Customer Reviews

Learning Resources Inflatable Solar System Set

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

My son is almost 4 and loves these. Yes, some of them seem to lose some air at times but we just put some back in and they are fine. They are a great size and do represent the planets pretty accurately (i.e. Jupitor is the biggest planet, the Sun is HUGE, Pluto is the smallest, etc.). I would recommend keeping an eye on the price of these as in the past it has dipped quite low. We actually bought them marked down to 9.99 with free super saver shipping. Would highly recommend!

Our 8 year old recently picked up an interest in "space" stuff. We got him this set for Christmas, we just hung them up on his bedroom ceiling, and he thinks they are great. However, with the set we got, the planets are only about 2/3 of the advertised size. In our case, it's really not that bad, because they are still impressively sized in his room. But, if you really need them to be the advertised size, you will be disappointed. The sizes we got are [Planet(s) (Ad size, Actual size)]:
Sun (36", 23"), Jupiter (22", 13"), Saturn (18", 12"), Uranus, Neptune (14", 9"), Earth (12", 8"), Venus (12", 7.5"), Mars, Mercury (10", 7"), Pluto, Moon (8", 5").

My 6 yr. old twins were very excited to receive this for their birthday and get to decorate their room. It was a great tool to use to have a discussion about the planets as we blew them up. (Which took about 1/2 hr using the included foot pump). I appreciated the included booklet for additional information about the planets, but only wish it was a little bit more kid friendly. After we took time to blow them up and then hang them, it was only a few hours later that three of them lost air. Needless to say, despite the fact that they come with patches for fixing them, I wasn't happy to have to do this just after receiving them. Overall a nice toy idea, but a little dissapointed with the lack of sturdyness. - Victoria

We bought this set for our 5,5 yo for Christmas. What a disappointment! The pump stopped working withoin 5 minutes, and Neptune had a huge hole in it (impossible to repair). Other planets can not hold enough air to look like little balls (like on the photo). They look sad...
When I asked my son if it was okay with him to send it back to Amazon, he didn't mind at all. And this is a boy who is CRAZY about Space and Planets...
I personally LOVE Learning Resources company, but this product did not meet our usual expectations. I am sending it back....

We bought this for my 5 year old son because he loves the planets and had seen a set at a cousin's birthday party. The birthday party set was from another company that makes party favors etc. When I saw this one at Amazon for such a good price, I grabbed it. It was of a much better quality material than the one from the party favor store and came with the materials needed to hang the planets. It also came with a pump to help inflate each planet which was nice.

We promptly inflated the planets and hung them from my son's bedroom ceiling. He loves them.

I bought this item for my son's 3rd birthday. He is planet obsessed and wants to hold everything, so this is ideal for him. Unfortunately the quality is low and the materials are questionable. I could smell the chemicals before I got this out of the box. No where on Amazon's page OR the packaging is there any detail regarding the materials this product is made from. My guess is PVC/poly vinyl. With everything proven about how toxic VOCs and vinyl materials are, why are kid's toys still being manufactured with it? Other reviewer's comments about egg-shaped planets and poor quality is completely accurate - Saturn's rings are droopy and sad, Uranus and Venus are shaped like eggs, the smaller planets lose air quickly - but since this the only product of its kind on the market, physical flaws and poor quality can be lived with. The toxic smell is another story. Unacceptable.

This is a pretty nice set of planets. They make nice decorations and will excite a child interested in astronomy.

However, don't be fooled by the description that says the planets are proportionally sized. The size range for the planets is 8" to 22" in diameter while the Sun is 36". In reality, if the Sun were 36", then Jupiter should be about 3.5" and the Earth should be about 1/2". Obviously, it wouldn't be very practical to use the proportional sizes unless the Sun was ten feet or more in diameter. And that wouldn't be very practical either.

Showing distance relationships isn't very practical either. The Solar System is BIG. With a 36" diameter Sun, the Earth's orbit would be about 300 feet away from the Sun. Neptune's orbit would be about 9000 feet away (and Neptune would be about 2" in diameter).

I bought these for my boy on his 2nd birthday. They have been the #1 toy in our house for the past 18 months and they didn't start to pop for little over a year after we bought them - and we were very rough with them. Standing today are the smaller planets. So I decided to buy another box to replace them and well, the quality is definitely different - the balls are all smaller than they used to be, by 5% or so. Although the color is still vivid, you can tell there is a difference in quality of the ball. I blew up mars yesterday (using them as potty training gifts) and it's been partially deflating over night . I still had the old box and the packaging did not change. Are they still worth [...] the money? Yes - absolutely. My favorite toy ever.

We hung them from the ceiling and it is great. We gaze at the planets during story time and it is all good.

I bought this set for my future classroom. My ten year old sons are interested in science and we ended up hanging this set in our house and I will buy another set for school. This set is not a toy, it s not durable or designed to be played with. The shapes are off a little but as a learning device it is perfect. Each planet was easy to inflate and hang. The proprtions are not 1:1 which is impossible to do for an average room. The model allows us to establish a mental image of the solar system and we can imagine the rest. The only thing that would improve this set would be to make Saturn's rings inflatable instead of plastic covered cardboard which is too heavy. I do plan to buy another set because it suits my needs well.