Review on 🌟 Aquabeads Star Bead Station: Ultimate Arts & Crafts Bead Kit for Kids - 2,000+ Beads, Star Beads, Double Sided Bead Pen Tool by Kevin Caldwell

I brought this to Vine as my kids love all kinds of creative projects - fuse beads, creativity for kids and ALEX sets etc. And it's quite a nice product - and my kids love it - the main issue I had was the value. More on that later. My children opened the box and were delighted to see many, many little bags of beads. You get a very good selection and you get a cool storage box. Note that it will take some time to set up as you open each tiny packet and empty it into a storage box (although my 5 year old had fun with it!). The instructions are actually a bit difficult to follow. - The colorful illustrations they use don't give a very clear picture of how to use the flipboard, so we watched a quick/handy video at the end. When we saw that, we were ready to go. Creating the first project (cute puppy) was fairly straightforward for my 8 year old daughter, although she had some moments of frustration as the "guide" image could change and change. make it difficult to determine exactly which pearl goes where. It's also fairly easy to knock down a project - either by hand or with the pen tool - which can be a bit frustrating as you have to repeat sections. Speaking of the pen tool, it's a cool and handy tool that makes working on projects faster and easier. Overall I think this is a guided craft for a 6-7 year old and teaches patience/mindfulness which is nice. My 5 year old daughter left about 1/8th of her first project. I think it was just a whim and with some adult help she could handle it, especially with a shorter/simple project. The end product is pretty, if quite delicate, especially when the beads are misaligned and not in close contact. I'm not sure what you'll be using them for besides decoration - you can't hang them on your backpack without falling apart. My two main complaints are: 1. It seems too easy to ruin the end product. If the beads don't fit properly when sprayed on - which is usually the case with star and stud beads - they may not stick and the child will be a little disappointed if their creature's head or tail falls off immediately. I feel like we'll be better able to avoid that if we do more projects, so I won't be doing shooting stars for now. 2. The costs seem a bit overpriced to me. I think $20-$25 would be about right for what you get in the box, so almost $40 seems overpriced. You get a good range of colors, but not a lot of each. I'm sure it's quite expensive to make beads with a special adhesive coating, but such savings aren't impressive for a kid, haha. All other parts are made of fairly cheap plastic (handle, storage box, flipboard, atomizer, etc.). How are they different from Perler Beads, which are very similar? Well, the final Aquabeads product certainly looks neater - various clear beads and special star and stud beads make for some pretty designs. I also like how the pen speeds up project time and is fun. Both Perler and it are equally easy to screw up in my opinion. It's nice that the child can "complete" these projects themselves and not have to wait for an adult to pick up the iron. However, Perler seems to be more advantageous. Overall, this is a very neat craft and can make a very cool artistic gift. Just be prepared for a little disappointment as the child gets used to it. You can also earn more money with another creative kit. So if you're concerned about budget, look at a few other things.