Thames & Kosmos Robotic Solar Flower

It’s awesome but I found it pretty challenging as an adult to complete - I definitely wouldn’t recommend for an 8 year old.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This SolarFlower project kit was such a fun morning activity for me and my older daughter. We spent a couple hours piecing it together, with most of the time going toward punching out the pieces from the twist-and-pull plates. I would highly recommend having either tweezers or small precision scissors handy to cleanly extract the small parts that need the burrs removed from the tear away joints. I had a mishap with two of the small, central green triangular pieces breaking because I bent the parts plate trying to get them out; after super gluing them back together, I was clever enough to just detach little pieces with scissors. The instructions manual was one of the clearest and most finely illustrated I've ever encountered in a kit, and it even provided learning pages at the end concerning flowers. After assembling the flower, we verified that the solar power system works well outdoors on a sunny day in direct light. This is a great hands-on teaching project that covers all the STEM areas.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Awesome STEM activity for my kiddos. My 4 year old helped take all the pieces out and helped find each piece, while my 7 year old and I took turns putting the pieces together. We appreciate the very specific instructions. It was a fun project for us all. The petals move well and it seems to be sturdy enough to keep around for awhile unlike some activity kits.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] If you have a kid like mine, they love to take things apart to see what makes them go! The SolarFlower Ruby Ripple is an amazing set! Assembly was a breeze and the included directions were easy to follow. The pieces fit together well and once assembled, the flower was absolutely beautiful. My daughter loved the flowers movement. She is so excited to show everyone that visits her flower that we put together. I also appreciate this set allows us to spend quality time together.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] It was easy to build. I definitely needed pliers to get the pieces out. Kids would need an adults help. The only thing is the top part of the flower is much heavier than the base I feel like the base needed to be way more sturdier. It’s a nice size and it doesn’t make any noise. The power hasn’t worked for me yet but hopefully when we get more sun, it will.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] The Thames & Kosmos SolarFlower - Ruby Ripple is a great project for anyone, both adult and child alike, interested in hands on building something beautiful in the STEM field. It’s a perfect blend of fun while also learning. The directions are well laid out, easy to follow, accurate, and show plenty of colored pictures to help walk the builder through each step. The box says the Thames & Kosmos SolarFlower - Ruby Ripple is for ages 8+. I think this is accurate in most cases, but not for everything. My daughter is ten years old and an advanced reader. While the instructions were straightforward for her to follow, she struggled with the initial setup. She found it difficult to punch out all the pieces, which is step 1. Even I had some difficulty as an adult. Because of this, I don’t believe an eight year-old would be able to punch out many of the pieces, especially the very tiny ones. The other problem we ran into early on was because of how hard the pieces were to punch out, the smaller ones were fairly easy to have snap in the wrong spot. Just a little bit of pressure could cause a piece to break incorrectly. Unfortunately, we had this happen to more than one of our small pieces and as a result, struggled with building later on in the project because of it. The pieces need to be made a bit more durable so they can be pushed out of their packaging easily without getting broken. Overall, my daughter enjoyed building her flower, and it’s something she can enjoy for quite a while. The colors are very pretty and vibrant and there’s no loud sounds that will disturb anyone. It’s a really nice decorative piece for her room. But, it seems there needs to be some adjustments made to how you pop out the smaller pieces so that they don’t break incorrectly, and possibly adjust the minimum age rating. With those changes made I think this could be a really phenomenal project!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This was a fun build! Tons of steps and pieces, but the challenge make it worth it. I have it in my kitchen window, which gets a lot of sun. I love how it "dances"

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Would not reccomend for and 8 year old, definitely more like a 12+ toy, my 8 year old can sit and build things all day long but this had them absolutely irritated cutting all the small pieces and having to wire stuff together. They did package and label thing great so that's a plus but I sat down as an adult and struggled with this to the point we haven't finished it so not sure how the finished product is.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This was really fun to build. I love how beautiful the flower turned out. The flower works really well, especially during the sun hitting it. It twirls and it looks so beautiful.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] We had a lot of fun putting this together and it's a very cool idea, but unfortunately doesn't work for us. We have it in our living room where the sun shines throughout the day and even directly in front of the window we couldn't get it to work. Not sure if the solar panel was broken somehow? As far as putting it together, it comes altogether on the plastic 'pages' and you either twist or cut them out. Highly recommend cutting as it hurts your fingers after a while, then you just use the side of the scissors to shave off anything remaining so it lies flush.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This activity was a bit difficult for my 5 and 7year olds. It took 90-120 min to complete and they lost focus quickly. You also really have to make sure you're following the instructions correctly. I called this my adult puzzle. They loved checking in with me as I built it and once it was done they really enjoyed seeing it move. The solar panel couldn't get enough light in the house, but once outside it had no problem and was really cool to see it moving!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] A fun science based craft. We put it together as a family, my 9 year old got a bit frustrated with the directions at times but my 14 year old could have done it independently.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I think this a good activity ; it is very entertaining to do and quite easy . However- since there are so many pieces many of which look alike- i personally mixed up a few very similar parts as a result, My flower doesn't spin Once I had inserted the pieces I couldn't remove them so I was left With no other option After I finished it, it looked nice ; however , the flower itself is somewhat heavy and the base isn't very sturdy so that ended up breaking as well Also the petals fall off very easily

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This was SUPER fun to do with my oldest daughter!! We really had a good time putting this together and I plan on getting another one soon. I used a water bottle as a vase and I think it still came out okay.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Solar Flower - Ruby Ripple 🌺 is designed for children aged 8 and up. It’s a very interesting and engaging kit that helps develop analytical thinking and fine motor skills. I should mention right away that your child 🧒 will most likely need some help assembling this flower 🌺. The kit is perfect for kids who enjoy working with small details and have plenty of patient. It includes parts in red, white, beige, orange and green colors, a 24 - page 📃 instruction manual, and mini solar panel. Assembly takes at least an hour. It’s a great alternative to gadgets 📱 and a nice idea for quiet family time 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒. In our case, one piece - a white pental - was missing, so we could not complete the Ruby Ripple 🌺 fully. It’s also possible that we made a mistake during assembly, as the flower 🌺 doesn’t spin. However, this is a not reason to be upset- rather, it a chance to learn and improve ✅.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Very beautiful flower. Interesting and entertaining to put together. Kids loved taking a part in it. We put it outside and kids were very excited to watch it work. The only thing is it’s a bit hard to get pieces of the frame. Otherwise super fun toy.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Such a great activity for our daughter. She competed it while at her grandmas house. It took about 2 days to finish. The size is perfect. The setup was a little tough but she figured it out. It turned out beautiful. The power was impressive. There was no noise. We will do this again

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] While this beautiful solar flower comes in many pieces, it does come with a manual that shows you exactly how to put it together. It's user friendly and easy to build & the maintenance is not too much.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] We really enjoyed building this solar flower. Such a cool toy and my kiddo loved it! She ditched the electronics all day to play with this. Educational and fun!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Cool STEM toy for parents and kids to create together. It really made my daughter start thinking creatively and learn. It was easy to follow and easy to put together with a little adult help.