PATHFINDERS STEM Kit – Medieval Catapult kit| Trebuchet Science Kits for Kids Age 8-10 10-14 | stem Kits for Kids Age 12-14 Physics Toys | Kids Engineering kit | Learning Resource

Works great! Easy to put together

We got this for my husband to do with our 8 year old grandson on Thanksgiving morning. They had a blast. It is made of quality materials, not pressed wood. Works well! Good value for the money. I'm glad I paid a little more than other kits,it was worth it.

Very cool little model. I've been peppering my office mates with wadded up paper balls all week. Minus one star because the dowel pins for assembly are of irregular sizes. Some are very loose in the holes while others don't fit without sanding or trimming with an Exacto knife. I actually split one of the beams slightly trying to press a dowel into a hole.As noted by another reviewer, when the catapult arm strikes the cross-bar, it does so with a lot of impact if you have the thread wound tightly. I affixed a piece of felt furniture padding to it to dampen the strike. About a hundred shots so far without any cracks in that cross bar.***Update***Still very happy with this little guy, but the impact of the arm striking the crossbar even with the felt pad I added over time caused several of the glue in the dowel holes to crack and loosen. I made another mod by adding a rubberband running from the back base to the arm to dampen the throw about an inch before it hits the bar. This actually makes the device work better as it provides a touch more loft to the projectile.

I led a build of 6 of these for a birthday party with mostly 6 year old boys. Everyone had a blast. I bought this one so I could do a dry run beforehand. I recommend you do the same, but as long as you familiarize yourself with the process beforehand the build is simple enough for the kids. I left most joints unglued and glued a few critical joints with superglue because it dries so quickly. To avoid the kids launching rocks we also bought a bunch of small styrofoam balls. Great kits. The parts fit well. Getting the string right is the hardest part. Don't forget the washers.

Purchased for school project. The overall building of the model is straight forward. The only issue will be piecing the tension dowel to the swing arm. As the swing arm is only held in place by the tension dowel and must be bound tightly in order to function properly. To ensure proper tension for dowel and swing arm fasten both sides of the dowel to the base without tightening. Once the dowel is fasten secure one side of the tension dowel and twist till tighten. Then repeat the process to the opposite side. Tighten the dowel giving equal twist to both sides to properly position the swing arm. Kit comes with everything needed to build the model no other purchase is required.

My grandson and granddaughter had a blast sanding, gluing and staining the catapults with me. The kits are well made and with a little guidance from me, my 9 and 11 year olds were easily able to build their own catapults in a morning. The afternoon was taken up by firing dried out marshmallows at everything in site (these are a little safer than the clay the kit uses). Highly recommended.

Purchased this after having built a much larger trebuchet kit (which I did not find on Amazon). 14 yo loved building that kit and so also purchased this one - a much easier build - but really, they were both fairly easy and fun to build... they do not take a lot of time, though we did stop for periods to let the glue dry. Nice concepts, great directions... And it worked quite well launching small dog biscuits!

I bought this for my 5 year old and we have a great time with it. I had forgotten that the catapult mechanism was so simple- thinking about building one on a larger scale with more tension in the mechanism such as latex straps. Fun!