Thames & Kosmos Candy Vending Machine - Super Stunts and Tricks

Product works great if following instructions exactly. Had a part break after normal use. Contacted support and they right away tried to send me the broken piece. Unfortunately, customs denied the package 3 times. So, Thames & Kosmos sent me a whole new set! Thanks for such great customer service.

This ended up being a lot of fun for my eight-year-old. Really easy to put together for him, maybe took 30 minutes. I see a lot of complaints about it not working properly. It’s not rocket science. Make a few easy little adjustments and it will work great. For example, we kept having a problem with the coins falling out as they fell through the maze. Well, all you had to do is lean it back a millimeter or two and then it would work perfect. So we put a small dab of hot glue on the front of the white triangular stands. Works perfect. Sometimes things don’t work right out of the box and simple problem-solving needs to take place.

This product is super easy to put together. No tools required, just snap parts together by hands. The mechanics are so simple, there’s really no reason for it not to work except if you have a missing or broken parts situation. However, it does require that the instructions be followed carefully because some details are easy to be missed by a child, e.g., the orientation of certain parts. The finished product instantly became a hit with my 5 and 9 year old boys. They picked out all the smaller candies they got from the last Halloween, as well as coins from their piggy bank, and played with this candy vending machine nonstop. They plan on charging their friends for candies when they come for play dates and expect that they will gladly pay for them because of the fun of it. The boys also excitedly talked about where to source exotic candies to make their friends more motivated to pay, say, a trip to the Japanese store. Alternatively I think we can also turn it into a mini toys vending machine which is an added fun. On a final note, our kids are not looking to make money - their friends usually just come by anytime and rummage through our house for snacks. It’s really just for the fun of having a “vending machine”.

My box came with no shipping box around it and someone opened it. It was missing the candy, instructions and the billboard. Otherwise we were able to assemble it and the kids loved it! Amazon needs to make sure not to ship the box vulnerable like this. Either it opened in shipping or in the conveyor system and someone shoved by they thought belonged inside. Who knows. It was also missing a spring from factory. I used an old pen spring and stretched it out to match and it worked great. Assembly was easy but can be a bit flimsy on the obstacle course pieces. But it seems acceptable for what it is. I think it's worth the price though. Just not worth it if everyone is having parts fall out of the shipping box.

Make sure you set aside plenty of time to set this up! I thought it would be fun for my 7 year old son who loves putting things together and I to build this together. There are many small pieces and gadgets, so have lots of patience. It is easy to use once everything is set up. Materials are mostly made of plastic and it can easily be broken so be carful. Fun experiments included in the booklet!