Reviews of Copernicus - Radiometer

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A radiometer doesn't do anything useful, but it's really cool. You set it in the light and it spins. That's all. My cousin had one when I was a kid and I was always jealous. It struck me a fun stocking stuffer for my son who is an engineering student. It was a real hit. He immediately set about determining what kinds of light worked best: sunlight, incandescent, fluorescent, flashlight, candle light, heat from a blow dryer. I guess I'm going to have to get myself another one when he goes back to college next week.

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This is wonderful! I remember when I was a kid, and had one of these. It is not exactly fun to play with actively all the time, or something that you will be using every day to check lighting conditions, but it is definitely something to put on your window sill, or on a dresser or book shelf where it can be hit with the sun. I find it more of a decorative piece.

It is good to see these are still being made and sold! I bought two, and they both arrived VERY well packaged, in perfect condition, and work great! They also come with a little workbook with scientific experiments that can be done with them, and explanations of why it spins. Useful to teach with!

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Ever since I first came across one of these toys back in high school, I found it incredibly fascinating. For the longest time I thought it illustrated one of the very fundamental yet highly counterintuitive physics principles: light carries momentum. However, it turns out that this is not the mechanism that makes this toy work. The real physics behind it is a bit more mundane, although no less important. The colorings of vanes cause the air inside the bulb to be heated at different rates, which creates the pressure gradient that rotates the vanes. This is still a very important physical process, and this toy is a fun way of illustrating it.

The overall quality of this toy is fairly good. If not handled too roughly it will probably last forever. The best places to keep it are those that are in the open and receive a lot of light, like the work desk area or a window pane. The light bulb seems fragile and it should not be left in the areas where little kids or animals can easily reach it.

Honest reviews on Copernicus - Radiometer

I'm quite a fan of Radiometers...just the simple fact that they spin up when the sun comes out is enough to brighten up my day. I bought one as a junior high student after being enchanted by the simple elegance, and it's been going on ever since. Recently, I wanted to give a few radiometers as presents, but I couldn't find a local museum or science shop that carried them, so I turned to Amazon.

I choose the Copernicus Radiometer over the others primarily on price: I wanted a higher quality product and I was willing to spend a little more to get it. Unfortunately, the Copernicus Radiometer is not a high quality product. Compared to my original, the Copernicus displays poor workmanship and poor materials. My original Radiometer had an integrated glass base which not only looks better but is infinitely more robust than the cheap plastic base used by the Copernicus. Aesthetics aside, the plastic base is easily scratched and is simply glued to the bulb using a combination of glue and cement. Of the two Copernicus radiometers that I purchased, one of them basically fell apart the second I took it out of the box! Besides the base, the glass itself has a several flaws such as gas bubbles, foreign material, and a lack of evenness along the top. I thought maybe I got a dud but my second unit also had this issue. I should clarify that the sides of the bulbs look great and that the glass is only problematic on the tops of the bulbs. I posted pictures for reference.

Overall, the Copernicus Radiometer works, but lacks refinement. The biggest praise I can muster is that it's well packaged and can withstand the rigors of shipping and international travel as checked baggage. If this is your first Radiometer, I think the issues I described above (besides the thing spontaneously falling apart...a few dabs of hot glue did the trick) will not detract from the overall experience. You still do get a rather mysterious yet beautiful object.

Notes:

1) The physics behind how Radiometers work is more complex than the leaflet makes it appear to be. For example, the radiometer will actually spin backwards if you move it from a room-temperature environment to a very cold environment such as a freezer (sans light!)

2) Lasers work, but don't use a super-powerful one. You will DESTROY the vanes and you may foul the partial vacuum.

3) My rating is focused on the execution of this particular product and is not about radiometers in general.

4) It's much more than a toy!

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This is a windmill that runs on light. As ling as it is sunny the vanes will spin. A truely intreaguing piece of scientific equipment.

I broke mine and missed it so much I had to search for another.

Best Pitsco Laser-Cut Basswood Torsion Ballista Kit (Individual Pack) Deals

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When I first saw it, I nearly panicked. It looked like I was going to have to carve all the pieces out.

It is simply that it is cut that very precisely out of the wood. You can't even see the lines until you are pushing out the pieces.

It isn't easy to figure it out, and assemble it, but I liked that about it. It would not have been any fun if it hadn't been a challenge. And it works.

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This is very poor quality. I returned the one I bought ( it broke during shipping ).

I would have returned it either way. It is very small and not sturdy enough to sit on a table fire anything more than a few inches.

Interesting concept, just poorly executed.

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My niece and I assembled this kit. She is four. A child of four would not be able to finish it alone but a kid of age 7 should be able to. This example of Torsion is not obvious to grasp but just a couple more examples would be all that is needed to set the idea into a kids mind. No pieces were missing and there were no extra pieces so don't lose anything. The resulting model is not worth the cost of this kit but the experience of building it with a child does make it worth the price. It is assembled with glue and the glue is needed so disassembly and building again is not an option.

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Assembled, this model ballista is smaller than I thought it would be when purchased online. The quality of the model is excellent. The precision cuts are spot on and the instruction sheet and labeling of the parts excellent as well. You will need a small phillips screw driver, scissors and wood glue, although I was able to forgo the need for the small screw driver. I recommend a good wood glue with a little working time. No sanding required. I'd recommend this as a good model for a beginner to tackle based upon the clear instruction sheet, well-marked pieces and well-cut design.

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This is a nice little kit that produces a fun little Ballista. It turns out fairly sturdy and it shoots well. The only thing wrong with this is that you'll instantly realize you should have bought two of them because you'll want the get a battle together.

Jacquard Beaded Diary Review

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This is a beautiful keepsake for a diary, journal or lists and plans for a special occasion. The jacquard cloth is high quality with the gold brocade and jeweled beads sewn very fine and artistically for a unique pattern. While supply might be limited, if this is ever spotted here again, it would be a splendid buy for personal or gift purposes. Service by this particular vendor was fantastic.

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Reviews of Geoworld Mining Kit - Crystals and Gems

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Our daughter chipped away at the talc and came up with 4 stones! AMethyst crystal, rock crystal, aventurine and another type crystal..it is a little messy but a lot of fun!

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Cheap Chicco Toys DJ Guitar

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Like chicco's other toys, this one is of very good quality too. It is very sturdy and very colorfull. We bought this toy a few days ago and this is really a great toy. It works great and has super cute sounds. It has 20+ prerecorded melodies and is endless fun for little ones. Compared to other guitars out there it has more melodies and functions than any other you can find on the market. Fabulous toy for a great price too.

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We bought this little musical "guitar" when my son was 4 months old. He was slightly unsure of it at 4 months, but by 5 months, he really enjoyed trying to hit the buttons or having us activate the music for him. At 15 months we use it to calm him down in moments of toddler melt down. I keep looking for other little electronic guitars for him, but nothing I find seems like it would serve any better than this little toy, I'm glad we purchased it.

Chicco Toys (an Italian company) puts tons of R&D into the musical aspect of their toys (you don't see this from other companies), so I'll have to explain this toy:

1. Musical styles: Chicco says that these styles are: Rock, Pop and Blues. I have to disagree, to me they seem to be: Country-ish Rock, Country-ish Pop; 3. Sort-of Blues. In any case, the styles are still entertaining in their own right, at least they aren't public-domain standard-hear-everywhere -farmer-in-the-dell music. You won't recognize these tunes from anywhere, which is why they don't get repetitive the way other toys do. They don't bother me due to the variety of them, and I don't particularly listen to country (or rock or blues, I listen to Elmo....another story.....). The musical styles are controlled on a dial with these three settings.

2. Play Modes: There are three play modes, controlled on a dial with three settings

2.1 Short tunes: Press a button, guitar plays a short threesecond tune. My son likes this mode.

2.2 Long tunes ("pre-recorded"): Press a button, guitar plays about an 22 second tune. If you press any of the buttons during the tune, the animal sound on that respective button sounds. My son likes this mode as well.

2.3 "Follow me": Random button flashes, baby is expected to press the flashing button to hear music. If you press any other non-flashing button, nothing happens. At 15 months, my son still doesn't seem to be too interested in this one, it's definitely on the more advanced side.

3. Mixer functions: They add add sound and activate the lights on the "fretboard" buttons:

3.1 The drums button lets you hit a snare drum sound, it's ok, you can amuse the baby with this, or it can be used to help the baby learn to press a button, it's oversized.

3.2 The Whammy Bar adds in a whammy bar guitar squeal.

3.3 A blue spinner ball that the baby can spin to either accelerate or decelarate the music (only functional in the Long Mode play mode). The baby figured this one out quite quickly, by 6 months at least. The baby sitters all figure this out too, so it's quite intuitive.

4. Other functionality:

4.1 Strum button (like where you would strum the guitar, it's the yellow button you see in the image like where strings should be), and it plays its own little musical segment. But it interrupts the main ongoing music, which doesn't resume afterwards.

4.2 Animal sounds: When you are in Long music, "Pre-recorded melodies" setting (lower left, second dial over), then this allows you to keep presssing the keys on the fretboard and play the animal sounds while the music plays (similar to the Chicco walker). This doesn't work in "Short Tunes" mode, or in the "Follow-me" game (limited to the key being activated at that time). These animal sounds are the same sounds as on the Chicco DJ Walker, for anyone familiar with that toy, so Dog, Chick, Cat, Pig, and Frog sounds.

4.3 Volume: There is a dial with "Off" (turns toy off),"low" and "high". Low is happily decently low (that's what we use), and "high" still isn't super loud, so all I can say is yay.

4.4 Battery use: Toy is very good on battery use, I've only replaced the batteries once in the last year since we've purchased it.

Note: "Ghost in the machine": I'd recommend turning the guitar off at night, in my experience it can activate on its own, even when not super low on batteries (apparently this is common in children's toys electronics). Not great to go out and detect in the middle of the night.

In summary, we're very happy with this toy, it's lots of fun and the variety of tunes means that they aren't repetitive.

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Overall, this is a good buy. I purchased this guitar for my 1 year old nephew so that he would stop trying to play with his uncle's Guitar Hero and it worked.

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There's really not much for a child to do with this but listen to the different tunes. If that works for your child it does a great job. If you want your child to learn from it I don't think it does much there.

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It was ok...I had bought a different one that I could no longer find for my granddaughter that had more cool features & sounds,but got this for my grandson,he likes it but not as much as his cousins...

Best Basic Beat 8-note Resonator Bells with Case Deals

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Considering the price of these resonators, they are a great buy! They are color-coded, just as in the picture, and the sound is awesome (somewhat reminiscent of a soprano metallophone). I am a music therapist, and have used various sets of these throughout my undergrad career and my internship (and now, in my private practice). Every kid I've placed these in front of loves them!

More Info:

It is a basic C scale, going through to the octave.

Comes with two mallets & a green case.

Great for working on so many skills (fine motor, attention, color recognition, etc).

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I was pretty happy with the chimes but when I opened the case the plastic guides were mostly cracked (bits of plastic were all over the case). I emailed the seller but haven't received a reply and it's been weeks. Overall the chimes are great and I use them without the case so I'm happy. But I'd be happier if the plastic wasn't broken into 20 pieces and I feel that the seller needs to reply to a message about a broken product it's a shame that they didn't care :-(

Best Deals for Basic Beat 8-note Resonator Bells with Case

My grandchildren and children at Church love the resonator bells. They have a nice ringing tone that carries into a crowd without being disruptive. They have enough tones--the octave, to make them suitable for playing an ostinato, other simple accompaniment, a simple melody, and generally being fun. I love that I can take out just the ones needed for a song. They seem durable enough to last, with care taken to put them back into the case--the trickiest part. They're just what I need at a price I can afford!

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My two year old son loves his sound bars. My husband is utilizing these to help him learn the scale they've been great. They are in key and very very sturdy highly recommend.

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I bought these for my daughter for her birthday and she loves them! I like that the bells are separate so one child can be playing a few of the and the other child can play a few of them without worrying if someone is going to get hit in the face with a mallet.

Review of Hand Boiler

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Kinda fun gadgets. They don't do a whole lot just hold it in your hand and watch the liquid bubble. Kis seem to find them especially fascinating.

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A little frail but works like a charm and you can't beat the price. Get two or three in different colors. Makes an interesting conversation piece and looks decorative too.

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This is a great little toy to demonstrate heat transfer, but be warned: it's not for younger children. It's made of glass and is quite delicate.

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IT was small only five-six inches and really cool, but very fragile. I think if the price was lowered it wold be worth the money.

Cheap Skullduggery Eyewitness Kit Dinoworks Velociraptor Skeleton Casting

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This is an awesome dinosaur skeleton project that my 5 (almost 6) year old can do with my help. It was very fun for everyone involved.

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I ordered this for my sister's birthday, it came in on time and the item itself is very nice.

Discount Petri Dishes with Agar and Swabs - Science Stuff® Small Science

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Ordered this for a 4th grade science project and was very worried about doing this right since I am not a science person but the easy instructions, the packet explaining the Scientific Principle, Hypothesis, etc was soooo helpful! We had enough agar there was actually some left over, the swabs come packaged individually and the petri dishes are easy to handle. The plastic is a little weak and I'd be concerned if we might drop one but leaving them on the counter we shouldn't have a problem at all. You will need rubber bands and distilled water that isn't included but those are pretty easy to come by. We started our project last night and can't wait to start watching stuff grow!

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Ordered for a 6th grade science fair project my daughter and I came up with. Found the packaging very good. The enclosed instructions were clear and specific. The supplies of sterile swabs and the number of petri dishes was more than enough to make up for a few ones damaged by our inexperience in handling them. In all, it was well worth it.

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Quick service. I needed this product for a science project that was due in a couple of weeks. Ordered and received this quickly.

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The set came really fast and my son loved the whole process. It comes with easy to follow directions for the petri dishes and science fair ideas. After about 2 days we started to see results and by day 5 it made some interesting data to record! He even won an honorable mention out of about 250 4th and 5th grade students!

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Worked great! I bought this product for my daughter's science project. It worked well and it arrived earlier than I expected. Dishes were sterile and we were able to achieve our objectives. If anyone is in need of this type of product for a science project, I recommend buying from this seller.

Buy Replogle Globes Discovery Cumberland Globe, 12-Inch Diameter

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This globe turned out to be better than expected. The base is heavy and sturdy, the spin is smooth, the lines are even and flesh, and the coloring is beautiful and pleasant. Definitely worth the price.

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I have never purchased a globe before but wanted something for a quick reference to the earth. This one fits the bill just fine. The base could be a bit heavier to make it more stable. Even though the oceans are brown and the continents are blue(should be the other way around), it looks good in my den. Matches the decor. Geeze, now I sound like a woman!

Review of PhoneSmart Teaching Telephone

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My just turned 5-yr old LOVED this present. You can save up to 3 different phone numbers with personalized recordings of your voice. She had her home number memorized within an hour. Now we're working on mom and dad's cell phones. One drawback is you must press 'talk', then dial the number, then press 'talk' again. This is confusing compared to a real cordless where you just press 'talk' once. Also, I think she's fairly convinced that the other pre-programmed phone numbers (such as to the library) are REALLY what she is supposed to dial to reach the library. When you dial 911, it says 'this is the fire department' and you cannot reprogram it. We hoped to replace that with '911, what's your emergency' which is what our local 911 says.

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I really liked that this toy had a programmable feature so that I could teach my autistic son our home phone number. However, it does not allow for programming the area code, only the 7-digit number. But as a basics teaching tool, it works great. Seems to go through batteries quickly, which can be quite frustrating for my son. But it has withstood a lot of "torture" from my rough-and-tumble boys.

**Update**

This phone lasted about one year, then lost the "connection" with the base and the handset didn't make any sounds when you pushed the buttons. It lost the ability to record a message within about 2 months. Great concept just not great for my boys.

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I really analyzed the reviews for this phone and the other teaching phone from Learning Resources before I decided to buy this one. I liked this one b/c the places you can call are all normal businesses around any town (bike shop, bakery, grocery, pizza shop, etc). The other phone had some strange numbers to call like "Aunt Gladys who asks you to come over and see her new puppies". I didn't like the sound of this, for one they don't have an aunt gladys and secondly it sounds kind of like a ploy that I would want them to avoid in real life from a stranger. This phone doesn't have a cord and the other one did. You can program up to three numbers in this phone and leave messages (so that they can learn your number, their home number, daddy's cell, etc and if they dial it correctly the hear your voice recording). My cons are, the handheld phone device is a little wide for small hands. Also it could be designed better for the handset to sit in the phone, it is slightly tricky to set it in ( a little too shallow). Great for learning numbers and understanding how to dial and how a phone works. Fun for pretend play.

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This was great to teach my preschoolers about 911 during fire safety week. It is also helping them to learn their own phone numbers.

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I bought this for my 3 yr old daughter. There are two 9's on the phone, no 4. I put batteries in it and she played with it once. I have not been able to get it to work again. I am very disappointed in the toy and not because it quit but because the numbers were not correct. I may try to get another one and see how it does.

Reviews of Self-Reflection Cards

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we use the cards with our groups and have found them to be very good conversation starters. Often our members with chronic mental illness find out that with use of the card will stimulate issues they are having.

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Discount Spanish Flash Cards

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My mother bought these in both Spanish and French for my one year old son. I'd looked at a lot of different Spanish flash cards and these are the nicest I've seen. They're not super thick, but not flimsy either. The illustrations are really nice, and I like that the sides are exactly alike except for one side is Spanish and one is English. Even though he's only one, our boy LOVES them and often tries to pull the box down off his dresser to sort through them.

As far as the "Choking Hazard, Ages 3 and up" label here on Amazon there's no small pieces, they're just cards, so the only thing I can figure is that the child could tear off a piece and try to eat it. In that case, like with any toy, I'd recommend supervising your child during use.

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I had the great fortune of parents who made sure I learned three other languages as a kid. They started very early with me and I distinctly remember them making their own flashcards. It's too bad that they didn't have access to these beautiful, affordable, and very easy to use flashcards to aid them! Now, as a parent, teacher, and a nanny, I work hard to teach my kids the basics of French and Spanish, and I stumbled across these. They have been well worth the price and they were highly affordable. Best of all, my kids that I teach love the cards and enjoy using them too. I would recommend them to both the beginner and the advanced speaker as they embark on teaching others.

There are a few times that the cards use outdated pronounciations or word choices, but it's actually a plus in my book because it aids further in teaching. When I see a card with a different context of pronunciation or word choice than what is currently popular or commonly used, then I can supplement by saying "Or you could say it like this ..." Anyways, the cards are really lovely and sturdy. They seem sort of indestructible because one of the kids I nanny is 18 months old and a total "rip things to shreds" sort and he wasn't even able to destroy one! They also wipe off nicely with a damp cloth.

Do consider using these for your own kids! You wont be sorry!

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Couldn't afford the investment in a Rosetta Stone Language program...but I could get this!!!

I coupled this with the "Bannana" word game and allowed Spanish as well as English words! Added to the fun! Scrabble would work for this too!

HAVE FUN!

Honest reviews on Spanish Flash Cards

eeBoo products never cease to amaze. Aside from the durable, nice box they come in, these cards have a sentence in spanish and it's english equivalent on the back. Great educating device...

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I purchased these flash cards for my daughter, who's 4 years old. I'm trying to raise her in a bi-lingual environment, and thought this would really help her to get a head start on learning Spanish. I absolutely love these cards! They're high quality, well made, and have great pictures and examples. My daughter almost has all the words mastered; within a month!

Wow Wee Paper Jamz Guitar Series II - Style 4 Review

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My son thinks this guitar rocks and he loves it. Get one if you just want to have a blast. It does allow you to play chords in freestyle mode so check out what others have done with these on YouTube. For the price I don't think you or yours will be too disappointed. They might just decide to "jam" as my six year old says...lol.

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got this for my 5 yr old daughter for Christmas. she really likes it. it gets a little anoying sometimes same song over & over, but headphones would solve that. pretty cool toy especially for the price. wish it had more songs or an input where u can download more songs to it; would be worth paying a little more if it had that. looked up the lyrics & this was the only one i could find that they were ok. again wish there were more song choices.

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WE bought this for our 3 year-old son who had an obsession with pretending to be a rock star, and he LOVES it!!! We reserched the different guitars because they all come with 3 songs and we wanted to make sure the lyrics were appropriate (some were not). This one has Louie,Louie/Schools out for summer/I wanna rock and roll all night. Has different functions that allow our son to play this guitar AS IF he really knew how, AND someone older to do some experimenting with more realistic playing. And for the price of around $10, we couldn't go wrong. So many toy guitars were more expensive and much less impressive. Im sure this guitar has much more to offer than what we enjoy from it, but Im very satisfied with seeing our son be excited with being "like a real rockstar".

Honest reviews on Wow Wee Paper Jamz Guitar Series II - Style 4

This is a fun, inexpensive toy great for young boys. My only complaint is it took us awhile to figure out how to switch songs / modes and sometimes its a little glitchy but he doesn't care! He even plays with it without the sound!

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That were the exact words of my 7 years old son when got this guitar last new year. I'm right this review now almost a year after He first played this guitar, because I wanted to check if he is going to be still interested in playing it, and He is. Yes, He is trying to learn how to play it by himself without demo, and he is learning.