Customer Reviews Most Helpful | Most Recent | Highest Rating | Lowest Rating
Average customer review 
(based on 52 reviews)
 More information available on the web
Written by Eric Verwillow from Palo Alto, CA
Feb 28, 2006
I just played with this (Snap Circuits Junior) for the first time and came looking to buy one for my kids.
In response to the person who said the manuals have errors, see the web site http://www.snapcircuits.net/ (and also http://www.elenco.com/ as mentioned below.) In particular there is a page that gives corrections to all the manuals: http://www.snapcircuits.net/updates.doc .
Another concern I had is which kit to buy: Junior, Pro, etc.? On the snapcircuits web site they have a price list for replacement parts and upgrade kits. For the difference in price between the kits you can upgrade from one to the next so this takes some of the worry about of the purchase (for me at least). http://www.snapcircuits.net/scparts.pdf
(84 of 86 people found this review helpful)
 Somebody at home better be a trained electrical engineer.
Written by Paul Weaver from Las Vegas, NV USA
Oct 20, 2004
My eight year old son loves this toy, BUT...
The book is full of errors. I'm afraid that a child would quickly become frustrated without someone around to troubleshoot the mistakes. I estimate that about 50% of the projects contain some sort of error. They're all minor problems, but the projects won't work until they are corrected.
It's really amazing how many different kinds of problems seem to crop up. Examples are: Missing parts from diagram, wrong parts specified, circuits that no longer "fit" together because mechanical design was changed, some component values seem to have been changed causing some circuits to need adjustment, some illustrations make it impossible to tell which component they are using, etc. The manufacturer just needs to sit down and build each circuit and update the book.
I should stress, once again, that my son and I love this toy. If you have the necessary skills, you should definitely get it. It's just not something you can give a kid and walk away from.
(124 of 131 people found this review helpful)
 You can read the manuals before buying!
Written by David Cortesi from Palo Alto, CA USA
Nov 05, 2005
Very much to the manufacturer's credit, the manuals that come with most Snapz products are online as pdf files. See www.elenco.com and click "User Manuals."
If you examine the manuals for this "Snapz Pro" product -- which is apparently called the SC-500 on the manufacturer site -- you will find that the entertainment value should be fairly high, there are a lot of whizzy gimmicks you can build. However the educational value -- in terms of learning anything whatever about electronics -- is about zero. All you do is match the color and shape of the components to a picture and snap them together. There is no attempt to differentiate the components other than by color and shape -- the relative meanings and functions of, for example, a "resistor" versus a "capacitor" versus an "FM radio chip" are simply not explained. It's just so many brightly colored units that are to be connected in a directed pattern.
The projects are not graded from simple to complex, the first ones in the manual are quite elaborate but simpler ones appear later on.
The same company also offers electronic training courses using the same components but with teaching manuals that are graded from simple to complex and do teach the meanings of the components, but this is not one of those.
(121 of 128 people found this review helpful)
Buy one for each kid
Written by Kris G from Minnesota
Aug 20, 2004
This is a great toy! It is very educational, the direction books are easy to follow (our kids needed a 30 minute lesson before we left them on their own to make their discoveries), the snaps are a super idea (some of the other electronic sets I looked at which required twisting wires together), and it is FUN!
We gave it to our 8 year old for his birthday and he has been playing it ever since. His 10 year old brother is very jealous and wakes up early in the morning so he can play with it before his brother wakes up, however the experiments can get a bit noisy so he ends up waking all of us up with them. They both love showing off what they have made to us and their friends and they are learning about how electricity works.
Due to the nature of the toy a few of the pieces (such as light bulbs) have potential to break if not cared for properly so be sure when kids are finished playing with the set they put them away properly so they don't get stepped on.
(32 of 32 people found this review helpful)
Really a great idea
Written by Andrew D. from Arlington, VA USA
Oct 26, 2006
Think of this as the Legos approach to wiring. We've bought two smaller ones for two boys here (I'm trying to draw out the girl...) and are considering a trade-up for the boy who methodically did ALL of the experiments. I grew up with the little jumper wire and spring terminal kits which do not provide anywhere near as appealing and understandable a layout and were much harder to work with and troubleshoot. Contrariwise, is hard to improvise with the fixed shape of the components and connectors, but that's not really important for this age group. Pieces do of course get lost, but how much can you ask of the little darlings (don't flush them!!!).
One quibble, more a problem with the larger kits: I think they cheat claiming the kit supports XXX [30-750] different projects. Many projects are subtle enough variations on what came before that they don't count for much.
I'm really very pleased with these kits -- high praise from toy-jaded me -- they are a genuine improvement in learning and, more importantly, *playing* with electronics.
(14 of 15 people found this review helpful)
› Read more reviews... |