Smartivity Music Machine; Mechanical Action, Science, Engineering STEM and STEAM Building Kit for Kids Ages 8 and Up

Wow, I can’t say enough about this kit! Me and my son had SO much fun building this set and he has shown it off to all of his friends. It was part of a homeschool lesson, but I ended up buying several other kits just for fun. There is no glue, everything is held together by rubber bands so once you build it, there is no waiting to use it! It actually plays the songs very clearly, we started with jingle bells, but there are several other choices of songs, as well as how to make your own. The directions are extremely clear and straight forward. It comes with a thick sheet of paper that talks about the science of sound and things like pitch and such. It was such a great teaching moment! My son is 5 and had no problem building this with a little help/direction from me. I figured I would be left doing most of it, but I was very wrong! He was so engaged in this activity. It’s also a great room decoration once done that has a cool, “I made this myself”, story! Seriously an underrated product that I don’t see many people talking about. EVERY child should get a chance to build one of these!

This was a relatively easy (but not too easy) to assemble gift for my daughter. She's only 6, and I did have to help some, but she found this not too difficult and she enjoyed putting it together and she has loved playing with it, and experimenting with the pins to make new songs. It's sturdy and exactly as advertised, so I think it was very worth the money. I do think you'd have to be at least 8, possibly even older, to be able to assemble on your own, but if a parent can help, this is a good gift for younger kids too.

Fun to put together. However our gear did not work so the crank did not turn the drum.

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 husband loves building these wooden puzzles. Works well. Grandson likes to crank it.

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.

This is a big project! I wish there was a warning on the box. You don't need to complete the whole thing in one day. The instructions are easy to follow, which is great. The sections are split in the book, so it's almost like putting things together in chapters. I was excited to get the kits, but it's disappointing that the material is flimsy. You can get it and enjoy the process but don't expect it to last very long unless you can keep it somewhere that it won't be moved