Review PlayMais

We were sent a medium box of PlayMais to try and review, which is like coloured recycling chips, but is made from cornstarch and water and coloured with food colouring.

PlayMais can be reshaped, squeezed and cut.  If you damp the little chips they stick together, but they also stick to lots of different surfaces too ie paper, glass and card, which makes them a great item to keep in the craft cupboard, but at £7.99 for a medium box it is quite expensive considering once its gone its gone.

Normally we would test a product over at least a week (sometimes much longer) before I would review it, but since this has been played with since the moment the minimads came home from school and preschool on Friday, I thought I would get the review done.  Also I think that the pictures speak louder than the words in this case too.

What we liked.

I loved the fact that they are en eco friendly toy and help use the children's imagination.  They foster creative and individual play.

They appealed to both boys, including MaxiMads analytical side, he loved making patterns with them, counting them, using them for adding and taking away.  He even sorted them with chopsticks in to small pots.

I loved the fact that any pictures of models made could be added to paper or a greetings card as 3D art and reused.  This is a fantastic way of displaying the children's art and also of making birthday and Christmas cards using the things they have made, rather than just popping it in the recycling or compost bin (which you could do too).

I liked the fact that they are very light, so would make an excellent present for any child you have to post to.  You could also double up in their usage and include them in a box for family at Christmas as packaging chips.

What we didn't like

They are pretty expensive for what they are £7.99 for the medium box.

The box says they come with all you  need, but there was nothing included for cutting them and we had to use scissors and they are quite difficult for small hands to cut.

We also found the box to be quite flimsy and not suitable to store the mais in, so we transferred it to a container we already had.

It can be quite hard to replicated the models on the box and in the booklet provided, which just upset MaxiMad - he was a little frustrated. 

Overview

A super product, we all liked with many uses and I am sure we will get hours of use out of.  A must for any arty/crafty children.  A fantastic unisex product, I am sure my niece will adore playing with this and the minimads next time she visits too.  They are suitable for a wide range of ages and abilities and there is no right or wrong things to do with them.  So a big thumbs up from TheMadHouse