John Adams | Electronics Kit: Hot Wires | 100+ Experiments | Ages 8+ | Flying Disc, Burglar Alarm, Voice Recorder, FM Radio, Lie Detector

My husband had fun memories of doing this sort of things when he was a kid, so we bought this for our 6 year old daughter (she had actually showed an interest in "building a computer" but we thought we'd start with the basics: circuits) and I have to say it exceeded our expectations. At the very least, it is like a puzzle. It also teaches them "testing" (the circuit does not work? go back and check that everything is like in the diagram). It is also a confidence-building toy (the child can do build a circuit and then see the result, which is very satisfying). You can make all sorts of amazing things: fan, radio, burglar alarm, sound recorder, etc. Last week she had the idea of replacing the snap-on wires with real wires, and then she built her own little circuit! A truly fantastic toy!

The kit came on time and well packed. It is well made and contains a considerable number of electronic components. Each is clearly marked so everyone, whether a complete novice or experienced in electronics, should have no difficulty identifying what each item is. There is a booklet containing a large number of experiments, each accurately described and with a very clear picture showing how each element should be positioned and clipped together. Everything we tried over the holiday worked perfectly. For a child, there are some exciting circuits that will hold their attention, just like a game. I would recommend the simple motor circuit, with a loosely coupled rotary fan blade, that can be ejected vertically like a spinning frizby. You can refine it from being simply attention-grabbing, to a slightly more skilled game where judgement is required to try and make the spinner reach a particular height. As the child grows older, it will be possible to use the kit to explain and teach some of the simple electric and electronic principles involved. There are PNP and NPN devices, light sensitive cells, a motor, a speaker, a chip capable of producing music or recording and playing back voice from a microphone, etc, etc. I was lucky enough to have been trained in electronics and so can develop usage in this way. But I would suggest that, for those not of the same bent, the kit could perhaps be enhanced even more either by including some information along these lines or by referencing simple tutorials that could be purchased later. Just a thought. All in all, I thoroughly recommend this kit, both for its immediate impact and for its potential for future educational use.

The John Adams brands deservedly has a really poor reputation for producing toys that are overpriced and don't live up to the hype but John Adams have excelled themselves here and have created a set that offers hours and hours of fun for a great price. Despite the John Adams branding, this is one toy that I can wholeheartedly recommend to others. The set is officially recommended for children over the age of eight years old which I think is a fairly accurate recommendation if you are intending to have children playing with this independently with little adult intervention. My middle son was slightly under the minimum age recommendation when he first received this set, however, but this did not affect his enjoyment at all. He did need some assistance initially to understand how all of the pieces fit together and how they are represented in the pictorial instructions as not all of the pieces are immediately obvious although it is simplified as much as it can possibly be. My sons have their favourite experiment with this set and it is, without question, the one which causes a plastic spinner to fly up into the air. This is one of the first experiments in the booklet and consists of a fairly simple circuit so it is very quick and easy to put together but the results are very visually impressive. It is so straightforward that my ten year old son is able to build the circuit from memory without needing to refer back to the instructions at all and has been able to do this for a year or two. Some of the experiments are not quite as successful and it can be a little disappointing and frustrating to spend time putting together some of the more complex circuits for the results to be less than great. Experiment number 75, for example, is supposed to be a basic radio and takes quite a while to build. Whilst the completed circuit does work and there is an audible radio crackling we have struggled to get any proper recognisable music or sounds coming from the completed 'radio'. There are similar circuits that produce more impressive results from the small speaker though. We've owned this set for several years now and it is something short of a miracle that the entire set remains intact and not a single piece of equipment has ever gone astray. Highly recommended

Lo compré para el regalo de cumpleaños de mi hijo. Aunque la edad recomendada es a partir de 8 años, mi hijo de 6 está disfrutando enormemente con el juego. No tiene capacidad para entender algunos conceptos todavía pero disfruta un montón siguiendo las instrucciones como si fuese un puzle y montando los circuitos para ver cómo funciona el resultado. Le fascina comprobar que las luces se pueden encender y como dejan de hacerlo si se altera la configuración del circuito. El montaje de la radio y del ventilador han sido un éxito total. La pieza del ventilador es un poco frágil pero todos los demás elementos son robustos y aguantan bien un manejo no precisamente delicado. Lo recomiendo.

muy bueno para que los chavales se inicien en la electronica, el único problema es que el manual está en inglés.