Customer Reviews

Pixos Ultimate Design Station

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Some of these negative reviews made me laugh. I bought some PixOs stuff for the first time last Christmas. My son was then 3.5 years old, and he wanted them so badly. I had my doubts, because they looked tedious to me and too old for him.

However, the PixOs stuff he received for Christmas were probably his favorite Christmas present. He did PixOs every day until I put them up where he can't reach them. I did that because, at his age, doing PixOs requires a fair bit of help from me. He does fine until he accidentally bumps the tray causing, as he puts it, a "catastrophe" and then I have to straighten it out for him. A year on, he is getting better at not bumping the trays, so catastrophes are fewer, but I still have to be ready and willing to help him when one does occur. So, I put them up so he can't do them everyday.

To answer a few of the criticisms: Yes, they do require a great deal of close, tedious work and patience. Patience from the kid and from the parent. Patience is a virtue, no? Yes, the balls will roll all over the floor. We sweep our floors, so it's not that big of a deal for us, I guess. They do require much longer drying times than is indicated in the instructions (and more spraying, too). We tried doing the amount of spraying and drying indicated in the instructions, and the things will fall apart, so we just spray them until they're quite saturated and then let them dry overnight, and we have never had a real problem with the things not sticking. You have to spray them until you can see the balls expanding and joining together--it's quite noticeable. And dry overnight. Preferably in a nice, warm place. The fan doesn't work very well--mostly it just runs through batteries, so I usually don't even bother with it.

We have made all kinds of things out of these. My son was just churning out tons of these, and so I had to find uses for them. We glue magnet strips to the back and use them as refrigerator magnets. We made some nice Pixos heart necklaces for Valentines. We strung a bunch of sea-themed ones into a mobile in my son's room. They all stick together just fine and have made some colorful decor for us. I do like them, even though it is incredibly annoying and tedious for me to fix the "catastrophes," because they encourage my very active 4.5-year-old son to sit still and sustain concentration and patience on one activity for a long time. Then he gets to experience the joy and satisfaction of knowing that the mobile in his room or the magnets on the refrigerator or whatever are totally made by him. Overall, it's been great for him, and we continue to buy new Pixos products fairly frequently.

So, the long and short of it is that if you, the parent, have some patience and the ability and desire to help your kids create interesting little projects, the product works fine. If, on the other hand, your kid is impatient, attention-challenged, disinclined to sit still, easily frustrated when the beads spill, or if you, the parent, are unable or unwilling to help your kid do this, then it's probably not for you. That isn't really a problem with the product, though--just a mismatch between the product and you/your kid's disposition.

My daughter wanted this for her 11th birthday. She absolutely loves it. She has played with it nonstop for hours since getting it. I like it because it doesn't make a mess! Not alot of pieces to lose (aside from the balls, which are kept up top) but she hasn't had a problem losing them. The blower isn't the greatest, doesn't blow very hard, but she doesn't seem concerned. She has had a great time making many creations! I would recommend it for an older child though, the fine motor skills needed may be frustrating to a younger child.

Admittedly, my four-year-old is too young for this toy. I know that; I knew it going in and don't want to mislead you - she's too young for this. She does well with many, many toys that she's too young for and I knew this would be a stretch. All of that aside, though, this junk has some very serious issues with it.

The person who thought this was a good idea should be fired and returned to being an after-hours janitor, after being punched in the neck by every parent who spent money on this garbage.

This is about as much fun as soldering. Put beads in a tray, wet them, wait for them to dry and, then, the next day, you've got ... nothing! or, a thing that is unrecognizable as what it's supposed to be. I doubt that even the biggest fan's creations linger around the house for more than a day. We made the "fish" and "fishing pole" ... 'cause that, at least, had the potential for fun over options like "a square" or "a large glob of balls." The thinking on the fish/fishing-pole is that you can "play" with it ... one problem, the FLAT fish can't be hooked, 'cause it's laying flat on a surface and the "hook" of the "pole" requires that pesky 3rd dimension to function.

But, that, my friends, assumes that you've put the kids to bed and are willing to make the pole yourself and then hide your creation until it dries.

Spray bottle ... this thing has a spray bottle in it! At what age do you let a kid have a spray bottle among their play things? 22? So, be wary of that, if you've got a kid that doesn't do well with spray bottles.

Drying time ... one word - horrendous. Seriously, it's longer than you can imagine. So, here's what's going to happen. You're going to spend 30 minutes making your first amorphous ball-art. Then, spray it and walk away. You'll wait a long time, 'cause you've read my review. Then, you're going to touch it to see if it's dry ... BOOM! You just ruined it! See, what happens is that, as the balls dry, they get sticky - very sticky - like, stick-to-you-immediately-on-contact sticky. So, you've gone and touched it, and half of the balls are now stuck to your finger as you withdraw ... and, so you pull it apart and, in the process, take a few stragglers that gravity and stickiness seem to collaborate and make stick to balls that they shouldn't have been stuck to in the first place. Maybe you'll try again, maybe you'll wait longer ... or, maybe you'll throw this in the trash, where it belongs.

The balls ... unless you've got an empty kiddie pool with which to play with this, don't buy it. You might as well give your kid a bag of dry sand to play with in the house. The balls go EVERYWHERE. Sure, this thing comes with a fancy "dispenser," but that's part of the problem, not the solution. See the dispenser has about 8 compartments ... the toy comes with about 14 colors. So, when your child (or you) wants to make something that uses one of the colors that isn't in the dispenser, guess what happens? That's right, there's a transfer involved. But, this doesn't come with a container for the "extra" balls. Luckily, your child will simply store them in the carpet or under the sofa after you've stepped on them while trying to chase them down like ants in a pantry.

The dispenser ... already discussed, but I didn't have a chance to mention that it is held in place by friction - no screw or locking mechanism. My wife knocked it off of the green base ... at which point the mildly locked lid opened and spilled everything. That wouldn't be too bad, maybe, if it worked well. In theory, you're supposed to press it down and it drops a ball ... and, it does, sometimes. But, if your kid gets frustrated ... get the broom.

The fan ... the fan puts out almost no air. But, that's not a big problem, because your sighs of frustration will provide ample airflow as you wait no less than a full-day for your creation to dry.

The ball-picker-upper ... there's this little thing that works like tweezers but uses suction to pick up a ball. This is like trying to eat peas with a straw. I don't know how I would have done it differently, but this picker-upper-thing is tortuous.

Seriously, do not buy this. It is a parent's nightmare, not to mention the fact that there are superior toys that don't require the ongoing expense of replacing balls.

This is a fun toy BUT the little balls never quite fuse together. The hinges have so much resistance that they cause the flat pieces to come apart when trying to use the hinge. Perhaps a hair dryer would cause the parts to be strong enough to play with.

Ball dispenser is very cool and fun. Concept of using a little suction bulb to place the small balls is also a good one.

Apparatus is lots of fun but, unfortunately, I don't ever see this thing creating a durable output. Designs are just too fragile.

My daughter asked for this for her 6th birthday. It was a little too advanced for her to operate. She was able to create the flat designs with help but the 3-D designs were a bit too advanced. My 9 year old tried it out and he was able to handle the flat designs ok, but didn't have the patience for the 3-D. I think the design station is a neat contraption to use for this activity. We haven't tried any Pixos without the design station. I can imagine it would be hard to do without it. One thing the kids did not like was the drying time. It took at least 24 hours to dry, even with the battery-operated dryer on the design station. Overall, I think the Pixos are just ok. My kids prefer activities that provide instant results better. We will stick with Legos and Puzzibits!

This toy is a piece of junk. Built-in fan is very weak, basically can't blow anything dry. The blow hose was broken the first day my daughter used it. This toy was so frustrating, my daughter was crying and playing at the same time. I wouldn't recommend buying this toy.

My daughter received the Pixos 3D Kit as a Christmas present last year and loved them. It was a good set but had several shortcomings. The pen in the Pixos 3D Kit is difficult to load and second, the tray does not have a cover. When you spill the tray it creates a big mess.

The Pixo's Ultimate Design Station improves upon the design in many ways. The pixos are stored in a gumball machine on top. You push down on the gumball and it releases the pixos one at a time. Its fun to watch the pixos spin down the lower portion of the gumball arrive in the green base at the bottom.

The pen is much more practical in design. Suction holds the pixos in place until you are ready to place it into the desired spot it. The 3D molds and the patterns are stored in the middle area of the green base, this is really nice. I don't see any real point in the arm with the fan in it. In order for the glue to work, the pixos need to dry on a flat surface. You can't move the pixos off the flat surface until they are dry. Once they reach that point of strength then blowing air on it does not really do anything except waste batteries.

Overall, the pixos are a good fun craft kit. It is a much better design then the other versions. Great for kids 5-10 years old.

My son received Pixos as a gift for his 5th birthday. He immediately wanted to play with it but I made him wait until his little brother was asleep because I knew it had little pieces. When we did start setting it up, I realized it was going to be more of a project for me to do and for him to watch. You have to pick up the tiny pieces using a suction tool and place them on the guide into an individual hole. This task is not suited for a 4 or 5 year old. I don't know any 4 or 5 year old who would have the patience or the hand eye coordination to complete one of these. Pixos comes with pictures to put under the guide so you know which colors go where to make each specific project. The picture doesn't fit securely under the guide so it doesn't line up exactly and is hard to see where each little pixo ball goes. After you get all the pixos in the right spot, you have to spray them with water. After you spray them you have to dry them. The pixos machine needs two AA batteries to power the "fan". It's not really worth it to waste the batteries on this. The fan doesn't do much and the instructions say to let it dry for an hour anyway. All in all I was very disappointed in this toy and would NOT recommend it for the younger set unless you wan to do it yourself. My son had the most fun running around spraying things with the tiny spray bottle it came with.

Awful Christmas gift for the kids.

First of all, the contraption didn't work. The tiny balls are supposed to come down the chute but each ball just got stuck. So we thought, the hell with it, we won't use the contraption, but those tiny balls went everywhere.

About 10-minutes of trying to make the darn thing work, and 2-minutes of play, then back in the box and it's never been touched since.

We had actually purchased TWO of these. One for my kids, and one for my niece. I had to go out shopping again because after the fiasco with this piece of crap, my husband wouldn't let me give the second one to my niece.

Don't waste your money like we did!

My son is 7 and loves the 3-D Pixos! The station is nice and keeps the little pixos organized and neatly contained. My only warning would be to open with your child and make sure to keep the 3-D tray. It is clear plastic and looks like it's just part of the packaging. We initially threw it away, but luckily read the directions and realized it before the garbage was taken away!