Amphie World Water Playset

My grandson loves his water table and it's easy to clean!!!

This Water Playset is a must-have for outdoor sensory play for younger children. It is portable and interactive, with several locations to play with the water in science-like ways. There are pieces to block the water within an area, a piece to pump water to adjust the levels in an area, bridges, lifts and cranes. The waterways are spacious and this entire set takes up quite a bit of space. The set arrives with two boats, one boat-car (with wheels) and four characters. The size of the pieces are big enough that they can be held easily by preschool-aged hands.I had all three of my children play with this; my eight-year-old was excited to explore all the parts but lost interest after ten minutes. The toy held my six-year old's interest for much longer, lasting about 30 minutes. However, my three-year-old was fascinated by this toy and played with it well over an hour. She looks forward to going outside and playing with this toy every morning and it has become part of our routine. If you are looking for a way to encourage your younger children to play outside and explore with their hands, this toy is a perfect way to maintain their attention and encourage tactile play and creative thinking.The assembly takes quite a while. It took me one hour from unboxing to having the set completely built. One of the most time-consuming parts of the assembly is correctly sticking the rubber strips on the red connectors (as pictured). There are twelve connecting pieces and two rubber strips per piece to stick on. Once you get the hang of snapping the blue pieces into the connecting pieces, assembly is straightforward. Fortunately, the rubber pieces do not have to be reapplied and disassembly and reassembly is straightforward. I would suggest keeping a copy of the manual for future reference.The manual provided does not give step by step instructions for anything except the red connecting pieces, the "AmphieTruck" and the containers. You will have to follow the picture on the front of the manual for guidance on assembly. However, this is fairly straightforward and the pieces are easily disassembled in the event that you have incorrectly assembled.This toy is very durable; the plastic used is thick and the rubber strips in the connector pieces effectively prevents water leakage. I kept our playset filled with water overnight and there were no leaks in the morning. This playset is very fun and interactive and reminds me of the water play at our local Children's Museum. It is a fantastic toy, especially for the summer when used outdoors, but also can be used indoors as it does not leak water. Younger children will love exploring this toy and there are other compatible sets you can purchase separately to add to your Water World Playset. I would definitely recommend this.

Overall, this set is a lot of fun if you plan on putting it together and not really taking it apart and restructuring it much. If you are hoping to have your child able to redo the configurations and take apart and put together the sets as though they are the amphibious and outdoor version of Legos, you will be very disappointed.This set took a long time to put together, because not only did we have to apply little foam sticker strips to all of the connecting pieces, but then we had to put it all together, with almost zero instructions and just a picture of what the finished product was supposed to look like. I really would've liked a much larger instruction manual, with clear instructions, and perhaps some tips for how to get these things to snap together well. Because, I had trouble doing it, and I am a 42-year-old adult.After about an hour and 1/2, with sore fingers and some level of frustration, my eight-year-old, five-year-old, and I finally had a toy that we could bring outside and play with. Once we got to that stage, it was a lot of fun! The kids liked putting the boats in the canals, and changing how the water flowed.We had another set of these to put together with this one, so we did some minimal restructuring to add the treehouse style kit to this one to add a little multidimensionality.I think that this is probably best for the age range of roughly 3 to 5 years old and would get a lot of play in most households. However, be prepared that this is only going to be restructured and have the canal formation redone with the help of an adult.

This is the third Aquaplay set we have. Putting it together gets easier the more you use it. Preparing the red connectors with the rubber strips takes time but it's simple to do. Added the included stickers as shown. All the pieces connect together without any problems. The set includes three little animal figures and three vehicles (1 amphibious car, 1 large container boat, and 1 small container boat).Piecing together the blue canal was easiest to connect the red leading connector before connecting the piece on. I tried to show this in the photos. I snap the blue canal into the red connector one side at a time (left then right). Sometimes it's hard to do. In the long run, the blue canal edges begin to wear out but after a year with the other sets I have had no leak issues so this new set will last a long time.Having extra sets (pieces) will allow multiple configurations. There are times we don't use all the pieces. Just a small setup. It's a great challenge for the little one to think of new canal paths. The water pump and water leveling system is a more advance challenge but just as much fun. You can create a current with a paddle.The ramps and bridges are set in place but once a child begins to play, nothing stays and everything gets moved around. Water gets moved around too. Water everywhere. No major leaks and the connectors hold together fine. I have not experienced any constant leakage once they set is put together. We even "break" down the canal when we are done playing and so far, everything has held up. Nothing broken... yet.The boats/vehicles do fill up with water inside the base. Eventually it drips out but I drilled out a small hole in the side of one. Now the boat fills up quickly and will almost sink but I just dump the water out from time to time (oops). It might have been better to seal the small hole in the side.All in all, this is an amazing set for water play. You can configure more than one canal path. Hours of fun and imagination play time.

Really looked forward to having another Aquaplay for my grandchildren, since we loved the one we had for our sons 25 years ago. It was so disappointing to receive this one with parts missing and no recourse for acquiring replacements.