Think Fun ThinkFun Amaze

Let me first tell you what it is NOT. It is NOT cheaply made, not stupid, not boring, not impossible to solve on the simplest setting.It is quiet - very nice for nap times, office waiting hours, car rides, restaurants - anything. It is one piece - the plastic pen-stick is connected to the body. It has four sliding sections - each section has a different number of red gates randomly located to create random blocking. You CAN and you WILL slide them to allow you to move through the puzzle. But you can only slide them one step to the left or one step to the right. and sometimes you cannot slide because you are stuck. So you will go back. Say what?? what kind of puzzle is this? You will move forward AND backward, up AND down the board. Since you have 4 slides - it gives you 16 different setting for a starting setting/position (if you remember your theory of probability class). We tried one and two so far. It was NOT EASY - but it is the fun of challenge and uniqueness that keeps you excited.I have a 5.5 yr old who loves puzzle - your typical paper puzzles, large floor jigsaw puzzles, picture puzzles, etc.He took it as soon as I took it out of the box, expecting simple plastic puzzle. HE figured out before I did how to move on it. He started to shift the red gates right away. I told him "you can't do that , that's like cheating". Only then I sat down and tried to play it myself. And I got stuck. And ONLY THEN I read the instructions and found that shifting the gates is the critical part of the game. Leave it to a 5.5 yr old to have a better instinct. He loved it from the first try and wanted to try few settings. He agreed that it is not the easy puzzle, but he agreed that it was a great puzzle because of that. Since we both find it equally challenging - it helps him keep motivation to keep trying to solve it. Get it for your kid - but be prepared to want to play it. And if you have that smarty-pant uncle in the family - let him try to solve the first (easiest one)!

This is kind of fun and interesting how they get so many different mazes. I thought it would be great for long car rides but my kids 12,11,8 got bored with it quickly. I think it might have been too hard for them. Instead of it just being a new maze from start to finish, you have to slide the pieces to create the paths. I think it was just too many choices and too complicated for them so they gave up.

We homeschool so anything that increases problem solving skills we are all about. Especially when it is something they can do independently. All my kids enjoy this so it is good for a wide age range

Got this for my son who loves mazes. 2 issues with it. First off, once you figure out how to solve level one, that solution is the end part of multiple other levels. The same goes for other challenges. They end up just being pieces of levels you already figured out. I should have figured this would be the case, as there are so few movable parts available the configurations would have to have duplicate parts. My second has little to do with the quality of this product, but my son who loves mazes and has never cheated on them before keeps cheating on this one. He has made himself a rule that the red walls can be jumped over! So for us the fact that the movable walls are a different color caused my son to come up with a new rule for them and kind of ruined the challenge for him. Hopefully he will be willing to give up that rule sometime soon as I did buy this as a car ride toy for him to keep him entertained for our frequent rather long car rides.Quality of the toy is very good though. All one piece with the instructions engraved into the back and the pen is on a string. Small and easy to fit in my shoulder bag and has held up very well. Fun for the whole family and for visitors, so I'm sure I've gotten my 10 bucks worth out of it.

We bought this for our 4.5 year old son who is maze crazy and is quite good at them. This product was not worth the money. To tell the truth, if I had purchased this at the dollar store I still would think it wasn't worth the price. This game is all about moving little sliders back and forth to complete the maze. Once you do it a few times, you realize that the sliders have to be in a certain configuration in order to finish the maze. So after doing it for 15 minutes or so, you've basically mastered it and it's then another piece of plastic that your child will never look at again. Along with this, I purchased several maze books. The Dover Little Activity Maze books are all very small and inexpensive (around $1 each) and although they are very easy, they are great for stocking stuffers or travel books. They are most suitable for little ones, probably under age 4, just starting out with mazes. My son thought they were good but blasted through them in a short amount of time. Still, they'd be great for the littler kids. The Everything Kids Mazes Book was very challenging and entertaining for my son. It kept him busy on a 3-hour car ride and he loved it!

I ordered this as a last minute Xmas gift. When I received it, I took it out of the package & was quite disappointed, it seemed far too difficult for my children to use, let alone have an interest in. & I was also surprised to see that it wasn't electronic. BUT I decided to give it as a gift to my 5 year old, maze-loving son.When he opened the package he was elated! Both he & his 8 year old sister absolutely love it. They take it everywhere; it is perfect for in the car or in restaurants for easy, mind-building entertainment. My original concern about it not being easy for little kids to use, is totally gone. & my kids don't care that it isn't electronic, they don't even notice.It has 4 sliders that control the little 'gates' on the maze. When the sliders are switched, it totally changes the maze. The patterns are printed on the back to follow. The simplest maze is fairly easy but the tougher ones are quite difficult for an adult. You use the included 'pen' to follow the indented maze to the end.It is a simple, amazingly designed item that I would recommend to anyone!