March 7th, 2008 by Stinkhead
At Toy Fair we got to check out Martian Matter in the Hasbro showroom. Do you remember Creepy Crawlies? They used metal pans and a small light-bulb powered oven to make little rubbery bugs and critters. This new toy incorporates the play of creating little rubbery creatures, but this new set up doesn’t require heat or electricity. Let me show you how to make some Martians.
The basic theory behind the Alien Maker is that you combine two alien halves, press it into a mold, and then pour a liquid that hardens into that mold. You’re given 14 alien halves (heads and bodies) that can be combined into about 90 arrangements. But with a little skill, the combinations of colors can create an infinate army of individually special aliens. Just like our precious snowflakes.
Let me show you what you get. The main piece is the 8″ wide Alien Maker base. It resembles a space ship with pods and hatches. Open it up to store the mold pieces. You can put the Lunar Lava gel in the sockets in the back, and it also holds the rolling pin, tweezers and play scalpel. One small complaint, in the directions, it states that you can put the alien mold pieces in a slide out drawer. You’re given 14 pieces, yet that drawer only holds 4, tops. So then it says you can open the two halves of the space ship to store the other pieces. Since the base is storing the extra pieces, and they suggest you can put your newly minted aliens in the pods and fly it around, I do wish that the two halves of the space ship clipped together a little better.
Besides the base, you get three tubes of Lunar Lava gel, the goo that you pour into the molds that you make with the Meteor Mud. The mud compound looks a lot like Play-doh, however it’s slightly stiffer, so it holds the nooks and crannys of the molding pieces better. You get three colors of Meteor Mud, however those colors have no baring on the final color of your alien. They can dry out, but you could add a little bit of water to re-energize them. You also get a rolling pin, tweezers and a scalpel for dissecting your aliens.
The process: At first it seemed like it would be confusing, but it’s actually pretty easy, and most kids pick it up pretty quickly without Instructions. Fill the tub on top of the spaceship with the Meteor Mud. Put two alien mold pieces in the lid and press it down into the Mud. When you lift it up, you’ll have a nice relief mold of the alien you designed. Slowly pour in the Lava gel color of your choice (pink, orange or green) and then cover the whole thing with a disc shaped piece of Mud. Let set for 5 minutes. Then peel away the mud, trim some of the excess dried Lava around the edges, and you have a little rubbery alien you can play with! Stickyour favorites into the three pods on the spaceship (which are air tight and help preserve the rubbery properties of your alien. They will eventually continue drying out and become brittle unless kept in some type of air tight container.
Some little tricks. See if your little one will come up with these ideas on their own…. first off, if you’ve got a steady hand, you can color the different pieces of the alien with different colored goo. I put down one color for the belly and eyes, and then added a body color on top. Well, my favorite is to use an all green body with the hot pink accents. The directions point out that if you only let the alien dry about 3 minutes, you can dissect them and their insides are still gooey under the more solid outer shell. So when I dissected this guy, his pink center came oozing out in the dissection process. Sweet.
Overall – This set was pretty fun. I was going to make just one little alien for this photo shoot and write up my reactions, however each time I made one, I came up with ideas for the next one. The box states 5 and up, but I can see kids enjoying this for quite a while, especially if they start making molds of small objects they find around the house. Since the mold is flexible, you could mold the head from one action figure, and then sculpt in a totally new relief… like I said, I was continually inspired to keep going with this activity. I’m sure you’ve realized by now that this toy could potentially become a big mess. The Lava goo is meant to harden. It’s all non-toxic, but I would make as many preparations as possible to prepare for a potential mess.
There are also refill kits (available online) so I can use up all my goo and keep creating new martians. You can find this set in stores now, or order from Amazon.com right now. Check out the photo gallery for step-by-step photos.
Speaking of toys from the past, remember Dissect an Alien? Here’s my review with loads of pics!
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Posted in 5&up, Boys, crafts, kids, review, toys | 3 Comments »
December 30th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I bought his for my seven year old son who is very artistic. He unpacked it on Christmas and lost the directions. I went online and happened across this wonderful review. It was explanatory and really helped us figure out this simple fun toy. My son loves it.
January 10th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
My son is 4 and loves it. Its very to do. Just one rule for our house, it has to be played outside or at the kitchen table.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Well, the aliens came out great the first 7-8 times, but then it would take much longer for them to soilidify? Is it because we overfilled it or packed the disc layer on top to tightly? Not sure, but my 4 year old son gets a real kick out of it, he made aliens and named them after the whole family 🙂