Beaker Creatures Whirling Wave Reactor Review

Reviewed by Sarah Bowyer

My son is 5 and is starting to get a bit interested in basic science and experiments, such as slime making kits etc. So when we got the opportunity to review the Beaker Creatures Whirling Wave Reactor from Learning Resources we were excited as we thought it might be something that would spark his interest and that he could do himself.

Inside the box is a Whirling Wave Reactor, which is a plastic container with a pod inside, a lid and a crank that fits on top of the lid, a colour changing reactor pod with a mystery Beaker Creature inside, a limited edition Beaker Creature, 2 Classification cards, 2 mini posters and an instruction manual.

With a very excited 5-year-old, we set up the Whirling Wave Reactor. I found it a little tricky to get the lid off as it felt like if I pulled too hard I was going to break it.  Once it was all set up, we followed the instructions to extract the Beaker Creature. You had to take the Whirling Wave Reactor apart and open the pod holder. Again, this was quite tricky. You had to squeeze the pod and pull the lid off.

You then had to put the Reactor Pod (imagine a bath bomb) in the pod, click it all back together, put the lid and crank back on and fill with water.

At this point I was expecting some fizzing and frothing, but it was slightly underwhelming. The pod didn’t seem to be doing much, so as per the instructions we turned the crank to speed up the reaction. However, the crank kept falling off so I couldn’t leave my son to play with it by himself and it was dissolving quite slowly and soon my son seemed to lose interest with it.

I kept on spinning the crank and after around 5 minutes or so you could see the Beaker Creature inside, so we tipped out the water, which had now turned orange from the pod and dug out the Beaker Creature from the remaining bit of pod that hadn’t dissolved.

There are 3 other experiments that you can do with the Whirling Wave Reactor; Dance Fever where you mix vinegar, baking soda and water with cooked spaghetti to make it dance around, Cranking out Colours where you mix two different colour food colourings to see what colour they go and the Disappearing Eggshell, where you dissolve an eggshell in vinegar.

I was disappointed with the amount of plastic packaging. All the items had some form of plastic packaging which I felt was excessive and unnecessary. While I was trying to get the Reactor Pod out of its shrink wrapping, I managed to cut my thumb.

I think it would have been good if there were some more experiments included with this set and possibly another Reactor Pod so we could have played a little longer without having to rush off and buy more supplies.

Overall, I don’t think I would rush out to buy any more products in this range as I think it was slightly below my expectations, my son lost interest and it felt a little flimsy. However, it might be more suitable for a slightly older child, who isn’t just interested in getting the Beaker Creature out.

Rating: 3/5

RRP: £16

Available to buy from www.learningresources.co.uk.