Wishing Star Farms Pumpkin Patch Field Trip & Trunk or Treat

 

Abacus Brands Virtual Reality Tryazon Party & Review

 

    Abacus Brands teamed up with Tryazon to spread awareness about four of their Virtual Reality kits and we were selected to share them with our friends and family!  We received the four-in-one kit that included: Volcanoes, Dinosaur Dig, Solar System and Crystal Lab.  This kit retails for $60 on Amazon. The kit came with one headset that a cellular phone could slide into and run the app to create the virtual reality experiences.  

    

    In the box we found the single headset, 4 posters corresponding to each of the themes, a solar system kit, a dinosaur dig stone and tool set, a volcano mold and plaster, and materials to make 2 crystals.  There was also an instruction booklet.  It was difficult to find the correct app to download and when we did there was no content available for the crystal lab.  We were able to look at content for kits that we did not purchase.  The app works in handheld mode or in headset mode.  

    My iPhone 12 mini was a snug fit in the headset, but I did not take it out of the Otterbox case.  Tim's iPhone 13+ with the bigger screen was difficult to fit into the headset.  Newer, heavier phones would be challenging to use with the headset.  

       

    The headset was slightly uncomfortable on my nose but not of the kids complained about it hurting their heads.  The adjustable straps were able to fit down to Percy's tiny 4 year old head and even Lucas' giant 14 year old head!  

    The instructions for making the Crystal Lab were unclear and although our crystals did eventually grow, we still aren't sure if we did things correctly.  I purchased some crystal growing kits from the Dollar Tree and they produced very fragile crystals that have since broken.  The crystals from the Abacus Brands VR kit are delicate, but haven't broken.  

    The volcano mold included in the Volcano Lab was easy to use and the plaster set quickly enough that I was able to make the included plaster volcano and then purchase additional plaster of Paris so that I could make 4 more volcanos for the guests of our party.  None of the volcanos cured fully before the party, despite being made the day before, and the paint washed off when we did the eruptions.  We did allow the paint to dry to the touch before doing the eruptions, but on the uncured plaster it just didn't hold.  For a single child to do this project I would recommend making the plaster volcano several days before painting it, and then painting it and clear-coating it before attempting to do any eruptions.  There was enough citric acid in the kit to do multiple eruptions so that was nice for all of our guests to get a chance.  

    The Dino Dig kit was a single stone and several quality tools that contained a t-rex model.  Since we couldn't expect several children to share the single stone I purchased extra Dino dig and fossil dig kits from the Dollar Tree and Walmart for the kids to share.  We had them rotate through all the different sets so that they got an opportunity to try them all.  They did manage to dig out the entire T-rex within the time of the 3 hour party and assembled it easily!  Vinnie claimed it for himself and has it on display in his bedroom.  The VR experiences that went along with the dinosaur kit were the most fun for the kids, especially the T-Rex chase and the roller coaster!

    The last kit in the product was the Solar System kit.  While the solar system kit is neat and the VR experiences were educational, this one was kind of a let-down.  The solar system pieces were quite small and plastic, which made them difficult for me as a grown adult to paint.  The instructions said to refer to the included poster for color inspiration but we ended up using the internet as well.  I purchased paper Solar System models for each of the children attending the party from the Dollar Tree and we use crayons and colored pencils to decorate those and then assemble them.  This would be a challenging kit for more than one child to play with.  

As a Tryazon party, this kit was underwhelming.  The kit is really designed to be used by ONE child.  It was challenging to create a party atmosphere where the children were able to stay engaged and entertained.  They did take turns using the VR headset, playing outside, doing the activities provided (by Abacus and by myself) but I doubt any of the guests would be running out to purchase this (or any other) VR kit for their own use.  

As a homeschooling family, there is a lot of educational content available in the app and my own children did enjoy watching the videos and doing the VR experiences numerous times.  The fact that it requires me to hand over my cell phone is less than ideal and certainly limits the ability for them to use the headset.  The posters are neat and I have them framed and displayed in our homeschool space.  There is not really any re-playability with the materials in the kit.  Once they are used, they are done and that's the end of the toy.