Thames and Kosmos Gumball Machine Maker

My nephew is gumball obsessed and he loved this gift. It comes with a handful of gumballs. He finds it to be very fun that the gumballs come our different ways. He loved building it.

Little man absolutely loves this! We have to refill it all the time

As other reviewers noted, the parts are flimsy and poorly made. Things that should snap together don't do so well, or if they do they require a level of strength more than an 8-9 year old may possess. The mechanism to dispense gumballs is poorly designed and often gets stuck and damages the gumballs. Once completed, it definitely feels like one wrong move could cause it to be irreparably damaged due to cracking of plastic. The legs especially seem flimsy. The "STEM" parts of the guide book seem to be reaching a bit and are too densely written to be easily absorbed by the target audience without adult distillation. There are a number of "experiments" which attempt to introduce physics concepts and throw a lot of words around but they don't feel like they build on each other and each "experiment" is mechanically and visually underwhelming. That said - it was a reasonably good time to put together and build - as others noted it's just way too expensive for what it is. I'd say this would be a good value at $10 given the poor quality of the parts and learning materials.

First of all it arrive with a crack in the container to hold the gum balls. Easily fixed with tape but still. Plastic seems cheap overall and we were afraid of breaking it further the entire time putting it together. Got it as a silly gift for my adult brother and I and our father. We would probably rate it as a 2 but going to give it a 3 for kids. The mechanism to release a gumball was almost useless. It constantly jammed in both directions and was almost impossible to get a gum all out. This would be the biggest frustration for a child. Several of the “experiments” are overhyped, especially the claim that they teach physics. The dominoes is a disappointment - the ball is intended to fall off the track. Actually it’s intended to fall off for several of the “experiments”. The momentum trap track was basically just the same as the 180 degree track. A few experiments were fun though! Trampoline was cool, although assembly was confusing. Centripetal force funnel was also cool. Slingshot was definitely entertaining even as an adult. Be aware that you can only do a few experiments at once due to the height of the gym all machine, especially if you want to do ones requiring more height like the pendulum. Overall I guess I’d recommend it if it was $10-15 max but for the price it’s not really worth it and I could see it being frustrating for children.

It’s a little tricky for an 8 year old, says my grandson. Getting things to line up is almost impossible says grandma. We had fun together but it was frustrating because we never got a gumball to make it through the machine maker.

My grandson was pleased with it.

Good toy/stem combo

I really, REALLY wanted to love this item for my kiddo...but, it just did not hold up to expectations. The concept is great with having multiple variations of builds and encouraging kids to try their own builds. However, the pieces do not snap into place like they should and throw off the necessary angles/slopes needed to make it work. Also, the mechanism to move the gumballs from the globe out to the track tends to crush the gumballs and get stuck. The instructions could have also been more clear. There was a great image in the front of the booklet with everything laid out and numbered along with the part names, but some of the names were a bit cumbersome and it would have worked better if the part numbers had been used in the "which piece goes where" sections instead of the names. Even once we got the different variations built, the gumballs got stuck or didn't go where they were supposed to without holding certain parts in place or a lot of assistance with keeping them moving. My 9-year-old was in frustrated tears and wishing he had spent his Christmas money on something else by the end of the whole thing.

Not worth the price, reasons follow: 1- it has edible gum-balls which are soft and gets stuck in the machine. 2- gum-balls leave color on kids hands 3- assembly is not easy instructions are not clear 4- build quality of the machine is good but major elements i.e gum-balls are edible and soft.

I bought this item as a gift for my niece. She put it together and loves it.

As mentioned by other buyers, the gumballs get stuck in the top turning mechanism and they don't come out no matter what we did. We have to get the gumballs from the top opening manually by hand. Total disappointment! Build quality is flimsy. The domino effect doesn't work well. I should have trusted the reviews but my son really wanted it so I had no choice. Really not worth your money. Buy elsewhere.

It’s like a marble run gone horribly wrong ! Real low quality runners and plastic

Its a little janky feeling. Not a super smooth easy thing to use and do with kids. But still pretty fun.