Kikkerland Newton’s Lab Make Your Own Catapult Review

Reviewed by H Chan

Whether it’s the summer holidays and looking for educational toys, or wanting that perfect piece for home learning, we are always trying to find something new and engaging for the kids, especially the older ones. Home schooling the older ones can be more difficult and often the props we need to explain concepts aren’t readily available or can be expensive. This kit is a great, inexpensive option for home learning and is really fun to play with when built.
Once built the kit will lead into learning about the concepts of gravity and maybe even about Newton himself and why he was so important to the world of physics. Not just physics, it is good for those fine motor skills, problem solving, following instructions and can lead into engineering. Also the use of cardboard as a medium for the model can be discussed from an ethical perspective.

This lovely kit arrived in a cardboard box. The cardboard pieces to make the kit, all pre cut, an elastic band, a long metal bar and a little plastic ball. It also came with a small piece of string and a metal hook. The kit pieces come in a little plastic bag and the instructions are printed on the back of the box.

I have three children at home, my eldest would be perfect to make use of the kit. On the box it recommends an age of 14+. At first I thought my younger two might be OK with it, however I am glad I didn’t give it to them first. Although it looks easy to put together, it really isn’t at first unless you have bigger hands and can follow the very basic instructions.
One thing I will say is that they have used yellow print on a blue background on the box. Some might find it really easy to read but I found the contrast a little bright for my eyes. My 14 year old was fine with it though, but the instructions are very basic and might need a little extra interpretation or adult help. The hook and the string were left over after the build as there was literally nothing to show what to do with it, however after doing some quick research online we figured it out and popped them on, they were to secure the arm whilst it was being loaded.

My 14 year old daughter was excited to try the kit. She loves to build things like this and wanted to create it for her 7 year old brother to play with. After taking the pieces out it was quite obvious where most of them went, there were only a few which weren’t very clear. There were little glue stickers provided to pop on four circular discs onto the bottom and the instructions do not show this clearly at all, it is left for the maker to interpret. No written instructions are given, just a diagram. It can be self explanatory but, depending on the one making, can be hard to figure out.

The base was very fiddly to put together. She struggled and even I struggled to get it together. The slots weren’t quite wide enough so the card tabs caught and bent slightly. This wasn’t because we were being too rough, we were being really gentle with it and once bent you had no chance of them going in. On the box there is a picture of a tub of glue and an exclamation mark. I assume this means you don’t need glue but for the base, you absolutely need glue otherwise it will keep falling apart whilst you get the supports in place. Once the supports are in (step 5) it is a lot more sturdy. We couldn’t get it to stay together until we got to this point though.

The flat piece to stand the base in was a little difficult too, the tabs refused to go in at all which meant that once built you had to play with it by holding the base with one hand so it doesn’t tip over. Still works yes but a but of a shame that piece of the model is a bit redundant. In the end we cut the tabs and glued them in place, meaning it worked perfectly.

The actual firing arm of the model was genius! Definitely a redeeming feature and was sturdy. It worked really well and gives a good fling and power behind the little ball.

Once built, you have the catapult, the ball to fire and three different sized hoops to aim through. Take care, once hit a few times the bottom tabs did bend slightly so I am not sure how long they will last but it did provide a very fun half an hour of aiming the catapult at the hoops.

The idea is that once built, you can plot how far the ball travels and use it for calculations. However I found this out on the internet after googling the item, there is nothing on the box which says this except a brief comment on inertia on the front of the box. We launched different sizes and masses of objects, and calculated how far they travelled. It was actually a really fun session despite the confusing build.

My daughter and I give this kit a 3.5 out of 5 stars. It does have the educational wow factor, and it is great for learning through play and home learning but I think we expected more from the actual build. If the tab holes were a little wider, I’m talking a fraction of a mm, it would have made an amazing difference and the base just didn’t fit to the flat bottom at all. The other reason it lost a point was because of the very basic instructions. I loved the concept and the hint at simplicity, but the execution just needs some fine tweaking. I did love the educational aspect of it though and it makes for some fun physics lessons.

Rating: 3.5/5

RRP and Buy link: You can find it here for only €15.00. I’d recommend googling the item being used for home school purposes to show how it should look at the end and how it should be used effectively in a lesson or through play.