Customer Reviews

Spin Master PixOs Super Studio

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(46)

 

 

My 5 year old and I were thrilled when this product became available again. We have had to work a little harder with this product as it doesn't seem to stick as well as the aqua dots did but after awhile we figured it out and realized that we weren't spraying enough water on it and we weren't waiting long enough for it to dry. If you do those two things right, it was our experience that the designs don't fall apart. I gave it a 4 star because I agree with the other reviewer that you will require more product. Once you get going and get the hang of it and start getting really creative you are longing for more beads! It will require your child to have patience and may develop your child's patience. If you think you can just hand this over to a 5 year old and go do your thing, you're mistaken. For younger children, still developing patience, an adult will need to assist in order to ensure that this is a fun and creative project rather than a frustrating one. After your child gets the hang of it and develops patience, they can do this on their own. If you try to rush through this you will find yourself frustrated with beads falling out of place and not sticking well.

My daughter wanted Aquadots so badly and we got her some for Christmas last year - two days after purchasing them, they were all recalled. I wrote in to SpinMaster for replacement parts and we received the Pixos in the mail. We still had the originals and I tried both. The Aquadots do stick better but the Pixos can do the same with a little trial and error. You just need more water. Just keep spraying the Pixos until they have completely dried and if they have trouble coming up from the tray - spray them some more. We also left them out in the sun to dry which helped.

There are two trays that come with this set - a pink (diagonal) one and a blue (straight across) one. I agree that the blue one is not so great. You need lots of water for that one to stick. And there are very few good designs for that tray. It would be better if it came with at least 2 of the pink trays and a blue so that you could keep working while your project is drying - or you AND a friend could work on the good designs at the same time.

The other problem with the set was that the tube that is supposed to shoot the dots out into the tray just didn't seem to work all that well. Like someone else said, if anything got wet, the Pixos would get clogged in there and were very difficult to get back out. We just stopped using that and my daughter (4 1/2) put the Pixos in by hand. She absolutely LOVES this toy. She loves making up new designs and she loves playing with her creations.

Because of my daughter's love of this toy and the wonderful value it has had for her - both educational and otherwise - I am willing to overlook the less sticky beads (I mean, after all, at least they are not covered in a toxin that might kill my child, right?!), the shortage of good trays, and the annoying tube-thingy. Overall it has been one of the more regularly used toys in our home - and that is saying something for a little child with no attention span! Perhaps better for the more patient and/or artistic child (and parents) and for them, I definitely recommend it. A great toy!

I have to say I really did not want to buy this toy after reading the reviews, but my daughter has wanted this toy for a long time- she wanted Aquadots, but we were unable to buy it due to the recall. She has asked for this toy more than any other toy, so I finally broke down and bought it with very low expectations.

First of all, other people were right in advising you buy it at Target for the lower price. Also, I agree that they don't give you a lot of dots.

We have not had any issues with the dots not sticking together. It has worked great for us. I don't have any special tricks, we just followed the instructions, which are pretty much to just spray water on the design and stick it under the fan in the machine for 5-10 minutes. My daughter has played with this for hours and she really loves this toy. So, based on my experience, I would have to say that I do recommend this toy.

My son only played with this toy for about two days and then problems started to happen. The little Pixo balls are very sensitive to moisture and get sticky and inflate very easily. When they inflate, they get stuck in the tubing and don't fall through anymore and you can't play with this toy anymore. Unfortunately, the tubing doesn't come off to clear up the stuck Pixo balls. Overall, found this toy not worth the money as I ended up throwing it away.

My 7 year-old daughter wanted to buy this with her birthday money, so I let her. Right out of the box, we discovered that the drying fan didn't work. We checked and re-checked the batteries, but we couldn't get it to turn on. Daughter said she didn't care about the fan and wanted to play with it anyway. After making a design and waiting for it to dry, we discovered that pixos stick to the tray better than they stick to themselves. We couldn't get the designs out of the tray without breaking them. Then there was more spraying and pushing pieces together to try and repair them. When I discovered that my 3 year-old could pull the designs apart easily and my 1 year-old started eating them (I'm still not completely comfortable with the new "poison-free" formula) we took the thing back to the store.

Want frustrated kids that give up (for good reason) after playing with something ONE time?

Then, by all means, buy this thing. The beads often do not even touch - but even where they do, the bond is so fragile that the designs either break apart while you're lifting them out or fall apart in your hands (the remaining pieces of the design).

The points at which the beads meet are obviously too small for a solid bond.

Worse, an outright stingy amount of beads is provided.

Stay away.

My 6 year old twins really wanted this for their birthday. I had visions of little beads rolling all over the house and was hesitant to get it but decided to give it a try. The first time the kids tried it they found it difficult and frustrating but once they learned to take it slow they started to really enjoy it.

I agree with others that the beads don't adhere very well unless you get them really wet. Then they stick to the tray. I have found the template cards that come with the unit work well for lifting the dried designs off of the tray. Just slide the card under the design and it peels off pretty easily.

A very frustrating aspect of the Pixos is the design trays. The holes are shallow and the slightest bump to the unit will send your beads rolling all over the place. My kids have had to recreate several pictures because of this. Still, if you ask the kids, they'll tell you they really like their Pixos.

The pixos just like the aquadots work great but there are two points that make it work alot better.
First the toy has a broad age range but some kids younger then 8 might get easily frustrated as these beads are tiny and the pens work but have a technique that must be learned.
Second I find you really need to saturate the product and let it dry for a couple days. We use alot more water then the directions say and dry it much longer also but this give the beads a chance to melt and rebind much better then just a couple skirts of water will do.

According to my eight and six year old daughters, the PixOs Super Studio is fun, but there are some problems that they had with it. First of all, they had trouble getting the beads to stick together. Spray too little and the creations fall apart. Spray too much and it takes forever to dry. Also note that if you spray too much water, the PixOs will bloat slightly, which makes it difficult to align back in the tray if you want to make modifications to it. One big complaint they had was that the set came with way too few beads, so expect to buy refills. Personally, I was a little disappointed with this set, so I also bought a Manley Art-Tastic Magic Bead Set Manley Art-tastic Magic Beads Deluxe Playset - 1200 Beads, which, according to them, was a much better set because the beads stuck together better, and were the exact same size as the PixOs. Also, the Art-tastic Magic Beads have a few more patterns and come with more beads. But best of all, the Art-tastic refills are cheaper than PixOs. You can consider buying either one while using the Art-tastic Magic Bead refills.

We were huge fans of the Aquadots that they took off the market last year and so were excited to see them launch the replacment product. They look the same and the work the same, but they don't stick together nearly as well as the Aquadots which is disappointing. They are still fun and easy to use, so that's good. My kids really like them but are frustrated when they try to remove the creation from the tray, it doesn't stick together very well. One note though, you can buy this exact same thing at target for $29.99. Amazon is WAY over priced.