Amazon has launched a STEM Club Toy subscription box! This monthly subscription delivers "handpicked, high-quality Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math toys" to your door for $19.99/month.
We signed up for Amazon's STEM Toy Club subscription as soon as it launched, and this is our eleventh delivery. This subscription looks like any other shipment from Amazon, with no exterior branding on the box or special insert:
There are 3 age range options:
- 3-4-year-olds (counting, building, and cause and effect)
- 5-7 year-olds (hands-on experiments and explorations of electricity, earth science, and simple math)
- 8-13-year-olds (more complex projects and experiments based on principals of physics, chemistry, and engineering)
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
This is a review of the 3-4-year-old age range Amazon STEM Club, $19.99/month.
About This Educational Subscription Box for Kids
The Subscription Box: Amazon STEM Toy Club
The Cost: $19.99 per month
The Products: Each month you will receive a different, age-appropriate STEM toy.
Ships to: U.S. (free shipping)
February's Toy: Handy Man's Go-to Caddy by Hape
Hape Handyman Go-To-Caddy Kid's Wooden Tool Box Set - Retail Value $39.99
I was really impressed with our last Hape toy from this subscription, so I was excited to see them in another box! This month's toy is a tool caddy with lots of different parts, that can be used to build a variety of different constructions.
This toy is listed as exclusively available though Amazon.
My son loves screws, bolts, and screwdrivers, so I knew he'd be excited about this one too. He'll be three in two months, so he's really starting to enjoy these types of toys in a new way recently.
Here's the first peek inside the box. It's sturdy enough to be re-used for storage, although it's made of cardboard.
My husband and I were joking that this instruction booklet is like training wheels for building IKEA furniture. 😉 There are minimal words, just lists of items and visual instructions for assembly.
I wish the booklet were a little sturdier because there are SO many cool things you can make! So far we've managed to keep it intact for reference, but I'm not sure how long it will last.
Included in the kit is a large box or caddy, a variety of large and small bolts with nuts, wheels, wooden shapes, a few gears and wheels, and a screwdriver and wrench.
I love that Hape uses wood for their toys. It's sturdy and I feel like less prone to breakage than small plastic bits. The bolts and wheels are plastic but they are very sturdy.
All of these parts can be assembled in various ways! You can attach two of the flat wood pieces together with a bolt and nut, or you can screw the bolts directly into the wooden cubes (which are threaded inside).
We let our son pick out the first assembly from the booklet, which looks to be a forklift:
My husband built this with him the night I brought this home. My son helped pick out all the different components needed and helped dad screw parts in, but he's still too young assemble something this complex from instructions on his own.
We had a little bit of trouble with the spacing on some of the components; screwing multiple bolts into the wooden cubes, in particular, can be tough because they all hit each other in the center. The wheels are also super low to the ground, so we had to adjust the front part of the forklift so it didn't scrape the floor.
Like all kids this age, my son also loves destroying things. So after he took the forklift apart, I helped him with a new build: this super cool robot that can actually hold the screwdriver and wrench! I love this thing.
He really liked this one but was a bit frustrated that he couldn't really play with it once it was assembled. It was a little top heavy and he wanted to move the arms up and down, which loosened the bolts so they wouldn't stay in place.
Once I showed him how to use the screwdriver though, he sat down and just started screwing and unscrewing bits on his own. He still asks for help to build things together, but he can also combine simple elements on his own. He stuck a couple of flat wooden shapes together and ran around the house pretending it was a construction crane. 🙂
Verdict: Amazon's STEM Toy Club is always fun to open and explore. Like many previous months, I like that this Hape toy has some guidelines, but is also great for open and imaginative play. This age is so much fun for storytelling and imagination, so this helps foster creative thinking as well as traditional STEM concepts. Even though this toy isn't foolproof (like how difficult it can be to use those cubes), it's still got a lot of possibilities and so far my son seems to be getting more enjoyment than frustration from it.
Value-wise, this month's toy retails for twice what we paid for this box, which is a great overall value for a quality and interesting toy!
To Wrap Up:
Check out all of our Amazon STEM Toy Club reviews, more educational and STEM subscriptions for kids, and all Amazon subscription boxes in our subscription box directory!
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What do you think of this month's toy from the Amazon STEM Club Toy subscription box?
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