Air Blast Cannon kit product reviews

Looking at the box this looks awesome! Opening the box my heart skipped a beat and I thought holly molly this looks hard! Thank goodness I have a husband who loves this sort of stuff and he took over with the girls and I sat back and supervised. I am not sure I would of wanted to do without him - I am sure I would of managed but honestly I think it would of taken a little longer than it did with him in charge. It does say for ages 8 and above and sure agree for playing with no worries but it would be a huge undertaking for an eight year old to make alone.

He split jobs up between the girls, youngest held the clips and eldest held the syringes and pulled out the shapes from the board. He then read the instructions and with the help of the girls made it bit by bit. His major issue is that the syringes and pipes are colour coded but those colours did not correspond to the levers which are also coloured and he does not understand why the levers are not the same colours as the syringes - thinks would of made it so much easier. Besides that he is not sure how long it will last as it is basically just cardboard which if gets wet at all will most likely crumple besides that this is awesome! I wish I had it when I was younger!

Once the canon is made which can turn left and right and go up and down you have targets that you can make up and then it is a matter of aiming and firing. Depending on how you load the bullet it does fly consistently at the same height/speed so we tried nerf bullets, but after a lot of trial and error we did find that the bullets that came with the kit actually work better its just a matter of how you load it.

Now this has been the subject of a lot of family wars and we have had great fun competing against each other. The targets that came with the kit were okay but hubby being hubby decided they were not good enough and he made up his own target area and it has been a lot of fun. I am surprised at how well both the girls do with it. My seven year old takes ages lining up the target making it go left and right then up and down and then just to be safe turns left and right some more - it does teach me a lesson in patience as 9 out of 10 times she gets all of the targets.

Highly recommend for a family activity but I do suggest having someone with a level head who knows how to read instructions to make it. Some of the clips can be fiddly to put in the holes and you don't want to rip it at all. Very addictive and competitive when I play with it I feel like I am in a world war 2 movie shooting cannons at the bad guys - love it!

My 8 and 10 year old daughter's have used Klutz kits in the past and really enjoyed them so I thought the Air Blast Cannon would be a bit of fun whilst teaching them a little bit about physics and engineering.

We opened the box and I took a huge breath as this looked like it was going to be a bit of a mission. We laid the bits out and then the fun started!! The instructions claim to be super clear which they are if you take your time and are very patient. My girls however, wanted to play with the cannon and there were bits of construction that they both couldn't do. Even I had to be careful not to rip and tear the cardboard when I had to squeeze O clips through holes! There were parts they managed to help out with once I'd sorted out what to do but my 8 year old got a little frustrated as she struggled putting some of the snaps in place. It took me about 15 minutes to complete and once completed there were parts that weren't in the correct place (the different levers) but everything worked so I was happy. When it came to using, I had the honorary first blast and we all cracked up laughing at the pop it made as the foam dart flew threw the air!

The book does come with target practice items such as Bull's-eye rings, falling cylinders and Drop the Standing Sign but my girls were happy enough to play with the levers that make it turn left and right and up and down before launching. The book does give you other target ideas and there is also an informative section on air power in action and the birth of pneumatics! There are also another two fun experiments you can do in the book which we will do in the future.

When my hubby got home he was so impressed he spend 5 minutes firing the darts so it is good fun for the whole family. I would definitely recommend taking your time to read the instructions thoroughly and allocating plenty of time to construct it. It would make a great gift for anybody who likes constructing or science but I definitely think it's a set that you'd need to help them with!