Tinker Crate is a subscription box for kids and tweens ages 9-16+ created by kids subscription box company KiwiCo. Each monthly Tinker Crate contains all the materials and instructions needed to create innovative, hands-on STEM projects, as well as a "Tinker Zine" full of educational information and additional activities.
This review is of KiwiCo's Tinker Crate (for ages 9-16+), which costs $19.95 per month.
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This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we review boxes.)
First Impressions
This month's project sounded interesting, although I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Luckily, my kids are able to make just about anything into a game, so we ended up having some fun with this, as you'll see!
What's Inside This Box
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Our Tinker Zine is full of educational information related to our project. This edition was all about hovering and gliding and it included a few extra activities for us to check out, too.
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The directions for our project come on a separate sheet with illustrated steps broken into different sections. They always include helpful troubleshooting information as well.
Part A: Assemble the Fan
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The first part involved assembling the fan. They provided a full battery pack, a motor, and some wooden pieces along with some plastic nuts and bolts, a fan, and a motor case.
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First I added the motor to the larger wooden circle and placed the orange holder over top using the bolts and nuts to secure it. Then I flipped that over and added some adhesive strips before sticking it on our battery pack.
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Then I flipped that upside down and connected the red wire to the red wire and the black to black before sticking the fan blades on top of the motor. I then loosely attached the second wooden circle over the top of that with some more bolts.
Part B: Complete the Build
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To complete the build, we needed this foam circle and some clear plastic pieces.
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I stuck our unit inside of the foam circle and then flipped it over and added the large plastic circle to the top. I had to finagle it inside the foam circle so that it would rest flat on the rim. This was a bit tricky to do, but once it was in, I was able to tighten the bolts down more to hold it in place.
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Then I had to twist the circle so that it was secure on the bolts and I added the last plastic piece to the top wedging it between the bolts to create a dome effect. Now it was ready to test out!
I simply turned on the battery pack and set the disc down on the smooth floor. You can see it kind of looks like a mini robot vacuum! If only, I could figure out how to get it to clean my floors!
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I knew my kids would think it was cool so I brought it to them to test out. We had fun just passing it back and forth to each other. It is very lightweight and easily slides across floors with just a light tap. It acts much like a shuffleboard puck in that it is slightly erratic, but still somewhat goes where you want it to. They have some fun ideas in our booklet for making an obstacle course or playing hockey, but I think we will do our own little version of shuffleboard with some tape on the floor. It certainly is a fun toy for some open-ended play.
Value - Was This Box Worth It?
The Cost: $19.95
ACTIVE DEAL: Get 50% off your 1st month! No coupon needed - just use this link.
I admit I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do with a hover disc, but now that we've got one, it's proving to be a lot of fun! Since we homeschool, I was actually thinking of turning it into a shuffleboard addition game for us somehow, so even though it's such a simple thing, I am finding that the value is there!
Key Takeaways
This was another fun and unexpected project that was easy to build thanks to the detailed instructions and quality materials, and I love the way that it has sparked our imagination!
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To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? It is possible you might get this crate, but it is not a guarantee. From KiwiCo:
Crates are assigned each month based on availability and your crate history - not all subscribers receive the same theme each month.
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