Wilton Kandy Clay Activity Kits: Raining Again? Eat Your Art Project!
Written: Aug 09 '04 (Updated Aug 09 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: fun and edible!
Cons: You'll need an art degree to make most of your sculptures look like the package.
The Bottom Line: The Bottom Line thinks that for kids, you should stick to the Multi-Color Packs.
|
|
|
| pippadaisy's Full Review: Wilton Kandy Clay Activity Kits - All Varieties |
Each year when the Wilton Yearbook is released, I race to my local Michael's to find out what new products are being released. This year, one of the additions to the Wilton line was the Kandy Clay line, including the Wilton Kandy Clay Activity Kits.
I was planning a safari theme for my baby's first birthday, and after seeing one of the kits, I decided to bring one home to decorate his cake.
~&~ The Basics ~&~
Most of the Wilton Kandy Clay Activity Kits come with 12 pouches with 0.5 ounces of Kandy Clay per pouch, as well as a sculpting tool, a window box for giving one of your sculptures as a gift, and instructions for creating the sculptures shown on the package.
Thirteen different Wilton Kandy Clay Activity Kits are currently available:
•Farm Animals (which has a cardboard barn included)for sculpting cows, horses, chickens, and pigs
•Kandy Kingdom with castles, dragons, crowns, and princesses
•Chomp-A-Saurus with three kinds of dinosaurs and lions
•Kandy Kruisers (which actually has 13 pouches) with cars, trains, school buses, and airplanes
•Glam Gear (which includes a mini purse) for lipsticks, sunglasses, nail polish bottles, and cell phones
•Monster Madness with four different styles of monsters
•Kandy Kritters (which includes a cardboard play house for the Kritters) for four different kinds of insects
•Kandy Games (which includes a reversible game board) with which you can make playing pieces for checkers and Tic-Tac-Toe
•Rings 'N Things (including food-safe string) for sculpting rings, bracelets, and necklaces
•Spider-Man™ Comic Book Page Activity Kit (including two molds and a comic book board) for creating your own edible Spider-Man comics
•Scooby-Doo™ Mystery Machine Puzzle Activity Kit (including two molds and a puzzle board) for creating your own Scooby-themed puzzles
•SpongeBob SquarePants™ Catch The Jellyfish Game Activity Kit (including two molds and a game board) for creating your own SpongeBob game
•Kandy Kreatures set (the one I purchased), which allows you to create monkeys, lions, hippos, and giraffes.
The Kandy Clay comes in various flavors, each with a unique color: Peanut Butter Light Brown, Crystal Punch Light Blue, Peach Light Peach, Marshmallow White, Banana Light Yellow, Bubble Gum Light Pink, Blueberry Blue, Green Apple Green, Lemon Yellow, Cherry Red, Chocolate Brown, Blue Raspberry (Bright) Blue, Lime (Bright) Green, Orange Orange, Watermelon Hot Pink, Grape Purple, and Hot Fudge Black. Ingredients vary based on the individual colors, and if you are concerned about food allergies, you should check each individual package for specific ingredients.
~&~ My Experience ~&~
I purchased the Kandy Kreatures set for making monkeys, lions, hippos, and giraffes for my son's cake. The package claims to make 12 creatures, but odds are you won't get 12, although you might get nine or ten.
The clay itself varies in texture based on colors for some reason. We noted that the yellow was very easy to work with, but the brown was nearly impossible to make malleable, so we found that we could adjust the texture by adding some corn syrup, and then some confectioners' sugar if it got too sticky.
The Wilton Kandy Clay Activity Kits are recommended for ages four and up, but if you think your child is going to want their lions and hippos to look anything like the ones on the package, you had better have an art degree. The "instructions" are merely guidelines, and if you have two left hands like I do when it comes to making anything other than worms with Play-Doh, you are going to be out of luck here.
My husband was able to make reasonable facsimiles of the creatures on the front of the package, but each one took him approximately 20 minutes, and he has an art degree, and has taken classes!
The creatures themselves were a huge hit with the kids at the party. Unlike the fondant creatures I've made in the past, the ones made with the Wilton Kandy Clay Activity Kits went like hot cakes, with each of the kids clamoring for one and then eating them right up. I tried a bit of the Grape Purple and it really was pretty tasty, almost like a soft Tootsie Roll in consistency.
~&~ Overall ~&~
I think that the Wilton Kandy Clay Activity Kits might be a lot of fun for older kids who have some artistic ability. For younger kids, I would probably stick to the character-themed sets that come with molds, or the Kandy Games or Rings 'N Things set which look a bit easier to sculpt than the animals.
Wilton is also selling Multi-Color Packs which come with two 0.5 ounce packs of six colors. That way, little ones can make whatever sculptures they like without the pressure of a picture on a package.
Note: Wilton is also selling various tools specifically for playing with the Kandy Clay, including a play mat with rolling pin, a set with scissors and various sculpting tools, an apron, and a cutter set.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
My other Wilton product reviews:
Wilton 3-D Rubber Ducky Pan | Wilton 3-Pc. Square Pan Set | Wilton 4-Piece Sport Ball Pan | Wilton Angled Spatula | Wilton Blues Clues Cake Pan | Wilton Cake Boards | Wilton Cake Circle 8-Pack | Wilton Cake Icer Decorating Tip | Wilton Color Mist | Wilton Decorating Brush Pack of 3 | Wilton Decorating Tip Cover | Wilton Decorator Preferred Separator Plates | Wilton Disposable Decorating Bags | Wilton Featherweight Decorating Bag | Wilton Filled Tool Caddy | Wilton FoodWriter™ Edible Color Markers | Wilton Geometric Crinkle Mini Metal Cutter Set | Wilton Large Decorating Tip Saver Box | Wilton Make Any Message Press Set | Wilton Pooh Icing Color Kit | Wilton Stand-Up Doll Cake Pan Wonder Mold Kit | Wilton Thomas the Train Cake Pan | Wilton Tip Brush
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
pippadaisy
|
 - Top 50 |
|
Reviews written: 1086
Trusted by: 177 members
About Me:
Divorce seriously cuts into the amount of time for reviewing.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.