I was given the wonderful opportunity to review these three rockets made by Estes.
There were a total of three products that were provided for the review. Sonic Boom, ages 10+, Whirlwind, ages 10+ and Mini Blasters, ages 5+.
I picked up five of my grandchildren ranging in ages from 13 down to 5 years old. And here is what happened:
Mini Blasters– Ages 5+ – my two granddaughters (ages 5 and 7) participated, the third, a grandson (5 years old) opted out finding the splash pad at the park more inviting on what ended up being a super hot day.
This was super easy and no need to even follow the instructions. It was like putting together a puzzle. The girls had it together in no time flat. It is air powered and uses a foot pump to get the rockets launched. It is safe and though the instructions say adult supervision required, I think is a disclaimer that is necessary to protect the company. These girls played with it for hours later on at the house in the driveway.
They loved it. There were two rockets in this kit; a large and small one. The girls even created their own game later at the house by drawing with chalk on the driveway and putting point values in circles, shooting the rockets up in the air and determining who won by who gather the most points. Gotta love my girls.
Sonic Boom Ages 10+ – my oldest grandson, age 13, assembled this rocket.
Again, the ease was unbelievable, there was really no need to follow the instructions; it was so easy. Soon he had it together in no time flat. As with the Mini Blasters, it is air powered and reaches great heights. It uses a pump similar to a bike pump. After you have pumped some air into the tubing that the rocket sits on, you press the launch button and off it goes!
After a day at the park (it started to rain), we went back to his house where the rocket was launched off the deck, launching the rock onto the neighbor’s roof next door. We chuckled. They neighbor was nice enough to get it down. I wasn’t too sure how he would respond to doing this because he is a teenager and thought he would find it uncool to be playing with a rocket since he is into basketball and girls. But he loved it and got lots of time out of it before the rocket landed on the roof.
Whirlwind– Ages 10+ – my second oldest grandson, 11 years, assembled this rocket.
Assembly – What can I say? We had three for three! The assembly was the greatest of ease for this future engineer. Like the others, he had it together in no time flat and powered by air using the same concept it’s sibling rocket, Sonic Boom.
Play – He loved it! He played with it until we left and everybody came back to our house. And they continued to play some more.
All three rockets reach great heights so it is highly recommended for outside use only.
If there were one negative to this, it would be the tubing on Sonic Boom and Whirlwind. When moving them from one place to another, the tubing would come apart causing it to be reassembled. My one grandson (the engineer) said it was because the tubing wasn’t given enough space to insert into the other to give more stability.
All of the rockets are made with a “nerf” like material and there is no danger in any of it’s assembly or play.
If you are looking for a great toy to introduce your child to rockets and not break the bank, this would be a great way to get started.
I would definitely give this product two hopscotches and two jellybeans!
~ Theresa
