Today we had the pleasure of reviewing Build Your Own Pirate Ship from Buildyourownkits.com priced at £19.99.
First of here’s a little bout the product, from the company’s website.
Description
Made from 100% sustainable cardboard, this super cool Pirate Ship is exciting to build and brilliant fun to play with.
Easy to assemble using slot together techniques – there’s no glue, no mess, no fuss. Everything you need is provided in the kit – simply follow the instructions: press out the pre-cut parts, build and you’re ready to fire your cannonballs!
Interactive and great fun, this innovative kit encourages learning through play. With a striking black and gold design plus two sets of sails for you to choose from, it looks awesome!
Our Thoughts
First off, a disclaimer… we have had one of these kits before. We attempted the Build Your Own Marble Run which proved to be a bit too much of an epic project for our boy (who was younger at the time), so we were a little apprehensive about reviewing a similar project, but this was a pirate ship! And it had a Cannon! And sharks! And you could have sea battles! So both the boys and our interest was piqued!
Was this set going to be a true treasure… let’s dig into what we thought.
The box is bright, colourful, and engaging. If it was on a shelf in a shop, we would buy it as we always look for family activities that enable us to spend time together. The price point is more affordable than some of the other sets. Our 8-year-old couldn’t wait to get started on building in fact, it arrived on the Wednesday, and he asked everyday through to Saturday if it was time!
So, Saturday arrived, it was time. We cleared the table and set out all the pieces. The instructions were clear and the extra labels on the pictures helped with the more tricky/fiddly bits. The pieces were easy to slot together and with a bigger ratio of cardboard bits to paper bits than the Marble run it made it much more conducive to little fingers (little man) and old hands (dad) Don’t get me wrong there were moments that we, as adults had to take the reins, especially when the time came to thread the elastic bands.
The build time is listed as 60 minutes, and it took us about 2 hours (with a break in the middle) but maybe we’re not as dextrous as the play testers who decide these things! To be honest, I actually look at a longer build time as more value for money in a set as it filled an entire rainy afternoon for us rather than just an hour, so this wasn’t a negative. There was one point where we got a bit lost in the instructions and leapt to the online help… unfortunately for us it wasn’t up and running when we were building so we had to make our best guess, but we think we sussed it out in the end!
I think if you were a first-time builder this would be the set for you. You can see the ship taking shape before your eyes, and there’s even design choices to be made regarding the colour and style of your sails. The subject matter is great, Afterall even the adults love pirate ships! It has great interactive pieces, a cannon that shoots over masts, pirates, barrels and sharks!
If you are looking for a family activity this could be a great one, but I don’t think it would be suitable for anyone that’s primary school age to do it alone, unless of course they are that elusive child that sits building from instructions for hours at a time. Ours is a builder but is more creative when it comes to following instructions!
Again, much like the other sets, I must disagree with the “No Mess” promise on the box – we are still finding little punchboard pieces after we swept and hoovered!
A good product overall, we would give this a thumbs up. Our little guy has played with it after the build and the added element of the cannon firing is a real hit!
Rules of Dadding rating:
If you would like your very own Build Your Own Pirate Ship, you can purchase it here:
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