My daughter received this Moon Sand – Pet Shop for her birthday. It’s a cute little kit and it sounded kind of fun. The package makes it appear genuinely fun, exciting and strong enough to hold the shape of some molds. But, is it worth it? I will share with you our experience and you can be the judge of whether or not it’s worth the time or the trouble!

The Product

This moon sand is said to be safe for children 3 years old and up! They claim that this sand can be squished, shaped and molded. Yeah, it will do that. They claim it will never dry out and it can be used again and again. No it doesn’t dry out and yes it can be used over and over again. They claim that this sand will not stick or stain. I will agree with this as well. It didn’t stick well enough to hold the molds and where we played with it and where my daughter got it stuck on her skin (and the floor), it did not stain. But, on the floor, we were on linoleum, not carpet, so I cannot vouch for staining in light carpeting!

This kit came with the following items:
1) 1 Bag of purple moon sand
2) 1 Bag of grey or a dark “white” sand
3) A pet shop store front with little mold shapes that you can make
4) A “pet shop tool” which is a small handle to push the sand into the molds and a smaller end to get the sand out of the molds
5) A play mat that you can comfortably play with your moon sand and not make a mess
6) 3 molds
a) Little girl mold
b) Little cat mold
c) Little puppy mold
There was a play mat included in this kit. This mat was a bit smaller than a placemat that you would use on your table. It was close to a placemat’s size. But, it did not hold much or cover much space so you really did not have room to work with the moon sand to keep it from making a mess everywhere. We no more than opened 1 bag of the moon sand and the mat was basically covered. And, the sand that was included was only 10 ounces of sand!

The sand itself was a disappointment too. They say this sand never dries out and it is moldable sand. We tried to mold the animals and tried to use the molds in the store front that had molds in it and it just wasn’t holding very well. It would mold terrific until you tried to extract the animal or the little girl figure from the mold. Then, literally, it crumbled “just like sand”. Sorry for that bad choice of words, but there really isn’t a better way to explain that! I could make a terrific lump of molded sand on the play mat! But, just how fun is that for a preschooler?

The tool that they gave with this was a decent, plastic tool that looked like a mini-spatula. It had a triangle shaped top and a stick handle. This was perfect for small hands to hold and manipulate for pushing the moon sand into the store front molds and to scrape down the excess sand. The little handle was a decent size to allow you to try to get the mold out of the 3 individual molds. But, as mentioned, the sand broke apart and your mold really did not hold up to much. You would be lucky if you got a molded item out of the mold in decent condition. But, the moment you lifted the molded item up to move it around and play with it or move it to a new spot, it crumbled!

Overall Impressions

If you are looking for a gift to get a child (3 years and up), you should avoid this. If you have received this as a gift and have it unopened at home, re-gift it to someone else! Spin Master™ really put such an excellent spin on this product, that I am sure they are making tons of money. But, it’s sad, because it’s the parents and the children who suffer with this terrible little product!

This product is made in Sweden and assembled in China. If you want more information regarding this product, you can visit their website at www.spinmaster.com. I would never purchase this product and I would avoid giving it as a gift. If someone has nothing but carpeting in their house, I would recommend putting down a disposable table cloth before letting a child or children play with this, because it breaks apart just like sand and it will get into everything before you know it!

I wonder how products like these make it to stores like Target. It is definitely the spin put on it by the advertisers out there. They get your hard earned money on junk like this and they run all of the way to the bank, leaving the poor parents to clean up the terrible mess!

If it’s any indication, my 5 year old after playing with this a couple of times asked me if she could throw this in the garbage as she thought it was terrible stuff and she liked her Playdough better. If this doesn’t say it, nothing else will!

~Thanks for spending time with me today!~

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Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): Gift (15.00)
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years