Customer Reviews

Fisher Price Creative Activities Spark Art Easel

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

 

 

I just recently bought my son the easel for his 3rd birthday. Its not hard to assemble, with the use of only a screw driver i was done in about 20 minutes. The easel comes with a few dry eraser markers and the magnetic shapes that make sounds and a few other things. My son enjoyed looking at it but after I finished building it i realized that this easel doesnt come with a what to do with it booklet. I wanted more of a suggested ways to use the easel without guessing. I then went to the fisher price web site and bought some accessories i bought 3 activity packs that included family, dinosaurs and music. Again no booklet just heres the toy and you figuere how to play with it and what to do with it. This gets very boring to a 3 year old with a short tolerance for what happens next. Knowing this i actually started to show him what are somethings he can draw and hear the sounds of things, and noticed that the speaker isnt very loud. The only one i strongly suggest you buy is the family activity pack. It has alot of words that you can make sentences, act out feelings and even teach correct way of saying things. My son loves to put different words together and then see what it says.
I think this toy is great, i just wish that it would have come with instructions.

I was so excited to get this easel for my two sons (4 and 2). I even bought 4 extra sets! They would be totally set. My husband put the easel together in about 30-45 mins....not too hard. The easel itself looks really cool, but there are a ton of things wrong with it. 1. The clips that hold the activity sheets are really stiff, so much so that it's hard for me to lift them, hows a child going to? 2. There isn't any type of storage for the activity sheets, so they just sit below the easel waiting to get scrunched. 3. When you purchase extra sets, they come in little boxes. So the activity sheets are gently folded in half to fit in the boxes. Well, since they are laminated, they aren't laying out flat when you take them out of the box...thus, the magnets that this system uses wont stick to the paper. I tried and tried to flatten out the paper. I rolled them into a tube the opposite direction, long ways and short ways all different directions to get this paper to lay down and flatten out. No such luck. I was VERY frustrated. 4. There is NO storage for all the pieces that come in the extra sets. The easel itself will hold the markers and stuff, but unless you want the dozens of magnets loose, i had to put them in a plastic zip lock, and then they were all mixed up. I know that I could have put them in separate bags...that's not the point. I thought that they should have had some sort of magnetic sheets that you could store all the magnets on...including storing all the coloring sheets. This was such a cool concept...i wish they would have put a little more thought into the parents side of things. And, as the other review stated, there were no directions, or suggestions on how to use it. Your on your own to figure it out. I would strongly suggest to all my friends and family not to waste their time or money on this product. Instead, just buy a huge roll or paper from IKEA and let the kids go to town with washable markers...using their own imaginations.

This thing is amazing! Easy to construct (I put it together in 45 minutes by myself), easy to move, and wonderful! My three-year-old niece had an amazing time discovering all its bells and whistles but I think her father and I had more fun analyzing it after she went to sleep! There's some criticism out there that this is not appropriate for kids because it somehow dilutes their imaginations. This is absolutely not the case. My niece loves drawing people and things and making up stories about them. The sounds and suggestions only enhance her natural curiosity and skills and her parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles adore playing with her with it, making it a great family-time activity.

We recently purchased this for our 4 1/2 year old. He loves how it sparks his imagination and makes him want to draw. There are extra cartridges and background sets that can be purchased seperately for the easel that can be changed up for fresh ideas. However, it was our interpretation that the child would touch the pen to a color and draw with it that way. Much to our surprise, the only drawing that takes place is with markers and we have to keep those hidden so our 2 year old does not get ahold of them. There is a dry erase feature that provides for hours of fun and if they dont like what they did they can start over. The eraser is much better thrown out and a damp paper towel works 20 times better. Overall, we like the product and would recommend it for any child in the age range of 4 years old and up.

the idea of this toy is fantastic. However it's badly put together, the magnets don't stick if you have the background on the board and the dry erase markers don't come off the white board. That's two of the best parts & they don't work.

Was cute the first day. My 5 and 6 year olds liked listening to the sounds of the magnets. They won't move the background screens around. They just liked the noises. A little boring.

I was so exited to buy this easel, for my autistic child. WHAT A DUD. I totally agree with the other reviews written here, for the price of this toy I expected something of higher quality. My daughter quickly lost interest in it, and you are left on your own to figure it out (no clear directions). How I regret I didn't just buy an old fashioned wooden easel, lots of paper, paint and markers. She would have enjoyed that a lot more.

I purchased this for my 4-year-old daughter a few months ago hoping to "spark" her imagination. This easel has lots of space to draw and create as well as fun sound effects and other backgrounds to create different stories. It is sturdy and has lots of places to put the markers, magnets, etc. My 1-year-old loves to crawl under it as well. A good purchase if you want a nice easel that has a lot of different things on it.

I have to completely echo the other reviews here. The fact that there are no instructions for using the easel that come with the easel or activity packs is a little mind boggling to me. There are so many buttons on either side of the easel and I have no idea how to implement them.
The easel itself is not made as durable as I would have expected out of an $80 toy. The plastic shelf came warped because it is made so flimsy. The easel itself came with a scratch.
The lack of storage slots were definitely a downfall for us.
The fact that the activity paper came folded is probably what upsets me the most simply because it is such a common sense thing they could have avoided. The magnets will absolutely not stay on that creased paper.
It is really frustrating when you put a lot of thought into getting something for your child and it turns out to be a disappointment; especially at this price. With a company such as Fisher Price you would think that toys would be tested and re-tested to insure a quality product.
After writing this I'm too frustrated to even list any pros.

This was a xmas gift for my 3 year old son, one which I had suggested to the grandparents. We have had it for a day now and I am certain that we cannot be using it to it's potential, not when you consider the cost (retail for about $80). It's great that the "pen" recognizes the magnets and objects on the dry erase board/background sheets, but so far I am a bit disappointed. That's why I have to assume that we haven't discovered all of the activities and features. Unfortunately there isn't a single suggestion as to how to use this toy included with it. I gave 3 stars based on the following pros and cons:
Pro: My son was immediately interested in it once it was assembled
Con: After about 10 minutes he had lost interest and when I asked why he didn't want to play with it anymore he said "cause I already saw everything on there"
Pro: The different creativity kits are very cute and can be mixed up with each other for more interesting stories (especially from a 3 year old)
Con: Absolutely NO documentation included to help us parents make the most of this and our children's time while playing with it.