Aquabeads Double Pen Set Review
Aquabeads
Double Pen Set
Reviewed by Michelle Llabani
My son was genuinely excited when he found out that we were going to review the Aquabeads Double Pen Set. We had had a couple of the smaller sets over the past few months, where he had made literally a small zoo of Aquabead animals, and he was looking forward to getting to grips with the double pen set.
Unpacking the set we were pleased to see that all had arrived safely and that the quality of the product seemed to be of a high standard. The set includes a heartshaped layout try, the double pen, a refilling device, a sprayer, over 500 beads and 4 sheets of templates. The templates were definitely aimed at the female market, consisting of a fairy castle and jewels, however this in itself didn’t put my son off, as he is quite happy to make anything as long as he has a pattern to follow.
So far, so good, it was, however, when we started to fill the double pen that we started to have our doubts. Although there are only 12 different types of beads, they were packaged in 39 different bags! It took my 8 year old a good 45 minutes to open all the packets and load up the pen. I do have to say the instuctions were very clear in the accompanying booklet, however it was still a fiddly and frustrating process. We genuinely couldn’t work out why the beads had been packaged in so many separate little bags.
Once the ‘gun’ (as my son nicknamed it) was loaded, he set about the first pattern, the key. A small pattern, consisting of only 28 beads. He was very excited to be using the ‘gun’ for the first time, hoping this would speed up the sometimes tricky practise of placing the beads by hand. All started well, we worked out how to line the finder up on the double pen, so that when he clicked the correct coloured bead was deposited in the correct slot. However it literally only took a few minutes before the problems began. Firstly the double pen is simply too big for little hands. This product is aimed at children aged 4 or over. My son is 8 and had to use 2 hands to work the pen, my 4 year old simply didn’t have the manual dexterity to hold the pen, press the button and ensure it landed in the slot… in fact neither did I with 100 % success rate. This meant the process, which was supposedly sped up by the pen, was ultimately made more difficult and frustrating. Added to this was the problem of jamming. Approximately every third bead would get stuck and not be delivered, meaning you had to turn the bead dial 360 degrees each time before it would re-engage. After about 20 minutes of this frustrating practice my son got quite fed up, emptied all the beads into a bowl, where he completed the pattern simply by hand.
All in all we were quite disappointed with the set we had received. We had in the past really enjoyed making the Aquabead patterns and designs, but the introduction of the pen made things simply more time consuming (45 minutes to load) and frustrating when it didn’t work. Definitely a case of overdesigning for effect rather than purpose. The concept of Aquabeads is an excellent one, avoiding the need for any glues or melting, meaning children can create completely independently from adult support, however this set just seems to be simply more style than substance.
On the plus side, my son did design and make(by hand) an excellent Aquabead volcano with streaming lava from the beads provided!
Rating: 2.5/5
RRP: £19.99
Available to buy from Amazon here.
