3-D Solar System
by University Games
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List Price: Our Price: $9.00 You Save: $10.99 (55%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of 3-D Solar System
Customer Review: Excellent choice
Summary: 5 Stars
My son recently finished a study of the solar system in his preschool class and was very excited about what he had learned. I searched for several items that I could purchase to both educated him further and that would add a decorative touch to his room. This item did both. I was rather put off by most reviews on the ease, or in most cases lack of ease, of installation. It took me 10 minutes to string up the planets, afix the fish line to the little star tacks and place them in my ceiling. . . a breeze. If the planets are near a light source they glow brightly and into the night. Infact we awoke this morning and they were still faintly glowing. Impressive. As for the stickers, well they are what they are...tiny. I used them on some left over spiderweb from halloween to create the milky way around the planets and the paper mache sun we created and they work fine. I didn't even need a tweezer. Great product!
Tip for installation - tie the string to the planet first in a knot, then tie a loop knot at the other end. Take that and slip it around the nail of the tack and tighten. The star head will keep the knot from sliding off the nail and it will be secure to hold the planets up. If you actually try to tie the fish line around/across the star head it will take hours and will make for a frustrating installation...
Customer Review: Educational Room Decorations
Summary: 4 Stars
The educational value of having the planets hang from our son's room is great. At 4 years-old, he could name the nine planets thanks in large part to this "toy". So I give it the highest marks in educational value. A little tid-bit about each of the planets is provided on a panthlet in this set and I read it to our son as my husband hung the set. Our son actually memorized much of what I read to him and when the set was new he asked me to reread the panthlet to him several times to fill in the pieces of information that he had forgotten.It's also fun in that our son enjoys showing it to our guests and telling them about the planets. However, I rate the set as 4 out of 5 stars in the fun category simply because it is more like decoration. This set hangs from the ceiling, so you never play with it or even touch it once it is hung. You simply enjoy looking at it and talking about it.
The downside of this set is that the stars are really small stickers so you will want to purchase some larger glow-in-the-dark stars. Also it is a pain to hang this set since you have to tie fishing line to each of the planets and then use tack-like objects to connect them to the ceiling. But once you have it all set up your child will probably be pleased.
Customer Review: You don't need a sun!
Summary: 5 Stars
I used the light in the middle of my daughter's room as the "sun". I then spiraled the planets around the sun. Mercury is just beyond the reach of the ceiling fan; then each planet was just a little further away than the previous one. I put the first four planets fairly close together (as they are supposed to be), then put a bigger gap between the rest, and it worked out with Neptune being the furthest away, almost to the wall. We put up Pluto too, but sometimes Pluto is closer to the sun than Neptune, so it works out.
It was time consuming to put up, but I had no problem getting the tacks to stay in the ceiling. As far as durability goes, it's been in her room for several years now... we've never had a problem. No tacks have ever fallen out.
Yes, the stars are cheap and not worth it. They do sell just the planets for half the price, but it says you only get putty... I like the tacks. Some of the planets glow brighter than others, depending on the color.
My daughter (now 9) absolutely loves it, and it's not some cutesy thing that she's going to outgrow. My 6 year old wants them in her room now too. I like that they are on the ceiling, versus a standing mobile that's in my way.
Customer Review: fun but flimsy. don't sweat accuracy.
Summary: 3 Stars
My sons enjoyed having this in their room.
Unfortunately they aren't durable. Even hanging from the ceiling which in theory should make them be out of harms way, what really happened was they'd get bonked by toy swords and tossed balls and other hazards of childhood and pretty soon they were broken. Can't tell you how many times I had to glue and tape them back together.
As for it being out of scale and missing the sun, well, yeah. I still think it's pretty good from an educational standpoint. An actual to-scale solar system would not fit in a child's room...either the sun would be the size of your whole house, or Earth would be just a pin point. Even if you don't include Sol, the difference in size between Mercury and Jupiter is just too large to be a reasonable toy while still accurately to scale. And of course the distance from Mercury to Pluto is such that you'd have to put Pluto in your neighbor's house instead of yours. And is Pluto really a planet? Controversy rages on but your kid won't care.
Customer Review: There are better (and brighter!) versions
Summary: 4 Stars
We wish the "planets" included glowed brighter and longer, and that the "200 adhesive stars" weren't just a strip of variously-shaped stickers (some so tiny they had to be removed with tweezers!), but all-in-all you get what you pay for and it is at least teaching our son about the solar system. The planets are also expected to be hung from the ceiling using fishing line and what amount to thumbtacks, so I recommend having some good nails or hooks at your disposal or you will probably be frustrated by bent tacks and hammered fingers. I will add that there are much brighter and longer-lasting plastic glow-stars out there. We found some and have made our son's room much more impressive since this purchase. We just tell him the dimmer stars are the ones further away. :-) Put stars up in your kid's room! It's really cool. Just get a lot and get good ones.