Fascinations First Time Clock Puzzle Clock
FIRSTTC1 Features: -Promotes cognitive development.-Assembles in approximately twenty minutes.-Wind it up power – no batteries needed.-For ages 6 and up.-Material: Plastic, metal, paper. Color/Finish: -Easy to follow color coded instructions. Dimensions: -Overall dimensions: 8.5” H x 7.5” W x 2.5” D.
Product Features
- Fascinations designs product to illustrate many magical aspects of our world
- A fascinating educational kit that explains the scientific nature of clocks
- This clock is a unique and interactive project
- Promotes cognitive development
- Associated website content supports further learning about the hands of time
Perfectly imperfect Wow is this a great object. ‘Toy’ is the wrong description, however. I bought this for my six year old son and we assembled it together. The instructions are not great. They are also not terrible. We tried to use the instructions as little as possible in any case, and the picture of the completed clock on the box is enough to deduce it all if you are mechanically minded and have the time to think through the elements you can’t see very well (though part-color is not perfectly reliable from the picture). Both of us learned a lot in making this. That surprised me a bit. I’m college science professor. I’ve opened many clocks over the years. I did not, however, realize that a clock could be this simple, or this tolerant of imprecision (these parts are cheaply molded plastic). Half way through making this “clock” I became convinced that it was not as the box suggested. I thought it was not a clock, but instead a clock-like toy that would show how the hands could move at different rates, all in a highly sped-up form. I thought it wouldn’t keep proper time. And I concluded that was ok. It was still fun to build and was well worth the price, even if the box was misleading. But then the last few steps (the hardest ones to deduce) rendered the entire thing functional. I was wrong! It keeps time. You have to adjust the pendulum to get it to do so precisely, just as someone must in any real pendulum clock. My only complaint is that this clock removes all the black-box elements from a clock except one. The spring that stores the energy that drives the clock is not possible to see. So there is still a black box, and for no good reason. The spring gear apparatus could be transparent so you could see every moving element. But at the price, I can’t complain. It’s tremendously educational, enough that I’m thinking of buying a stack and putting my students through he exercise of discovering how comprehensible things can remain un-comprehended in a consumer culture where a clock is typically something you buy, use, then throw away.
Neat idea, a little frustrating to build but persistance will pay off! My 6 year old son bought this. He worked for weeks to make enough money to get it, he loves clocks & the inner workings of them. To save us from him tearing apart clocks & watches, we agreed to order this for him. When I saw this out of the box, I really thought it looked quite junky so I was prepared for a failure from the start. My 9 year old daughter & I helped my son build it the first time but we could not get it to work. Then his sister took it apart & built it again, still it wasn’t right & I was ready to send it back. Then, my son tried one more time & he got it working perfectly. The gear pieces have to be ‘engaged’ & there is some room for error but if you check & double check that everything turns before you seal it up, then you have won half the battle. Once you get it set & working, don’t mess with it or it may cause you problems. Ours ran for the whole day yesterday, I was tiring of the constant tic tocking BUT my son has already learned so much about something that doesn’t use batteries & shows the beautiful workings of mechanics. The process of building it & rebuilding it probably taught him more than if he would have built it right the first time.I would not recommend this for a child who isn’t careful with their toys, I could see the parts disappearing or being broken quite easily. Aside from that, it is an excellent learning tool!!