Smartivity Hydraulic Crane Toy for Kids 8-14 Years Old I Cool Birthday Gifts Ideas for Boys & Girls | DIY STEM Science Toys for 8,9,10,11,12,13,14 Years I Wooden Engineering Game

It’s very fun to build and is not hard but is not easy either, I finished it in 1 - 1 and half hour max. Great quality and is fun to play with. Gives you everything except cup to keep water in to fill syringes.

Learning toy for grandchild

This was the perfect gift for our little engineer. He's 9 and didn't have any issues with this set but he has always been able to complete LEGOs above his age too so being that it is labeled for 8+ is accurate but they may need some assistance. The kit overall is very nice and once together is sturdy and stable enough to play with. While filling and bleeding the hydraulic lines can get a bit messy, after that the system worked great without and issues. With assembly, most of it went off without a hitch. There were a couple parts that were not cut properly but most of it was remedied with an XACTO knife. The biggest issue we encountered was the top plate of the hydraulic center. The pins didn't line up with the keys so there was no way to make the piece fit. The set was usable without it but one of the plungers would move out of place all the time. I finally cut out the slots with my hobby knife and saw to allow the piece to fit. Its off center but does the job. This would have been 5 stars easy but this little misalignment issues was a bit of an issue and for some this may stop the whole build if the alignment issue was somewhere else in the machine. For most I think any small issues could be oversome with some basic tools at home and the final product is educational and fun while also providing quite a bit of replay value.

Very intuitive and an amazing product. Fun and easy for the kid to assemble and lear and get addicted to the working dynamic of the product. Holding on to that one star as this product is limited to one model only. Would have been really nice if this product could have been used to model say two or three different prototypes and not limited to just one.. saying as usualy kids tends to get bored once their inquisitiveness realted to the product decreases.. and maintaining different products having their individual parts and all becomes a little cumbersome for the parents 😄

This kit is very thoughtful. A lot of concepts including lubrication (using a wax crayon), hydraulics, assembly, controls, etc. I think it's a little on the harder end for the typical 8 or 9 year old. The kit is very well designed with a nice manual. The manual is more "lego-like" than other STEM manuals that I've reviewed. There is a little confusion with some of the wooden pieces and you kind of get past it by matching shapes. It can be readily disassembled for use later by younger siblings (I guess it will need to survive a round of play first).