Toys & Games

Moon Dough Review!

Guess what we did today? Broke out the MOON DOUGH! It’s been sitting here on my desk for WEEKS now, and my review is way late. My apologies to Team Mom, who was kind enough to provide my family with this awesome Moon Dough Barn set for review – I have had the damndest time finding a chance to sit down with my kids to try it out. How hard is it to sit down and play? I mean, come on? But, yeah. School started, and everything just went to hell for me. Now that my littlest twins are in school, I have FIVE KIDS doing homework every night. The days just FLY by. But somehow, everything came together today, and here is my review!

First of all, you should check out the Moon Dough website. They have a commercial that loads right on the main page, showcasing this amazing, magical molding dough that never dries out. Don’t those kids look like they’re having a blast? I took a video of my own, so you can see what it’s like for the reals. This stuff is awesome – and actually, kind of weird – but it’s soooooo messy. I was trying to figure out something to compare it to, so I could describe to you what it’s like. It’s sort of food-like, in a way. It’s super duper light, like styrofoam. And have you ever pulled out the leftover mashed potatoes the day after Thanksgiving, and they’re all cold from the fridge? And you get a big spoonful and it sort of makes a sound as it separates from the spoon and plops onto your plate? That’s the consistency. And it’s crumbly, like the instant scrambled eggs you get ~~in jail~~ at a cheap buffet. It’s bizarre stuff, but it’s fun to play with. All my kids loved feeling it in their hands. Here you can see my husband explaining to all the kids (plus the neighbor kids) how to use the farm set. Essentially, you feed it some of this weird Moon Dough stuff, turn a crank, and out pops a farm animal. How weird is that?

My kids had a lot of fun with this stuff. It’s one of those things, though, that is designed (in my opinion) for families with just one or two kids. It’s super hard for a group of kids to share a toy like this as you could probably figure out from my video! I suspect that even 2 kids would struggle with it, because while one kid gets to do the AWESOME FUN THING, which is extruding little animals with a crank, and the other kid has to sit there and do the somewhat boring thing, which is molding Moon Dough into fences and hay bales. Turning funky molding compound into farm animals seems to be a one man job, y’know? But still – my kids liked it. Here are a few pictures to show just how much fun they had!

Lexi, the spokesmodel, showing off our product: MOON DOUGH.

Daddy reads the instructions:

Looks like scrambled eggs, huh? Not for long, though – my kids had all those colors mixed up together in no time.

Look at those fabulous fences!

Pablo really enjoyed the feel of Moon Dough – I can see it being a fabulous sensory tool for kids on the spectrum.

Lexi the spokesmodel again, showing off our collection of farm animals and hay bales!

Yeah, it’s hard to get them all to smile for a picture.

Our whole group, having fun with the Moon Dough:

Moon Dough comes in a very sturdy box. I’m hoping I can shove everything back into it, but so far, I can’t get the plastic grass to snap back off of the barn. If I can make that happen tomorrow and store this away on a shelf in its original box, I’ll be extra impressed with Moon Dough. If I end up throwing the whole thing in a Target bag and having to throw away that nice sturdy box, I’m going to be extra annoyed with Moon Dough. I’ll let you know how that part turns out.

So. To summarize? I would not have bought this for my kids in a million years, only because I’m one of those, “Oh, HELL no!” moms who doesn’t embrace crumbly, messy toys. I was a little disappointed that it was soooo crumbly and messy – this stuff got EVERYWHERE. I wonder what my neighbor thought when I sent her children home with blue hands. I don’t know that I’d recommend this, although the whole set is pretty cheap – under $20, for sure. You can buy individual containers of the Moon Dough – perhaps invest in one of those, if you want to see what it’s like, before buying a whole playset.

Disclaimer: Team Mom provided this Moon Dough playset to my family for review. I was not compensated in any way for this review, beyond receiving this product.

We love K’Nex!

Jan 4th, 2010

by lauralee.

2 comments

I’m a full month late in posting this review, darn it. I don’t know what it is about the 4th quarter of the year always slipping by in the blink of an eye, but I suspect it has something to do with all those little kid cold germs and all the preparation for the holidays. Anyway. I’ve been remiss in sharing this, and I apologize for that.

My son and husband were lucky enough to sample a 400-piece K’Nex building set, courtesy of K’Nex and Team Mom We aren’t new to K’Nex. When Pablo was paired up with his full-time aide, Barb, she introduced him to the magic of K’Nex. Kids with autism often like to sit and work on something obsessively and with meticulous concentration, and K’Nex is perfect for this. They’re designed to work with the typical building sets you probably already have (the ones that rhyme with Eggo) but they are a thousand times better than those other building sets – you can make the most amazing things, and the design that allows the the itty bitty pieces to fit together is just…genius.

Here’s my boy checking out the big tub of K’Nex.

Um…just so you know, 400 pieces of K’Nex is not a lot. Many of the pieces are miniscule – smaller than a raisin – so don’t expect to buy this tub and have it appear anywhere near FULL when you open it. Have you ever opened a bag of potato chips and realized the bag was only about a third full? Well, the K’Nex tub is about one tenth full when you buy it. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll realize that you need a whole bunch more of these, and you’ll run right out to your nearest retailer to stock up. I think the K’Nex people are counting on that – fill up that tub, consumer! Or, use the extra room as a garage for your spiffy K’Nex truck.

Really, nothing makes my engineer husband happier than sitting down with the boy and building stuff. They sat like this for HOURS. Hours, I tell you. They made a few things shown in the big instruction booklet, but had even more fun making their own creations.

Huge thanks to K’Nex and Team Mom for letting us try these out. You can find this same product at Target, Walmart, and Toys ‘R Us for around $20.99.

K’NEX Sesame Street Building Sets Review!

Nov 14th, 2008

by lauralee.

1 comment

A couple of months ago, my girls got to check out a really cute new toy – it’s Sesame Street’s own Ernie, made out of K’NEX! We adore Sesame Street and we like K’NEX products too, so we had a lot of fun with this. K’NEX has several different Sesame Street Building Sets available – my favorite one is Super Grover, natch – and they retail for around $10.99 each. Other, more elaborate sets are available too – I noticed a set that pairs up Bert and Ernie and another with Cookie Monster and Hooper’s Store.

Each character can be constructed in various ways, and the coordinating pieces can be stored in their own custom canister. The arms and legs have hinge points too, so you can (carefully) move your little characters around once they’re all put together. We had lots of fun with this!

My review is coming pretty late here – we received this at the end of the summer, as you can see by the pictures of Nikki and Lexi in shorts and tank tops! Unfortunately, illness has kept me away from writing reviews for several weeks. But I’m getting my gallbladder out very soon, which the doctors are going to yank out of me K’NEX style, quick and easy. I’m looking forward to getting past all of that, so I can get back my regular ol’ life!

If you have little Sesame Street lovers, this would be a great gift, and it’s small enough that Santa could easily stuff it in a stocking. I wouldn’t mind picking up a few more of these sets for that very purpose! You can find them online at the link above or in stores right now!