SmartLab Toys Science Lab

This kit contains 3 mysteries for children to solve. The mysteries are kid-friendly and involve the finding of stolen goods. Included is a cheap UV light scanner and a flimsy hand microscope. Instead of using these, I lent my children a 10X hand lens and a UV light pen that I had. There are many "clues" to solve, involving using the UV scanner to check fingerprints, observing footprints, and handwriting analysis. There are also mini labs that involve using litmus paper to check the pH of household ingredients that are not included in this kit. For this kit, you will need lemon juice, orange juice, milk, cola, chocolate milk, coffee and black tea. My 8 year old daughter and 10 year old son enjoyed checking out all the evidence and solving the crimes in the booklet.

I wanted to love this so much - especially given the great reviews I had read. Bought it for Xmas my 8 year old who has gone 'detective' crazy. There is a lot of reading involved - some of it irrelevant, but definitely making it a toy my child could not use on her own (and she is an advanced reader). The crimes take about a hour to 'solve'. We have done two of them - the first on her own (with my help) and the second with a friend (again with my assistance). Each crime seems to involve one 'science type' experiment which is the best bit. The other 'tools' provided are pretty worthless and I think that was my biggest disappointment. There's a microscope thing that does nothing, an ultraviolet scanner light that required batteries (she had something similar from a birthday gift so we used that instead) and a pair of plastic tweezers that are also just a gimmick. It is kind of fun and my daughter likes solving the crimes - its just not as great as I was hoping it would be.

I wish they made more of these kits with different story lines. My kids loved these kits & talked about them for years. It lead to doing magic tricks for some reason as well.This could be $100 and still worth it due to how much engagement & interaction we got. If you compare this to going to the movies or a park for example.It is great for a small birthday party too.

I bought this a year ago for a 7-year-old and he still uses some of the components - the magnifying glass, "microscope," and plastic vials. There was enough extra litmus paper for him to test other things after he'd done the experiments, as well. He did need help with some parts of the provided cases, and he got through all three very quickly, but I consider the product a good investment since he's still using it a year later. He also incorporated into his independent detective work several of the concepts he learned through doing the cases included with the kit.

Engaged 6 girls for about an hour for one of the three mysteries. Fairly simple but enjoyable for an intro for kids into Detective work. Worth the price to gauge interest before going all out on higher priced detective items.

My nephews absolutely loved this, though I should mention, they have only played through the first case! I highly recommend building up a game around these cases. I bought the kids some police badges, got them cheap squirt guns to mimic standard-issue police firearms, and we even made a little fort as our "HQ." Do that and you'll really get your money's worth out of this. The tweezers included are super cheap as other reviews indicated, but that's a simple matter to replace.

My 9 year old son received this for Christmas. He has solved the first crime so far. He did it on his own and seems to really enjoy it.

I am using this for a Girl Scout activity for older girls. I think it will be very entertaining.