Learning Resources Coding Critters MagiCoders - Blazer the Dragon: Preschool Science Kit for Coding Skills

Works great. My grade 1 class loves using it. So much so, that we had to make a sign-out for it. The instructions are pretty straight forward but we can not figure out how to get the treasure chest to open?? I was going to put 4 stars because I can not figure out how to open the treasure chest but the kids wanted me to make it 5 stars anyways.

I am so impressed with my five year old's ability to remember a sequence after playing with Blazer the Dragon! When we first got this coding critter he played with it constantly for a few days – before school, after school, it really was his best thing! But then it got packed away (probably in one of Mummy's cleaning frenzies)! A few weeks later we got Blazer out again and M amazed me by remembering loads of the commands. He remembered code sequences for spells, like how to make Blazer dance. I'm so impressed. A great early intro to coding!

My 4 year old absolutely loves dinosaurs.. dragons..etc.. so I immediately knew that this would be right up his street!.. This fantastic coding critter comes with lots of accessories including a catapult that can throw fire, and a big bright red ball that you can code the dragon to push! Use the child friendly magic wand to control your critter through the castle and around objects. This lovely set also comes with a fantastic little book to teach your child how to perform 'magic spells' and get your critter to make noises, light up and dance! There are so many ways to play with this, and all the while, your children will be learning all about coding in such a fun way! My 4 year old took to this coding critter straight away, and was immediately sending it in circles and getting it to push the ball!.. The set is well made and robust, which is definitely a must in this house, and stores away nicely in its strong cardboard box. If your children love coding, or want to learn in a fun way.. this is definitely a must buy!

I got this for my 4 year old, at first he was super excited as he had seen the advert. He really enjoyed putting all the bits together and making Blazer's home. Sadly when we turned it on my son was pretty spooked by Blazer. Something about the noise he makes just didn't sit right with him (he has sensory issues) I started reading through the story book that is provided. It is a fantastic interactive story where you get Blazer to act out the scenes. My son refused to help but I continued to read and code Blazer. As the story went on my son got more interested. Once we got to the dancing part that was it, my son was up and dancing around with Blazer. My son figured out the coding very quickly. We spent over an hour putting Blazer into guard mode and taking it in turns trying to sneak up on him (we never could blazer is a fantastic guard) Over time my son started to memorise the code. He really enjoys using the magic wand and making blazer move. Blazer has been in our house for about a month and my son plays with him every day. He acts out his own stories with him and even attempts to put in his own code. We have also made obstacle courses for Blazer to go round what my son really enjoys doing. His dad is a programmer so is thrilled that our son is showing such interest. In coding. Blazer is very well built (he has been dropped multiple times and isn't showing and signs of wear) The book is a fantastic way to introduce you to the coding critters and really helped my son fall in love with Blazer. It would be lovely if Learning Resources could make some more books as we really enjoyed them.

I got this toy to go with our huge collection of coding critters – they are amazing!! Theres lots of things in the box so we spent some time setting everything up, adding stands and stickers (don't forget to buy batteries) and laying it all out. Before we used the book they wanted to just play, my 7 year old soon worked out how it all worked, took a little longer for my 4 year old, she found it tricky to understand that the buttons work in the way the toy is going not in the direction she is facing, but got the hang of it soon enough. Simply, you use the wand to set the instructions, it had 4 arrow buttons and a 'go' button in the middle. You can press the directions as many times as you like before pressing go, they love working out how to get their toys around objects. The set also comes with a smaller animal and play equipment for it, the animals are really cute. There is another magic button on the wand that does other things, the set comes with a book to explain these. It also makes cute and funny noises while in play, and you can use the direction counters to plan and test your instructions. These have been well played with, my daughters absolutely love them!! I also really like that they are so educational, they are learning so much though play which is always a bonus.

Looking to make coding fun and entertaining for your little one? Using Blazer the magic coder will be fun for you and the kids. This will help reinforce or help your child learn basic coding, spatial awareness, teamwork and critical thinking to name a few. Blazer is so fun and easy to use not only can you code him to move where you want you can also cast magic spells using the spell book provided to have him sing you songs, dance , guard your room or his castle you can even code him to zoom around as if he were flying. Included in this fantastic 22 piece set: 1 magic coder (Blazer the dragon) 1 wand which you can programme up to 40 steps for him to do, if you go above 40 steps you will hear a sound. 12 coding cards in 4 different colours to help differentiate between forward, back, left and right. It also comes with a magic coder play set which consisted of 1 treasure chest, 1 large ball for Blazer to play with, 1 target with stand, 1 card picturing swamp creatures for Blazer to defeat with stand, 1 catapult and 3 fireballs and 1 castle piece with stand. My girls are 6 and after reading through the instructions together had no problem using the spell mode as well as the normal movement mode it didn't take them long to remember the spells by heart as they mostly consists of 4 steps there is 1 that has 6 steps and 1 with 8. It was great to see that not only were the codes in the spell book done using pictures of the arrows and corresponding colours but there was some using pictures of the coding cards. We spent hours playing with Blazer before they went off to do something else but I've noticed that they always come back to play more even making up adventures that he was taking them on.