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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 The hottest toy at the sandboxJan 08, 2009
By C. evans
"talia's mom"
This is everyones favorite when we go to the playground to play. My daughter used to grab onto other kids when she saw it, and the other ones are smaller and not so sturdy. This item is bigger and much more fun! I bought two so there is plenty of sharing now!
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Favorite sand toyMay 28, 2010
By M. Sedova
I bought it for my 1.5 year old and it's her favorite sand toy. Wheels rotate very well, unlike the other sand wheel we got from Target.
Plastic is very smooth and doesn't feel cheap.
Kids of all edges want to play with our wheel when we are on a playground.
A MUST for a summer :)
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Keeps them busy!Apr 04, 2010
By Gina M. Dirosa
This is a great addition to a sand or water table. It keeps them entertained for a very long time.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Great Sandbox ToyOct 04, 2010
By Kristin Harrington
We purchased this along with a sandbox for my son's 3rd birthday and it was a hit. All of the 18month-3 year olds at his party loved it. It was a nice add on to the shovels and buckets that came with the box. Would recommend.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Excellent for water and dry sand, high quality durable sand toyJun 11, 2011
By Research Mommy
We've taken this many times to the beach already this summer, where it's been out and played with quite extensively. My 17m old son likes to spin the wheels on this toy occasionally when we have it out, but for the most part doesn't notice it. (In contrast, he's absolutely crazy for the Gowi Water/Sand Mill that we also own and that went to the beach with us, too.) We, the parents, like to play with the Small World Toys sand mill on the beach, however, as the wheels respond so well to water, and reasonably well to coarse, somewhat wet sand (sand mills just aren't great in wet sand....)
How it works: You add water or sand at the top of the funnel, it trickles through the bottom onto one wheel which spins on direction, and then onto the other wheel which subsequently spins in the opposite direction. The bottom of the toy is a sand strainer, so if you're playing with sand, you can then pick up the toy and shake it to strain the rest of the sand. In terms of the wheel "mill" function, the wheels spin by the sand/water filling bucket/reservoirs in the wheel, i.e. similar to how a true water mill works. This, in combination with the smoothness of how the wheels spin on their axles (i.e. low friction), makes this water mill also perform quite well in sand as well as water.
Size: 12.5" tall, funnel is 5" across at the top, with a 0.5" exit hole at the bottom. The wheels are 4.25" in diameter, which is quite large.
The Plastic: Excellent, high quality plastic. Bright primary colors, very eye-striking.
Water use: Excellent. The wheels spin surprisingly freely and smoothly. They are really nice to spin, in a smooth spinning way.
Coarse sand use: OK. Better if sand is dry, obviously. In coarse sand, it works best if you trickle the (at least mostly dry) sand in the top using your hand or container: If you fill the funnel area up with coarse sand, the funnel just fills up and nothing moves through the bottom exit hole. Even in coarse sand, we never had a problem with the wheels getting stuck on their axles. The spinning wheels aspect is very well done. I suspect that fine, dry sand might work perfectly.
Compare to the Gowi Sand and Watermill (which we also own, and which came with us on the beach excursions):
1. At 12.5" tall, the Small World Toys water/sand mill is a much smaller toy than the Gowi, which stands at 17". Obviously, this can be good for the Gowi (if toddler likes taller toy to stand by) or bad (if you're traveling with limited space for toys).
2. In water, ultimately the playability of the Gowi, with the See Saw reservoir that fills up and then spins the two wheels below, wins out for fun.
3. Based on our play at the beach on five separate occasions, I'd say the Small World Toys Water/Sand wheels work better in sand than the Gowi (my measurements show a slightly larger exit hole at the bottom of the funnel). As I noted above in this review, the way that their smaller wheels are designed, they jam up a bit in coarse sand. We never had a jamming with the Small World Toys water/sand mill even under the identical conditions.
4. The Small World Toys mill has much larger wheels, 4.25", which each fill up with sand/water like a water mill does.In the contrast, the Gowi wheels are 3" in diameter, and they don't fill up with the sand/water, they just get propelled by the sand/water hitting the edge of the spiral arms/turtle legs-tail.
Overall, I'm certainly glad we picked up this little Sand Mill, it's an excellent addition to our beach/sand toys. It'll be coming along with us on all of our beach trips.
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