Customer Reviews

Manley Art-tastic Magic Beads Deluxe Playset - 1200 Beads

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

According to my eight and six year old daughters, the Magic Beads are much better than PixOs. We bought the PixOs Spin Master PixOs Super Studio first, but were disappointed by the beads not sticking together very well, and there were too few of them. The Art-tastic Magic Beads stick together better, even though they are the exact same size as the PixOs (and I'm guessing you can use them interchangeably). The pen in this set is more fun because it has four chambers to store beads and you press the top to spin the chambers to the next color. The only problem with the pen is that it's not as accurate as the PixOs one, so my kids wound up using their fingers most of the time. The Magic Beads set comes with more beads than the PixOs set, but it's still too few, so expect to buy more. The good thing is that the refills for Magic Beads are cheaper than PixOs beads. Also, my kids seems to like the patterns that were included in this set more than the PixOs set.

I bought Magic Beads for my seven year old daughter. She loves playing with her Magic Beads. For me, as a single mom, it is well priced compared to others on the market (I have shopped around), no mess (water and beads), and it makes my little girl happy. I would definitely recommend this product.

Bought this as a birthday present for my 5 year old son and he and my daughter LOVE it! The included templates are great because they make all the animals turn out perfectly. They also love the included pen. I definitely recommend this!

Based on some decent reviews here I bought this product for my 6.5 year old daughter.

Here are the problems:
1. Says it's for 4+ years. She is 6.5 and had trouble with it. Heck, *I* had trouble with it!
2. The *organizer* trays are worthless. You put the beads in the compartments and as long as the trays are never, ever moved the beads will stay in place. The lid does not close down over the top to keep them compartmentalized.
3. The pen kept getting stuck and she would have to click it around 4 times in between each bead. This would happen only part of the time, but still very annoying.
4. The number of beads is not enough to do much with, if you *can* get it to work.
5. The instructions are very vague.
6. After working very hard to make her first design. It didn't even stick together enough to pick it up very carefully. It fell apart immediately.

I do not recommend this product and am planning on returning the unopened extra sets I purchased in the same order.

My four and a half year old loves making things with beads at his pre-school so I wanted to get him his own set for Christmas. I couldn't find the ones they use at his school (which are thicker, have flat ends and are fused together with heat) so I decided to go with Magic Beads instead. My son has played with this set of few times but doesn't seem to care for it very much. The box says it's for children 4 1/2, but he has a hard time working with it. The beads are very small, round,and really hard to work with. They roll EVERYWHERE! and my son has a hard time keeping them in place while he's working with them. The little trays that you're supposed to store the beads in are worthless and don't contain them at all - you have to be very careful when moving them or the beads will spill everywhere. The pen that came with the set was a cheap piece of plastic and didn't work at all. And finally, once the beads are fused together with water, they don't stick together very well and if they do, the final product is flimsy and can easily be broken or torn apart.
I am going to find out what they use at my son's preschool because he loves those things. The pictures he makes with them are stronger and harder and will survive handling from a 4 year old much better than the stuff he makes with his Magic Beads.

I bought this set and the refill set for my 6 year old for Christmas. He had been so excited about Pixos and had gotten a small set for his birthday. well, you know how quickly the beads run out, so I wanted to get him a large set. I thought for the HUGE difference in price, it was definitely worth trying this brand over Pixos brand. I am so glad I did!! These are so much better. they stick together better and stayed together once dry. I do recommend spraying them, letting them dry some, flipping and spraying the other side, and then letting them dry completely. they are great and worth the money. oh, the beads are interchangeable between the brands, so he can use his pixo pen and this new pen and have more colors available and ready at once. Highly recommend for pixos lovers. On the other hand, if you don't like picking up small beads off the floor constantly, this wouldn't be your choice.

Pros:
Kids can do it by themselves, no ironing required.
Inspires creativity and dexterity.

Cons:
Pen is worthless - time consuming to fill and does not function properly
Must spray projects multiple times. Long dry times.
Difficult to remove projects from boards without breakage.
Very few patterns included.
Need to buy a lot of refill beads.

Bottom line:
Somewhat fun, somewhat frustrating for kids. I would not repurchase. I would rather stick to our usual and just do the ironing for the perler beads. Get a small crafting iron and it is less fuss.

I purchased this Deluxe set and the zoo set and in both, the dispensing pens were defective. In reading the reviews, I see this is a common problem. In the Deluxe, the blue storage case would not close. In both sets, the pattern tabs did not fit properly into the trays so if you bump the tray, the pattern goes off. My kids are 4 and 5 and I prefer that they be able to use the dispensing pen. I am planning to return these.

I bought my 6-year old son this set set for Christmas. He was sucked into the Pixos advertising, but after reading the abysmal Pixos reviews, I decided to buy this set instead. I figured if it was as bad as the Pixos, at least I wouldn't be out as much money. I'm pleasantly surprised to report that the Magic Beads have been a huge success!! Sure, there's some occasional frustration if he bumps the design and displaces the beads, but that is actually hard to do (unlike the pixos reviews). The beads also stick very well together, resulting in a great finished product that he's always very proud of. I think the Magic Beads are great. I can't speak to the quality of Pixos, but if you want a good, affordable alternative, this is the way to go!!!

I purchased Pixos for my DD's birthday and was really dissapointed that there were so few beads in it. She made all the designs in a day and that was it. The refills are extremely expensive so the toy has sat in a closet for months!

Then I came across these Magic Beads! I bought three packs of the refills for a great price and I am glad that I did!
I wish the instructions gave a better guideline for how much water you need to spray, but other than that these little things are a lot of fun.
My 6 yr. old can't really do the designing part but she loves to play with the creations we make and it's something we can do together.

I actually like these better than the Pixos. The final creation isn't all stiff like the Pixos are and you get tons of colors!
I do wish they would send more templates or have somewhere you could print some, but other than that I would recommend these to anyone that is looking for magic beads without the inflated price because of the name on the box!!!