Saturday, April 16, 2011

Educational Toys Planet Review - Foamfetti

Educationaltoysplanet.com is a website that has many connections to bloggers like me, who help get the word out about tbeir toys! I ran a google search for them, and found all sorts of reviews for all sorts of toys. Unfortunately I was very jealous to see the other toys that had been sent to people, because this "Foamfetti" was not impressive.
I wrestled with even reviewing this product, because upon opening it, I knew this review would be shoddy. I contemplated not reviewing it at all. I kinda felt like it would put a damper on me receiving another product to review from Educationaltoysplanet.com or any website that reads this would be scared I would do it to them as well. My mother told me if you don't have something nice to say, just keep your mouth shut. But my conscience was nagging at me. Remembering what I have read about how bloggers should conduct themselves . I will say this though. I am floored that this product claims to be given an award? WOW! Thats crazy!

Awards:
Creative Child Magazine - Preferred Choice Award - 2010

I have never seen a craft-sy product I despise as much as this one. If you want to buy it go ahead. I tried my hardest to come up with something nice to say, and I did, and I will share it at the end. (In my pros and cons list.)
OK! OK! I did hate the Moon Sand too, but even it wasn't as bad as this.

Foamfetti is supposed to be this amazing Arts & Crafts molding "dough" that crinkles and pops. The gimmick and the idea is not new, but cute in its own way! I really liked the packaging. ( I loved Educational Toys Planet's website! ) The packaging pictures things that they made (we'll talk about that later) like a wand, a teddy bear and a castle.


And it is SO cute! Then it comes with three medium sized tubs of FoamFetti, one yellow, one pink and one purple. Very bright vivid colors, that look like confetti. My little girl Giana was SO excited. Foamfetti claims to stick to itself, paper or unfinished wood to add texture to your other artistic designs.



We were very disappointed however when we opened it up, and TRIED to mold this stuff. It says it is for ages 5 years and up, but Giana is a VERY smart almost 6 year old little girl who couldn't mold it to save her life. So I thought, well, let me just go mold it for her. Nope! Wasn't just her.. its unmoldable. How in the world they molded it into a castle and a bear is beyond me. It sticks to your hands and wont shape whatsoever. I spread it out on a dresser with a ceiling fan on for almost 2 days, before it dried out enough to where it wouldn't stick all over you when you attempt to mold it. 36 hours later, it was tacky and semi-moldable. Maybe its just me? But even at that point I still couldn't shape it into much more than a ball. I made a star too, but that was a task all in itself. Giana, however couldn't do anything with it, short of just making a mess. On another note, it claims to crinkle, but didn't crinkle whatsoever until it was partially dry. I made 2 small balls and one large ball, and a star. Giana couldn't do it. I had to. :( Then, I had to let it dry enough to get tacky just to roll it, so the balls wouldn't stick to one another (to make a Mickey/Minnie mouse head shape) so the "ears" had to be super glued.
So lets go over the pros and cons.

..............PROS..............
Nice packaging/ good idea
It would mold... (eventually..)
It would crinkle ..(eventually...)
Washes off your hands easily.
Incorporates a Princess/Fantasy idea.
Has potential to spark your child's creativity and imagination.
Overall Educational Toys Planet seems to be a really neat website, so please do not judge them solely on this one bad product.
This is simply my experience/opinion of it, and yours may not be the same.
(Maybe this isn't the most positive experience or review, but at least my readers know they can trust me to be honest with them now.)

...............CONS.......................
Too complex for small children.
Too wet to do anything with immediately.
Won't shape.
Won't stick to anything other than your hands, especially not to itself.
Cannot roll into a ball until its more than halfway dry and tacky.
Doesn't stick to paper.
I had to super glue seperate pieces together

Here is our finished products:








To find more arts & crafts, click the hyper-link!

2 comments:

Nikki said...

I have bad luck with all that sort of stuff. Moon Dough and Sand, which my son loves, drives me insane. It has to be the messiest stuff on the planet! Funfetti sounds just as bad. But hey, that is one cute little test subject you have there!

Nikki said...

Oops, I meant Foamfetti, not Funfetti. I really can read, honest. It's been a long week!!

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