So after reading about these here, and you guys bragging about these incredible looking kits, I managed to organise to import them into South Africa for my little growing business. They are not to be found here to date, so I am very excited about this.

Naturally, my kid will be getting the very first one into South Africa as his Birthday Gift

I had to share and say thank you to all of you who shared the idea with me a year ago - you are going to make my boys and a bunch of kids here very very happy.

Which are the favourite ones in your house? I just ordered a small variety of them to start with.

Snap Circuits will be arriving here from Santa! We ordered the 500 and the computer interface

SC is a bit of double-edge sward for us. DD can go on for hours so that is great but then she tends to spill water everywhere and the sound effects get old really fast for me, but not for DD.

We only have the basic set right now but I'm thinking of getting her either the RC rover or alternative energy one for Christmas.

We've had our for ages... the 300 model, which I think was the top of the line at the time.

My boys hadn't played with it for a while and then DS8 was studying electricity at school early this year and became totally, totally obsessed (as he does)... so much he eventually convince my DH to take him to the hardware store and he built his own circuit board (with plywood, batteries, nails, wire, etc.). It won him a cash prize in a state-wide science talent search & Snap Circuits was a big part of the inspiration :-)

We bought the SC-300 just to test it out. It was a huge hit with both of my kids (6 and 9), and I'm sure Santa will bring upgrades.

We are planning on the EV3 this Christmas to test the water with a view on getting into Arduino's further down the road if my DD takes to it.

We have the SC-750, which DS loves. Highly recommend. IMO, the integrated circuits and additional components add considerable value above the base set offering.

No, definitely not safe for babies. Smallish parts to start with, and plenty of smaller parts that can and do get broken off.

Depends on the baby. My kiddo never put stuff in his mouth. Though we got Snap Circuits for our DS when he was 4. He liked them at that age, but then didn't care much about them. Just sold his kit.

DD didn't really have the hand strength to 'snap' them together until she was about five.

We have the Snap Circuits 300, I think. We have 2 of their accessory kits. We also have assorted breadboards, resistors, capacitors etc because we have a few electronic hobbyists at home! The SnapCircuits set gets used off and on, and it was easy for DS to build all the circuits in their sample booklet by himself at age 5.

Snapcircuits have become my DS's "signature gift" for birthday parties for the past few years.

The thing that I wan to add is that please make a strict rule in your house for your kids to wash their hands thoroughly after using snapcircuits. This is not an alarmist warning - I just have this warning in place in my home for all electronic components because they inherently contain metals and chemicals that we might not want our kids to touch (for e.g. the leadfree solder we bought for a hobby project actually contained 25% lead when I read the small print ... etc).

oh gosh thanks for that Ashley! I will make sure to implement that rule AND print it in the supplier insert when I sell the kits too

Madoosa, just to make it clear - it is good to be genereally cautious with electronic components because they use heavy metal. I am not saying that Snap Circuits has a problem. I am just saying that it is a good rule of thumb to follow. Please ensure that you say that when you sell the kits because we don't want to offend snapcircuits company, who for all we know make a mercury free, lead free or cadmium free product

LOL Yeah I get that totally! Since I am the current sole importer of their goods I really *REALLY* don't want to upset them at all.

A bit about general safety and cautions should be fine though I think - that is kind of along the lines of what I do usually.

Thank you for your care and concern

My DD got a set as a present from some family friends last Christmas. It is the SC-300. It warms my heart when I recall the happy and amazed look on her face the first time she did the 'flying spinner' (or whatever it was called) circuit. Seeing how she could follow the instructions without help and then perform her own experiments to broaden her understanding is what has convinced me that she might be ready for the EV3...

If your DS doesn't mouth objects, I'd say go for it. My DS (24mo) LOVES his kit. He has trouble with the single and double links, but he can use his palm to apply enough downward pressure to snap the longer links to the board. The integrated circuit pieces are bigger and easier for small hands. And, nothing stops him from giving me detailed instructions and outsourcing the fine motor work!

I don't know if all kits include the fan- that and the music IC are DS' favourite components.

We've finally found the sweet spot between advanced interests and fine motor ability with this toy. DS is obsessed with the SC-100 kit and plays for hours!

Every single family so far here in South Africa that has bought this kit has e-mailed me to say how much their kids are loving it! Many have ordered more - and I cannot keep stock long enough to even try get demo units out to schools, to magazines for reviews or to retail stores to try get them in there. Since mid december I have sold out three shipments and the fourth is on it's way.

Freaking awesome kits! My kids play with theirs every single day without fail.