I purchased this kit for my oldest son and he was excited with every project that he build. Now my youngest son is now asking me to purchase a kit for him. I strongly recommend this kit to any parent that wants their child to learn the basics of electricity.

My 7 year old son and 9 year old daughter love this toy. It is a go to toy when they are lonely or if they have friends over and want to do something different. Highly recommend!!

I bought this for my 8 year old son to get him interested more in education, logic and science. Little did I know my 10 year old daughter would want to play with this as well. Also, it's been a great for father/son/daughter bonding, as I can put the projects together with them. I don't write reviews often, but when I do, it's for a great product like this. My 8 year old was so happy with this toy he asked me to write a review as well!

I purchased 2 of these sets as birthday gifts; 1 for age 9 and 1 for age 12. Both loved it. The 9-year-old spent hours and hours building each experiment, while the 12-year-old selected projects that seemed most interesting to him. The instructions are clear and easy to follow and every project produced great results. They were so much fun, even the adults wanted to try them out. I highly recommend these sets.

He was suspicious of this birthday gift at first and a little disappointed. He'd wanted (yet another) video game. But once he opened it and got started on the projects, he was thrilled. It was tops around here for quite a few weeks and remains a favorite.

I bought this product for my nephew to make a working radio for science class. It worked very well, I bought the larger kit because I hoped he would get into some other electronics things....he seems to be interested but has not put anything else together yet. This is a great project kit for young people.

It amazes me so much can be made from one box of items. Fun for all ages. We homeschool and my 12 and 7 yr old have a blast. Our 70 yr old aunt and 60 yr old grandma had a blast at Christmas with this toy. Of course, our 7 yr old had to show them "how it was done." Wonderful. Bored, go make an alarm or laser.

If your kids are "addicted" to video games, this might be close competition. My eight-year-old boy has created many "inventions" with this product, including a fan, an alarm, and playing "Happy Birthday" on the nearest radio (all in the first week of owning it). He says it rocks, is awesome and sweet. Is there more to say?

Bought this for my 7 yr old son for Christmas. I thought me might get bored with it but so far he still loves to build different circuits. I also worried that some of the parts would break, but I checked their web site (www.elenco.com) and you can order replacement parts as well as upgrade the kit. I am planning to purchase an AC adapter so we don't need to worry about batteries. It's hard to find a good toy that he can play with and also learn from at the same time. I am very impressed with this kit.

My sons (7, 10, and 13) all really enjoy this toy. It is both educational, creative, and fun. We now have 3 sets to mix and match components.

This is a product I would highly recommend for any little boys or girls, who are inquisitive, and always wanting to know how things work. All my grandchildren ... not just the one I gave it too, who is 9 yrs old ... all of them on Christmas Day were playing with it. It is a great gift. Would highly recommend it.

When my twins opened the box, they said a pitiful "thank you" and set it aside. Within two hours, though, after the new wore off their other gifts, they began messing around with it. By the end of the day, they had gone through numerous batteries, and were arguing the benefits of different circuit arrangements. I highly recommend this.

This was a surprise. Not only did my boys (9 & 11) use the toy, but my daughter (13)did as well! So did the uncles. It's a good way to introduce kids to electronics and the easy to follow instructions and snap together pieces make it very easy to use and disassemble.

My 5 year old (he's pretty advanced for a 5 year old) loves building circuits with this thing and so far no broken pieces and it's hold up well after quite a bit of play. We had fun building the complex things like and AM radio and he even figured out thow to wire things in parallel own his own. Great toy! I highly recommend it!

My son got this for Xmas, he is 12 and normally I can not get him away from video games. But I took a chance and bought this toy for him due to it's high reviews here. HE LOVED IT. He played with it for hours, was able to follow the instructions and had a great time with it! He is still playing with it!

I looked around for similar products before deciding on this one and I think it's definately worth the investment. The structure is simple: a platform and the snapable parts. This makes visualizing the path of the current modular and easy, and the light, sound and fan effects are, of course, for 8-year-old boys, stimulating. My son understood how the resistor could be replaced with others with higher or lower values, or none at all, and had loads of fun making his sister jump when she triggered the sound by walking by.

The packaging has its intentions - to keep things neat and tidy - but the whole box takes up too much space. I'm going to have to find another way of storing the parts.

I got this for my 7 Y.O. son. I didn't realize that all of my children would be interested in it. All the way up to my 16 Y.O. It teaches the basics of electricity and keeps them focused. This "toy" is giving my children an understanding of electricity in a way that I wasn't able to explain. I love it!!

Got this for my 7 year old son for Christmas. He and I set up several circuts to get him started. Once we did that he was making up his own rather quickly. Trying new circuts and trying to figure out why they worked the way he expected or not. He has graduated to putting alarms on everything from the refrigerator door to rigging his sister's pillow to beep. He loves it. Very durable so far.

WOW!!!! This was a huge hit with my 12 year old son! Instead of getting the usual nintendo games and having him spend his time sitting on the couch playing a mindless battle, he's learning how to make a sound amplifyer, make a light switch turn on, create fluctuations in radio sound waves and all kinds of things!! He's already gone through 35 of the projects and he can't wait until I initial the rest of them for him! (I love the fact that there is a little box next to the project descriptions so that I can initial all of the experiments as he progresses!)I highly recommend this to any parent who wants their child to have fun doing something with their curiosity and desire to know HOW stuff works!

We bought this for our 9-year old son and it was an instant hit. It's easy for him to follow the instructions and make stuff happen, and then as he reads further he understand more about how & why it's working.

I purchased this product for my niece a few years ago from a local toy store which they actually had to order the product themselves.

This year I tried to do everything online, and was pleased to find this product again. My nephew who was reaching the same age as my niece when I bought the set in the past was excited to get such a "cool" present.

Ten to twelve year olds are tough to buy for because you don't want to insult their intelligence or belittle them. It's a toy that challenges them and sparks interest.

My six year old son loved this Christmas gift. He has used the guide books to build a number of circuits and gadgets. My favorite was the lie detector that I was interrogated with.

I use the term "toy" loosely. This is actually a great learning set to explore electicity and physics. Our son (almost 8) received this for Christmas and it was his favorite Christmas present. He began by following the experiments shown in the book, and worked with his dad. After he learned a few basic facts about electricity, he was off and running on his own! He began making up a lot of experiments as well, and then was excited to find the experiment suggested later in the book! I have to be honest, though, that my husband loves this as well, and I found him playing with the set long after our son was in bed! :-) One of the questions we had was what size set made the most sense. Fortunately all of the sets can be added on to, and Amazon had the cheapest prices by far, so we got our son the 300 set. This seems to be about right for him at this age because it gives him a lot of experiments he can do without overwhelming him. I suspect an older child may enjoy a set with more pieces.

I purchased this toy for my 8-year-old son, who is autistic. I have to say it is the greatest toy ever. This is his favorite toy, and despite some frustration with the more involved boards, he can do this for long periods of time and be incredibly content. He is so happy with himself when he finishes the particular circuit he is working on. Moreover, everyone likes this toy. When his friends come over, they play with it. His brother plays with it. Even his father plays with it. I would recommend this for anyone who loves to learn about how things work.

My son and my father worked on the circuit board non-stop. For my son, it was a lot of fun and quite educational. For my father, it was a tool to pass along his knowledge of electricity and share some special time with his grandson. A big hit!

I bought the Snap Circuits-300 for my 7 year old. This year, Wii and PS3 were very big, but I didn't want to get a video game system, so this was the substitute. He had no idea what to make of it because this isn't a toy you'd normally see on TV. After opening it and helping him do Project #1, he was on his way, and absolutely loved this set. His 9 year old brother was equally thrilled (I got him the 300 in 1 Electronic Lab which I also reviewed). Anyone who enjoys Lego's will almost certainly enjoy this kit. There is great satisfaction for a child to be able to read diagrams, build something and get lights to turn on and little motors to work. Then they get to advance to harder and more complex projects; terrific for educational value and self-esteem. The other reviews and the product description are very accurate in what the kit contains and what it does, so I'll just point out a few other things. They are minor criticisms, but do not take away from the fact that it is a 5-star toy you should purchase if you can.
- For durability, I only gave it three stars. The circuits ARE very durable and well made. However, there are still fragile parts like the light bulb. This is not like Lego's where you can throw it across the room or stand on it and not have it break. Just a warning if you have little siblings around, or a child that is rough with their toys. I also wish that these kits came in a plastic carrying case and not a cardboard box which tends to wear down and rip over time. The books of projects are also probably going to show a lot of wear and tear over time, although the kit is too new for me to experience that.
- I wholeheartedly agree with the other reviews that say they wish for more explanation of why these experiments work. It would certainly enhance the child's experience (and mine!) to understand why things have to be connected a certain way in order to work. This is why I gave "Educational Value" 3 stars. However, if I compare this toy to other toys in general, like video games, action figures, etc. I would easily give this 5 stars.

This was my son's favorite toy this year. I asked him if this came close to getting a Wii, and he said it was even better!

Update: I have been looking on the snapcircuits.net website and there are additional items that seem to address my concerns. They do sell a hard plastic carrying case. It's $50, so I will live with the cardboard. There are also student guides available for more in-depth learning. Student guides are seperate for each kit, which is nice. I was also pleased to see that they offer upgrade kits, so that when your kid exhausts the SC-300, you just have to buy an upgrade kit to turn it into an SC-750. Cool! I am definitely getting the student guide for the SC-300 and possibly the teacher guide as well.

I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my 12 year old son. It is sometimes difficult to find something that will keep him engaged for long periods of time (other than reading or video games). ;) He absolutely LOVES this set! This was definitely a very good find!

Snap Circuits PRO SC-500
My 2 granddaughters (6 & 7)love this! After doing 4 projects with my help, they got up at the crack of dawn the next day and built 2 more projects with no help. Both worked. Amazing.

This is AMAZING! My husband and 7 year old son spent 2 hours playing with this and making the horn blow, propeller turn, and more. Very very user friendly, yet very learning oriented, too. LOVE IT!

This is an awesome product. We gave it to our 8 year old son for his birthday. The 50 year old Uncle had as much fun as the 8 yr old. His science teacher aunt is considering purchasing the product for 9th grade classroom use. It's well made, durable, easy to use, educational and fun. The pieces are easy to keep together in the original box, unlike other toys that end up scattered all over the house. I wish there were more toys like this.

Gave this to my nephew. He loves it. It's working with circuits but very safe.

My 5 year old adores this toy. After getting help for the first several hours (spread over a couple of days), he is able to follow the simple diagrams and run the experiments and projects. This toy has given him a safe way to explore his love for electronics and to learn its language and terminology. He even knows to wash his hands after play (as recommended in the instructions). I'm glad we chose SC-300 over the smaller sets, as there are many more parts. I highly recommend this toy for children with long attention spans who enjoy construction and science.

Our 12 year old son loves to build things, and to learn how things work.

So for his upcoming 13th birthday, I purchased the Snap Circuits SC-300 product to give him an educational toy where he can learn about electricity and electric circuits.

Normally I don't open packages in advance of giving the gift, but since our son is so hands on, I wanted to try out the product myself so that when we sit down together, I know what he's doing.

I tried about a dozen of the 300+ projects finding the directions very easy to follow; and it is fascinating to see (at least on a very elementary level) how electronic circuits are built.

While the projects do include experiments (variations of a project), what I did find lacking was the explanation of why certain parts were done in the order required.

I rated the fun value as a 5 as a number of the projects are not only fun for kids, but I had fun with them as well; but the educational value is lower than what I had hoped, and therefore rated 3 stars.

Thus stated, I still recommend this product as an educational toy with the understanding that some of the education has to come outside of the product itself.

My daughter thought it was great fun at first, but needed a lot of help with it. She's 9. However, after leaving it alone for a week, she came back to it and builds circuits all on her own now.

My 10 yr old son is loving this kit. The projects are clearly laid out and he is able to do them on his own. The pieces are made very well. They not only fit properly but I can tell it will last for my other children to use when they are older.
This is a wonderful combination of fun and education.