Smartivity Chain Reaction Engineering, STEM Learning Toy Construction Kit for Kids Ages 8 and Up

I especially love that even after assembly is complete, there is plenty of learning to be done with rearranging the pegs to make the "music machine" play different songs. My grandchildren, ages 8 and 10, assembled their kits on their own (with only a tiny bit of help routing out one hole to be big enough to fit the insert piece), then had a great time making music — some tunes that came with and some of their own.

This was a Christmas gift for my 10 year old son and we’ve never purchased a wooden puzzle kit before. He put it together over two days; total work time was about 6 hours. He absolutely loves it! He likes Lego sets and reading, so extended focus tasks are right up his alley. He required help only twice during assembly and it was to push a couple of pieces together that were quite snug. The quality of the wood is great! There are also a couple extra pieces included in case something breaks, which only happened once.The directions were clear enough that my son did not need to ask for help in this area.The final product does not produce a perfect chain reaction through to the end. The “dominos” are not heavy enough to trigger the ski ball portion. This didn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of the kit though. We easily found other items in our house to substitute. I would absolutely buy more puzzles from this brand. It really was excellent all around.

My 10 YO was able to put together and made a song. It is sturdy but definitely not for kids who are more ‘destructive’. Came with extra pegs which is nice.

The media could not be loaded. Bought this for Christmas, got the kids together, penned the dog in (lots of small swallowable parts guys) and put this machine together. The instructions are great, you get extra rubber bands and boy do you need them, the tiny bands are worse than Jesus clips. The instructions come with music so you can play right off the bat. I'd say that the pegs need more effort to get out than the particle board can withstand. We used sandpaper to make the pegs a little easier to get out. So overall a great teambuilding exercise, mechanically challenging for the age it's made for, but not very sturdy. I will be getting more of these kits for the kids.

Love it! My 10 year old was able to put it together by himself. One of the gear teeth broke off but that might have been his fault and it didn't affect how the device played music. After putting it together, he's not only been thrilled with learning the included songs, but has been creatively coming up with his own tunes and patterns. Sound is crisp and clear, and surprisingly pretty and not too annoying.

Truly simple, tool-free and glue-free construction. This was a gift for an 8-year-old who can be easily frustrated, so I stood by during the build. The way this comes together is clever and simple, and the child was able to follow the instructions and happily tinker while I merely handed over the parts they needed for each stage.The sound is small and tinny, as expected, but well-tuned. It's easy to program songs, and a small songbook is included. I'd buy it again for a similar aged kid.

I got this for my niece for her 7th birthday and she loved it! We tried facetiming one evening and she couldn’t talk to me because she was too focused on building this thing. Then on the next video call, she was smiling while turning the music handle - she was super proud of her work! Great memorable gift!

This is for basically one melody only, as it is literally impossible to replace the pins that control the notes and place them in a different spot. They're sort of stuck. In addition, it breaks super easily, and is so challenging to assemble that we just through it to the trash after a couple of pieces fell. Really not worth the money or time/effort of putting this together.

Followed the directions completely and the end result was looking at beads rotating around. Took it apart and started again and same thing. Tried the YouTube video the company recommends, but the video was a 30 second promotion video, not an instructional video. Just a complete waste of money. Would have been better to buy a kaleidoscope and use the extra money for a snack.