Customer Reviews

Scientific Explorer Ultimate Gum Kit

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

My 8 year old son and I were able to make a truck-load (a quadruple batch in a pint sized plastic take-out container) of half-way decent gum with this kit. It was time consuming and the directions are not completely accurate. For example, it took much longer to melt the gum base in the beginning than they stated. We kept nuking it at 20-second intervals until it was workable. We also had to keep reheating it (15 seconds at a time) during the kneading process. When it's warm, it's easier to knead. When it cools and starts getting stiff, reheat it. Other than all the reheating, this kit was a good thing.

Note: The corn syrup was crystallized and we ended up using our own. They mentioned this in the instructions and indicated that it could be melted down, but we didn't want to bother with that since we had our own.

I was a little nervous about getting this product based on the 1 star review I read here, but my son had already written to Santa. The key to making this work is you have to keep re-heating and see it through to the end. Once you get through the kneading process, and you get all the sugar worked into it, it will turn out as expected. Experience with bread making helped a lot.

BTW: A quadruple batch is A LOT OF GUM.

Once we figured out that you needed to add a teaspoon of water to the gumbase before you microwave it it was a lot of fun. The instruction say to pour off excess water but neglect to tell you to add water in the first place. My son and his freids had a blast making their own custom gums. I had to help with the kneeding process but over all I think it's a great product for kids who like their gum. You can substitute splenda for the powdered sugar if you want to make sugar fee gum too.

This looked so cool, I thought my kids would love it. But the gum base is impossible to stir - you need to nuke it for way longer than it says to and then it hardens up and is impossible to work with. It becomes hard and brittle rather than smooth and workable. Save your money and don't bother with this! My kids were totally disappointed!

My daughter is a "gumaholic", if there is such a term. I read some of the reviews about some of the problems, but here is what I found.

We made a single batch, and used the exact times specified for microwaving. When you take it out of the microwave, it still looks like little balls. It was only once I poured the water out, did it start to look gummy. I think that is what some of the people on here may not have done, and simply nuked it until it was visually melted in the water.

The corn syrup that cam with our kit was fine, but I don't like the way that it is packaged - could have been in a bottle.

We did add a little too much food coloring, and it is still under my fingernails from 4 days ago, but it was fun.

The flavor lasted as long as any gum I have had, and my daughter being the gum connoisseur that she is, loved it.

I would definitely buy this for my friends' children in the future!

I bought this for my grandchildren, ages 12 and 9. They just opened it today and made some gum under their father's supervision. According to him, they followed the directions and had no problems - and they had fun doing it.

I received this for Christmas and was so exited!Ive seen reviews saying it was messy and hard. I think not!A great snowy day activity. I gave 3 stars for educational value because gum and candy making can be a cool skill and gift idea for anyone. Ive also heard that the flavor is not long lasting. Really though, what gum is? Just remember to follow the directions and put down newspaper. Do that and you will have a great time!

My daughter (9 years old) asked (and received) this kit for her birthday. After reading the reviews and some complaints about how messy the kit was, I was very nervous to actually do it once we got it. But, while it is a *little* messy, it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting. The food coloring does make it MORE messy - so if you're nervous, start with one of the recipes that doesn't need coloring (or just skip that ingredient! At least for the first batch) She and a friend did this (with my help) and had a blast. They were so proud of their creations and even had fun trying to invent their own names for their gum. The flavor of the gum goes pretty quickly when you're chewing it (and the jury is still out on how well it "keeps") but I think all that is secondary to the actual fun in CREATING your own gum. They loved it.

It was so much fun... My 9 yr old got it for his birthday through amazon and we just loved making the different flavors. We both like it SOUR!!! and you can make them as sweet or sour as you want. Great gift. Messy, but fun!!!

This kit is fun, but could be too difficult for kids under age 10. We made some gum tonight with my daughter and her friend, who are both 10. The flavor turned out good, but the whole process takes about 20-30 minutes, which is a lot longer than I expected for a few pieces of gum. Overall, it's a nice kit and is fun for kids age 10+.

This has the potential to be very messy. The final product is gum but not very good gum. the flavor is lost quickly and the texture is like rubber.