Tara Toys STEM Projects Robotic Octopus

First of all, it looks and acts better than the product picture. Lava comes out of the eyes and partially collects in a pool at the bottom ! I successfully used this for experiments AND as an awesome cake topper BUT... I spray painted it gold glitter and couldnt get it pieced back together to actually do an eruption ON the cake. My fault ! I didn't spray it with middle tube inside, only outer pieces assembled. It's a very tight fit and finicky to put together even before spray painted. (A clear plastic tray or tray matching cake top color needed for that. I HALVED a recipe to make an eruption that could be contained on 11 inch round tray, 1-2 inches tall). With that being said the directions are bad and there was some type of manufacturing snafu (the silver tube on the bottom right is just decorative, but not in the assembly directions at all, so was obviously originally meant to be another drainage system). In addition, the eruption recipe is overly complicated. Use one of the 53,642 volcano recipes on pinterest instead : ) This is a homerun for people with common sense and ingenuity, but not for those who want to follow steps as written.

Christmas gift for 10 year old nephew. No complaints

It is poorly made and the instructions less than helpful. I was unable to pull the string through the small opening as the string was too flexible and a needle wouldn't bend where it needed to go. Could not figure out what to use and could not find any further instructions online.

Fun project with tedious pieces. I needed to intervene with tweezers to complete the project but we had fun. Item lasted for about a week in our house (lots of kiddo usage in varying ages and developmental stages) then pieces started falling off and it was no longer safe for our environment. It does work and you can pick things up and really enjoy the mechanics of it.

Hard to assemble for a 5 years old. Too many small screws of different sizes and hard to screw them in.It also looks cheap.

Works

Easy to build and fun to pay with. My son also got a robot hand from this company and it's great

The instructions were mirrored so it was hard to put together. With the help of Dad who is an engineer it works. That is fun. The legs are a little flimsy but it still walks.