Customer Reviews

Scientific Explorer's My First Airplane Science Kit

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

My 6 year old son got this airplane kit as a birthday gift. He has been asking daily for me to put some time aside to help him build the 6 enclosed airplanes.

The outside shows an artistic picture of 3 different airplanes. A propeller plane, a glider with wheels and another glider.

The inside is a silver puch envelope that contains the planes.

Likes:
- The instruction manual is well written and serves as a mini science project on flight.
- The enclosed postcards of planes got my son really excited (Wright brothers, Air Force One, SR71, etc) about building the planes.
- The foam airplane with rubber band launcher is like a slingshot that sends the plane soaring. This is the best plane in the kit.
- The idea of painting your own planes with the included yellow, red and blue paint pens and the stickers is a nice touch.

Dislikes:
- 4 of the 6 airplanes are paper cut outs on 2 sheets of paper. They aren't even stand alone paper airplanes, they are mod kits for the balsa wood airplane.
- They only give you ONE balsa wood plane and my son broke the tail fin on trying to assemble it. You should have seen the heart ache... It basically meant that he couldn't build 5 of the 6 planes in the kit!

I'm really sad that Scientific Explorer (owned by Elemer's Glue) released such a promising kit with such a lame set of planes. They should have included at least 2 balsa wood planes, and one of them should have had the landing gear and rubber band powered propeller blade. It felt like false advertising to see those planes on the box art and not inside the box.

I hope they re-release this product with an extra buck or so in the cost of parts to make this the kit we hoped for. Until then I'll be wary of buying a scientific explorer product.

This toy is SO overpriced for what you recieve. It shows what seems to be real toy airplanes on the box but when you open it, inside you get 4 paper airplanes to put on balsa and one rubber slingshot plane and a few airplane flash cards. Obviously children will be disappointed upon opening it (not to mention the parents.) The balsa plane crashed quickly. Buyer beware. (One more thing- Wilbur Wright's name is spelled "Wilber" underneath his photo on the flashcard.)

The people responsible for packaging this product deserve an award. They make this product seem like it's going to be totally cool for kids to make and fly their own planes. DON'T BE FOOLED!! The planes use incredibly flimsy balsa wood and they don't fly at all. Basically our son colored some wings and planes and then watched them drop to the ground like rocks when he tried to fly them. Your child will be extremely disappointed, as mine was. The only redeeming quality to this product is the little bit educational info they provide (what is lift, etc.) But it's not like you can't find that info someplace else. This is a big waste of money. You're better off buying a really good paper airplane book and making your own.

The other reviews are correct. You WILL feel cheated. The box is very well done. Even if you meticulously read the box,(it does describe one balsa fuselage and balsa wing with other cardboard wings) the size and box art will convince you that there is a durable, old fashioned model airplne kit inside. When you open the relitively large box your heart will sink to see a single thin metallic envelope inside, and about 90% empty space. It is upsetting to realize that someone purposely designed that box to mislead...

This toy is a waste of money. The pictures on the box are misleading.. this kit comes with a balsa wood plane, a styrofoam one and paper. It says you can make 6 different airplanes, but only provides the balsa airplane body to make one at a time. You are supposed to use the paper in conjunction with the balsa wood, but the paper tailwing just falls out. The 'paint markers' have a cheap plastic brush which just scratches the paint on. After spending $20, we tried to use it for 10 minutes and then just threw it away.