Posted by Lisa Strawbridge - email
PERRYVILLE, MO (KFVS) - As we get closer to Easter, more commercials are geared to kids and are highlighting popular toys like Aqua Sand. Some kindergartners agreed to test the popular toy.
First, the teacher helps assemble the water tank. It's pretty simple. Next, the kids create their own aquarium for the toy mermaid.
"I don't know how to get this on," one child said.
It's not exactly easy for the little hands to switch out the nozzles and different funnels on the bottles of sand.
Basically, this toy is like an underwater sandbox. It has "magic sand" that never gets wet. The sand really does come out dry when the kids scoop it out of the water, and the boys really like shoveling. "You make shapes, and then you just scoop it out," explained one boy. They also have more fun burying the mermaid than building her a castle.
There's a lot of smiles, but not a lot of designs. It's hard to make the castle look like the picture on the box. The teacher, Mrs. Welker, thinks that will really disappoint older kids.
Like all kids, the kindergartners love the toy at first. The adults in the classroom though do not like the mess of sand on the table.
Plus, over time, all of the sand colors mix together, sometimes making it next to impossible for anyone to separate the sand and get it back into the right bottle. The sand sometimes doesn't stick inside the molds or to the bottom of the tank, so it ends up in one big clump.
"It's a lot messier than I thought it would be. Sand is everywhere," said Mrs. Welker, "I would say a 'C' or 'D' for this product."
The kids like it at first, but parents may not like it in the end. In fact, Mrs. Welker later lowered that grade after the kids played with this for a week and quickly lost interest.
So, the Aqua Sand itself is pretty magical, but the $20 design kit itself doesn't float. It sinks with a disappointing 'D' on this Does it Work test.
