Fascinations First Time Clock Puzzle Clock

September 5, 2010 | By In Technology |

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5 Comments so far

  1. Christopher Paoletti on September 5th, 2010

    Other then the fun of working with my son to get this together, this is a waste of your money. The instruction’s picture are very hard to read, and do not show the pieces clearly. Also several of the parts have burs from the plastic molding process that prevent them from fitting together properly. We could not have assembled the clock without a sharp knife to clean the pieces and make them fit. The clock will not work. Once wound, the gears slip.

    Do not waste you time and money, and disappoint you child by purchasing this.

    Rating: 1 / 5

  2. K. Cole on September 5th, 2010

    I bought this clock for my 3 year old who is currently obsessed with clocks. I tried to find a kids clock that would show how a clock RUNS, not how to teach a kid to tell time, which are what most toy, non-running clocks are. The only clocks with visible gears I found were executive-type, expensive and very much not for kids. So while I didn’t want to put one together myself, and was hoping to find one that would stand up better to a 3 year old, this clock is pretty much just what I was looking for.

    Yes, the directions are terrible, even though I understand it is supposed to be a puzzle. The pictures given are small and hard to read. I got the clock mostly together myself but it would not run. My husband ended up taking a crack at it and got it running, but he’s “The Fonz”, and can put anything together. Between the two of us it took about an hour. I can’t imagine a 6 year old putting one together. However, it would be a great project for an 8-plus kid and parent – who is good at this sort of thing – to do together.

    So my husband got it running and even tweaked it so that the bell will ring at each quarter hour – don’t ask me how, but now if I want it to do it again I’ll have to figure out how because it does only run for about an hour or so at a time. It IS fragile. Our daughter wants to pick it up and play with it but it definitely is “just to look at” – which she LOVES. It shows the gears moving and the pendulum swinging and the bell ringing and makes a very toddler-satisfying ticking sound and she can wind it up. But then unfortunately she can’t touch it or else it will stop running. It is also made of cheap plastic.

    For the price and for what it is, I think it’s fine. It WILL show the inner workings of a clock. I think it would be great fun for an older kid who likes to put things together (it’s more a “Process” rather than “Product” thing in that case) – and then fuss over it to get it to work. It’s not rugged by any means but as long as you don’t have any other expectations for it other than to show how a clock is put together and runs with gears it’s probably about as good as it can be.
    Rating: 3 / 5

  3. trimom on September 5th, 2010

    True, the instructions could have been more clear. But my 10 year old son was able to figure it out easily by the pictures, and put this together in less than an hour. All of the pieces fit together well, and it’s ticking away in his room and even rings. There are adjustments to make while it’s put together (like the bell), and after it’s put together (the pendulum), but it helps teach the way clocks work. A really fun project for kids who like to build things and see how things work together. Since it was just put together today, we don’t know how long it’ll last, but we’ll update if we have any problems.
    Rating: 5 / 5

  4. H Z on September 5th, 2010

    This was a gift for my six year old who is very good at following instructions and working with his hands. We sat together and navigated the terrible assembly drawing. The basic drawing problem is that the step by step drawings are too small and the persepective chosen for their rendering has two pins that overlap. If you could figure out the drawing, assembly was pretty easy. The color coded parts helped a lot.

    The operational problem with this item is the regulator (pendulum) mechanism. The fork and escape wheel are not made with sufficiently high precision for this item to work. When you first start the pendulum and it has high amplitude, these items engage and disengage properly. In 10-20 seconds, the fork and escape wheel actually start missing each other and the escape wheel goes several ticks per swing and then many as they miss each other and then the pendulum and the escape wheel stop moving together and the clock stops. There really isn’t anything you can do about this problem. These parts have to fit perfectly and they don’t.

    Given the problems with the toy, I could not possibly recommend it.
    Rating: 1 / 5

  5. G. Wade on September 5th, 2010

    My 6 year old son bought this. He worked for weeks to make enough money to get it, he loves clocks & the inner workings of them. To save us from him tearing apart clocks & watches, we agreed to order this for him. When I saw this out of the box, I really thought it looked quite junky so I was prepared for a failure from the start. My 9 year old daughter & I helped my son build it the first time but we could not get it to work. Then his sister took it apart & built it again, still it wasn’t right & I was ready to send it back. Then, my son tried one more time & he got it working perfectly. The gear pieces have to be ‘engaged’ & there is some room for error but if you check & double check that everything turns before you seal it up, then you have won half the battle. Once you get it set & working, don’t mess with it or it may cause you problems. Ours ran for the whole day yesterday, I was tiring of the constant tic tocking BUT my son has already learned so much about something that doesn’t use batteries & shows the beautiful workings of mechanics. The process of building it & rebuilding it probably taught him more than if he would have built it right the first time.

    I would not recommend this for a child who isn’t careful with their toys, I could see the parts disappearing or being broken quite easily. Aside from that, it is an excellent learning tool!!

    Rating: 4 / 5

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