Twirly Q's product reviews

Though this kind of thing isn't really my kettle of aquatic dwellers, I have been trying to get back into the more creative pass-times as a way of unwinding from the work... so I thought I would give this kit a try. After reading the previous review, I ditched the included glue and used my own bottle of PVA instead, and the results were pretty good.

There was plenty of raw materials, as long as you only wanted to make what was in the book, but after the first model was completed I decided to "wing it" and go freestyle. Not too sure if that was the wisest move, but it sure was fun! Taking inspiration from the green monster on the front cover, I turned the body into a turtle shell instead and made me a mini-model of The Great A'tuin - the World-Turtle from Terry Pratchett's Discworld fame. Now I just need to figure out how to do the four elephants... maybe out of air-dry clay...

Overall, if you get rid of the problematic glue that comes in the pack, this kits seems to work pretty well. Fresh raw materials are available wherever cardboard boxes can be found - like the soft drink aisle of your local Pak'n Save store - and can be coloured to suit your needs in a variety of ways. They might not look quite as 'crisp' as the included strips, but you can bet the kids will have just as fun - if not more - creating their own raw materials prior to assembly. Another good, but perhaps not quite great, offering from Klutz.

This is the first Klutz product I have reviewed and not been a fan of. I sat down with my little gaggle of girls thinking we were in for an afternoon of fun. Not so. First four instructions are; 1- Make some coils, 2- Shape them, 3- Be Patient, 4- Assemble them. Well I realised reading 3 we were in trouble! You are warned that it will take at least an hour for the glue to dry......

One Miss Five didn't make it past step 1 as there are only enough bits of cardboard to make one of each of the animals in the book. Of course two of them wanted to make the same thing and I realised that even if we substituted colours - which we did - then when we went to make something else we wouldn't have the right pieces for it!

Anyway one child down already. I proceeded to try and make the coils for the other Miss's as it was way too hard for them to do themselves. The Tacky glue supplied by Klutz was absolutely awful and ended up every where and was impossible to wash off so we had ultra sticky fingers that made it doubly hard to make the coils. The coils kept coming undone by which time I had been abandoned by all the kids and left to my own devices. Eventually I got all the coils made for our creatures and then Step three - be patient. So that was that we had to wait for them to dry.

Well the glue was horrendous and it just remained all tacky. I eventually got some of my own craft glue and persevered ahead but really just not an enjoyable activity! It's a bit frustrating as well having something that needs a big drying break in the middle.

So I would say that this is something to do with your own craft glue and definitely not with little ones. Klutz recommend this for 10 years up which I would say would be about right actually. I won't be binning this set (as it isn't completely useless) but will just put it aside until my girls are a bit older and remind them if doing with friends that they will have to choose different characters (as stated on the box!). This is not one of Klutz's best products but do check out others in the range.