John Adams Hot Wires Review

Reviewed by Sian Manning

We were delighted to get picked for this set, having been stuck at home for months on end – much like the rest of the country – this set was a very welcome break from the rest of the toys and resources we have in the house and its lovely to have been able to add a STEM item into our collection.

The set looks incredibly inviting with all of the images and text displayed in a comic format all over the box, super bright and eye catching. On the back of the box is a little description of what to expect inside, contents and the legal information, it does also note that 4 AA batteries are needed but not included with this set.

Immediately upon opening you can see what a great quality product it is, the instruction and experiment book is nice quality, well printed and doesn’t tear easily – a huge bonus with children of any age! The parts are all extremely well made and feel like they are robust enough to last well. The inside has a plastic tray with inserts for each of the pieces and they are arranged so you can access and see all at a glance too.

The kit is aimed at children 8+ however my 5 year old loves it as much as his older brother, the eldest reads the experiment text and we all make the circuits together, it has proven to be a huge hit in our house. It’s lovely to get them all learning without moaning and practical skills like this are something to learn for life. They are enjoying working out how to work a circuit to power lamps, make an alarm and even make a radio and control the volume. Their favourite is reversing the direction of the fan to send it shooting up to the roof and trying the catch it as it comes back down.

The pieces all clip together with metal poppers and go onto a base board making it easy to get everything lined up correctly and in the right orders. Each piece is marked with a corresponding code so that the instructions for each experiment can easily be followed. Pieces are also colour coded for ease of seeing what is what and following the instructions.

The only slight issue we have come up against is that some of the numbered pieces, especially the longer ones are hard to pop apart to begin with and have been bent a little (this doesn’t affect the use at all, they just don’t look as pristine as they once did), they are easier to get apart after they have been used several times. So far the batteries seem to be holding up well too, since we have had it it has been used every day for at least an hour and the draw on the batteries does not seem to be too much, always a bonus!

I was pleasantly surprised with this kit, it is fabulous value for money, you can see a lot of care has been taken with designing it and thinking about who they are aiming it at. It has certainly exceeded my expectations of keeping my boys entertained for long periods of time and the fact that they are learning a life skill while they are playing is an added bonus. Even their dad who works on the signals on the railway was impressed and had a little play with it all and followed a few of the harder experiments in the booklet. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy this as a present for anyone its an absolute hit in our house.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £54.99

This product can be purchased from Amazon here