Make Your Own Hydraulic Claw By Kikkerland Review

Reviewed by Laura S

Making your own Hydraulic Arm was something you could only dream about about and imagine when I was a child. Oh how times have changed and the advances in technology over the last 40ish years.

Kikkerland Design has brought these dreams to life as an established company that is as one of the top companies in the world offering unique, well designed products to inspire.

 Kikkerland supports and represents independent, self-producing designers from around the world. In addition, our 15-person in-house design team creates and develops new products every day.

I think I was more excited than my younger family members to make the Hydraulic Arm. The arm and pieces arrived in a very sturdy cardboard box that contained everything needed to make the claw.

I have really thing about plastic and try not to buy items that are plastic unless absolutely no alternatives. I love the the pieces to make the claw from are thick strong cardboard, as it the box. I was a little disappointed to see the contents of the box inside a plastic bag that isn’t recyclable when there are so many biodegradable alternatives alternatives now.

To get started we initially laid all of the individual pieces out to get and idea of were each piece should be placed. The problem solving that began as we started to build up the claw. The instructions are printed on the box but very small and not all that clear. It would have been nice to a paper of the instructions, QR code or a link so that the instructions could easily be accessed online.

The piece fitted together well and securely and the claw started to take shape. I would suggest doing a dry run with building the claw and then gluing in each piece to make sure it is super secure. We were all so impressed that the claw actually works, by pressing in and pulling out the shrines that arm started to move in a pincher like movement. The children couldn’t wait to show other family members and their friends.

We all had a great time as a family building up the hydraulic arm and testing it out. A must have if you have child/ family members over 11 years old. Another big win for me was that we had family time together to make it and it got the children from their devices.

Recommended age is 14+ year but is you have child that interested in STEM activities and with a little support they will easily be able to construct the arm and get it to work.

Rating: Overall we give the Hydraulic Claw 4/5 stars. We loved that the claw is made from cardboard and can be recycled afterwards Felt this is a novelty item with the cost representing good value. Perfect gift as a gift as not only is it very fun but also educational covering many STEM aspects. We will definitely be buy other items from the ‘Make Your Own’ range- the catapult is next on our list.

RRP: €15 with free delivery with orders over €29.99

This product can be purchased from Kikkerland here.