Customer Reviews

Action Products International Mega Volcano

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My 4 year old son is obsessed with volcanoes and asked for this for a year every time he saw it in a magazine. He loved building it with his dad and watching it erupt over and over. We are not sure where to store it, since it is a bit big. But, other than that we were very happy with it.

My son received this as a birthday present and LOVED it. I however, did not love it quite as much, because it takes more than a colorful box and a good idea to impress a Mom.

First of all, it's not at all sturdy. The volcano is made from a piece of semicircular posterboard that you are supposed to tape together to form a large cone. Problem is, the posterboard is folded to fit in the box, so it has flat sides and fold lines. So you have to roll it, tape it, and fudge it to make it go into a cone shape rather than a pyramid shape. Of course, I'm the one who had to do that, so I was pretty irritated.

Secondly, they are cheap and stingy with the plaster. They include barely enough plaster strips to cover your cone/pyramid. If you let your kids do this on their own, and they overlap their plaster strips AT ALL, they will run out of strips before the whole thing is covered. So if you do waste your money on this kit, you'd better be willing to supervise closely to make sure you don't waste any plaster too.

Thirdly, ditto my last point on the paint. There is barely enough to go around. There isn't any extra for your kids to experiment, make a mistake and fix it, etc.

Fourthly, this thing is made of cheap paper, plaster, and cheap paint. There is no shellac or protectant. There's only so many times you can let vinegar/baking soda fizz all over this thing before it falls apart.

In sum, if you have a big fan of volcanoes at your house, and he/she is pretty young, this kit will probably be a hit. The idea is great and it does, after all, end up producing a brown and red plaster-covered cone with a plastic cup in the top, and that's all most kids need. But you could also make your own for much less money, and get enough paint and plaster that you don't have to hover over the project to make sure it works.

My 4 yr old niece really liked this. She used it over and over (w/Dad's help) until it was battered and worn. One could do as much educational instruction as they wanted, varying the viscosity of the lava flow and/or altering the shape.

My son loves dinosaurs and loves this volcano. He has it with his dinosaur collection. It is a pretty simple toy may up of paper mache. It is a little flimsy and don't expect it to last long.

I bought this for one of my grandsons when he was in kindergarten. We erupted that volcano more times than I can remember. He loved it.It was a great activity to do together, and it looked just like the picture.

My six year old loves anything dinosaur or volcano related and was very excited to receive this as a gift from Santa. We were very excited to start the project and it is simple to put together. As another reviewer noted you will need to roll the paperboard form for the volcano in order to eliminate/minimize sharp corners as it was folded in the box. It became clear quickly that there would not be enough plaster gauze to overlap the pieces. Thus, the result is an unsturdy volcano - not the end of the world but not expected either. If I were purchasing the product again I would consider trimming the bottom of the paperboard form a few inches - it will still be plenty big and should allow you to overlap the gauze. Alternatively, you could purchase additional plaster gauze at a craft store. There was also just barely enough brown paint to cover the volcano. All in all my son was happy - he made a volcano and it erupted. For the price it isn't too bad as a winter afternoon of entertainment. However, I would not purchase this product again. I have saved the form and will purchase gauze and paint so we can repeat the project again in the future, hopefully with a better volcano.