Build and Launch Foam Rockets by Klutz Labs

This is a fun and quick rocket kit which is great for even very young kids. It doesn't require any real skill or technique to launch these rockets, which is both the biggest strength and biggest weakness. The various rocket punch-outs add some level of versatility, although at the expense of distance - the rocket tubes travel much further if they're launched without using the rocket punch-outs.

Build and Launch Foam Rockets is a simple kit that contains everything you need to assemble simple air-launch rockets. The rockets consist of a foam tube (3 varieties included - red, blue, and yellow) and punch-out rocket designs (6 varieties) that can slip over the foam tube, resulting in a total of 18 different rockets. The tube then slips onto a simple bulb-pump power air launcher.

Squeeze the launcher and watch it fly.

The problem with the kit is that the air pump only launches so far, and the rockets aren't terribly aerodynamic, so the fall pretty quickly to the ground. I haven't really been able to get more than a few feet out of them. Probably the most it's gone is about 5 feet, but if you remove the punch-out rocket design and just launch the raw foam tube, then it goes about a dozen feet.

The kit does include some directions about how to customize the rocket designs by folding the wings in different ways, to get changes in the flight path. While this enhances the experience a bit (this is how I got a full 5 feet), it's still a pretty short flight.

The good news is that you can launch it again and again. My son - 5 years old - is fixated on it and loves launching it repeatedly, without any concerns about whether or not it goes more than a couple of feet.

And that, I suppose, is the best recommendation of all.

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