then this might be a good choice. But, I cannot pound the table and say this is a "great" toy. It's a "good" toy for the right child. If you think your child might be the "right" child, then I encourage you to give it a try!

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I purchased this for my 8 yo son who had an interest in learning more about electronics. My elder 11 yo daughter was not interested in sharing her snap circuits set (she has the SC-500). We were not interested in making a large initial investment. While I really like the snap circuits and the easy directions and ease of assembling different projects / experiements; but I prefer the electronic playground for the instructional manual. The manual does a very good job of explaining what is going on, for examples, how do resisters work, what are their puposes. It questions the student to come up with real life uses of a resister such as in a light dimmer.

The playground is made of relatively inexpensive cardboard (really wish that they would have used something that felt more sturdy). However, it was very easy for my son to wire between the different pieces. He did not have any problem following the provided instructions. With the additional background that was provided, he was able to take the intended lesson and further explore on his own .... and understand what he was doing. With the Snap Circuits Pro, I did not feel like my daughter was given enough information to freely and easily experiment. Interesting that they seem to be made by the same manufacturer. My daughter has had her set for 3 years so maybe things have changed.

This was a very inexpensive way to provide a great introduction to electronics. My middle child was following along with my son and agreeing with all of the written explanations she learned at school for why the experirments worked. As an intro kit, there is certainly quite a lot that they teach the kid thru the many "experiements" and it is a good guide to test a child's interest in electronics before committing to a much more expensive set.

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We got this for Christmas, for my 8 year old son who is a budding electrician. He loves circuits and is familiar with Elenco products. He was so excited to get this, and pretty quickly figured out how to use it. It is definitely one of the most educational toys out there for engineer-wannabes, and the projects were fun.

But I am sorry to say that it is very cheaply made. The base is a thick cardboard rather than plastic, so it easily tears. In fact, we ripped the battery flap almost immediately, even though we knew to be careful. Nothing a little strong tape couldn't fix, but considering that this toy is supposed to be tinkered with, it really needs to be made stronger to last awhile.