Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope

Comments about Toys R Us 1001325 Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope:

I don't normally write reviews, but after reading the terrible reviews for this microscope I decided to give my opinion. We got this for my 5 year old who is really into science and it was one of the best Christmas presents she received this year! It's not a professional tool- it is a children's microscope. I love that it is made of plastic- it's durable and kid-proof. After looking at the two slides that it came with, we have been having a fantastic time preparing our own slides. Our daughter has looked at cheek cells, onion skin, hair, eyelashes, paper, tissues, and several other materials. She is able to prepare the slides by herself, allowing her independent learning. With my help she has begun drawing pictures of what she sees and describing the materials in detail. She is curious about everything now and gets so excited to use her microscope. It has already achieved it's mission- sparking curiousity, teaching her scientific methods and concepts, and introducing her to the world of things she cannot see with the naked eye. I highly recommend this to anyone with a young child. Fantastic learning tool for children at an affordable price!

Comments about Toys R Us 1001325 Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope:

We received this set incomplete from a family member who'd bought it simply for the slides. He gave the microscope itself to our 2 year old. Needless to say, the scope sat in our present closet for a couple of years until I felt my son was old enough to be interested in it.

So today, I bought the extra micro slide kit from Toys R Us, and we finally gave this scope a try.
I really wasn't expecting to see anything, since all but one reviewer posting here have said this microscope is so terrible. However, within 5 minutes of placing the first prepared slide, a microfilm displaying the numbers "123" on the stage, a very clear image came into view at 150x. Without explaining to my son what he was about to view, I helped him look through the eyepiece. Then I asked him what he saw. Grinning from ear to ear my son giggled and exclaimed "1 2 3!" Excitedly, we moved on to fungi, synthetic fibers, grasshopper wings, coffee droplets, and more. Everything we viewed looked distinctly different. What's even cooler, is that my 4 year old was able to describe some of these differences.

Now, when we attempted to magnify these images to the stronger two lenses we struggled more with this microscope. It took a bit of shifting the slide and refocusing to see the image again, but when we finally got it, wow. As nerdy as this sounds, algae at 450x is cool!

Comments about Toys R Us 1001325 Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope:

Waste of money, obviously a scam. Took about an hour to find something, the stage pins don't allow room to move the slide around. Wiggle the table and can't find the view again. They obviously didn't test the product or use any quality control. I used microscopes before with no issues since I was a kid, so I know this is useless junk. Next time will invest in a real microscope in a science or lab store.

Comments about Toys R Us 1001325 Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope:

I was a biology major and know how to use a microscope. The lens is so dirty and cloudy, on the inside, you can not see through it. I understand it is inexpensive, but this item should be removed from the selves. One star because I couldn't give it a zero!

Comments about Toys R Us 1001325 Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope:

Ok, you may have noticed a lot of bad reviews. Please understand that these are well deserved.

This breaks my heart: My son was so excited to have this microscope. He's so convinced he could use it to see hair, and blood cells, and dust, etc. We could not get this to see anything without OLYMPIC efforts on my part first. And then it was fleeting.

1. The product is made out of a non-rigid plastic. So even if you can see something, just trying to turn the focusing knob by itself will flex the scope enough to push the image out of focus.

2. The optical eyepiece is badly designed so that it is capped with a cowl that is supposed to cup the eye but actually pushes both child and human eyes up and away from where it needs to be to see an image. The best you can do is to physically fold the thing out of the way. Otherwise the image circle will dance around as you painfully try to center your eye on it.

3. The optics are so dirty (internally) that the best picture you'll get is of whatever it is that is dirty inside there (not on top nor bottom).

"Edu Science" is actually a ToysRus brand. Take it back to any store immediately.

Toys should *not* be designed to teach your child the lessons of futility.

Comments about Toys R Us 1001325 Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope:

TOTAL FAKE DO NOT buy this i have used refractors and refractors are a ton better. don't buy this buy a refractor and it will really work.

Comments about Toys R Us 1001325 Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope:

This is such a poor quality toy. My daughter and I could not see ANYTHING! It's a terrible microscope, It's going straight back to the store.

Comments about Toys R Us 1001325 Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope:

nothing was good about this product.

Comments about Toys R Us 1001325 Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope:

I saw all the awful comments about this product after I had already purchased it for my young daughter, so I decided to open it up and give it a try. Now I am a licensed Medical Laboratory Tech and I use microscopes on a daily basis, so I feel my opinion is probably a little more accurate than the other parents who have commented, no offense. The product is slightly flimsy plastic (but what child toy isn't). The focus was not by any standard amazing however it was not that bad. These parent's expectations are ridiculous. I don't think they understand that the average laboratory microscope magnifies upto 10000x, this one is claiming to do 450x, which it does... that's not a large magnification in retrospect. Ignorant people are complaining of something they know little about, You get what you pay for, you buy a 20 dollar microscope than that's what you get.

Comments about Toys R Us 1001325 Edu Science 450x Starter Microscope:

This was a gift for my 5 yr old girl, and she SOO wanted to figure it out, but this is a terrible microscope. IF you can get it to focus on something, you're amazingly lucky. We could only get one of the lenses to view anything for us and there is so much interference from the poor quality slides and adhesives used it's pointless!