Constructive Playthings Light Crystal Prism, Rainbow Maker for Kids, Science Class, Ages 8+

I wake up on sunny Saturday mornings to the sounds of squealing happiness. When I go to our living room, I find my kids dancing around and trying to “catch” rainbows. This prism was a gift from Santa tucked in my middle child’s stocking. I put it on a south-facing windowsill in our living room and consistently get rainbows every sunny day. I don’t understand why there are negative reviews on this product. It works absolutely perfectly. Maybe there’s Christmas magic with ours and that’s why ours works and theirs doesn’t.

I bought this prism for my grandson's 2nd birthday because he always marvels at the rainbows produced by the beveled glass top on our dining room buffet when the sun strikes it just right. For the most dramatic spectrums from this prism, I use sunlight streaming through a window and project the spectrum on the floor or the opposing wall. Indoors works best when the spectrum is projected onto a wall in the shadows. Outdoors, the spectrum is attenuated by the brilliant sunlight. You have to exercise care (as with all prisms) to orient the prism at just the right angle to disperse the colors for maximum effect. If you have the incorrect orientation, you may just get a reflection from the prism with no colors, or a white shape with color fringes at the edges. When you achieve the correct orientation, however, the spectrum is dramatic and brilliant. My grandson is mesmerized by it. Highly recommended to stimulate the scientific curiosity of children.

I’m not sure why some people give this such bad reviews! Does exactly what it sets out to do—pure and simple. My daughter loves rainbows and I wanted to show her how she can create one anytime she wants. Good purchase and I’m happy with the product.

I needed a simple prism for a photography experiment, but when I came to Amazon I found pages of negative reviews on just about all of them. In the end I settled on this one, but I'm now convinced that any of them would have worked just fine. If you shine a collimated beam of full-spectrum light (sunlight works great!) at this prism you can see the dispersion light into its various wavelengths (rainbow).Unfortunately Amazon is getting a growing number of negatives reviews on products due to user error/ignorance. Instead of learn something most are quick to pick up the laptop and vent their frustration. Ironically in this case, the product is a teaching device where the user error is exactly what the device is intended to teach. If it's not working then you're doing something wrong and it's a great time to learn about collimation, light spectrum, and incident angle.Yes, this one is acrylic, no it doesn't matter. The light transmission of acrylic is far greater than that of the low quality glass you would get for a prism this cheap. This one is hand-sized, big enough to disperse a decent size beam, wide enough to be stable to stand on end. My only gripe is that the edges are filed to prevent chipping but that only effected the ascetics of my photographs, not the function of the prism. For most users the filing is probably a good thing.[...]

A lot of fun. It was a little difficult to figure out, but hey, that's physics. My 4yo now knows to hold it in a bright sunbeam and move it gently until she spots the rainbow. And she LOVES it! Makes a big, bright rainbow. There is also a little guide that teaches about other cool prism effects, like using your prism as a periscope or kaleidoscope. A great science toy for a little kid.Note to purchasers: don't bother with a flashlight and such... sunshine is best!

I had one as a kid (I assume from a different company, since mine *worked*). This is made of some garbage substance that does not refract a nice rainbow on the wall or allow you to make a cool periscope of any of the other things one might expect from a prism. On the bright side, it does *look* like a prism up until the point where you unwrap it and try to use it.Packaging did not match the photos, maybe they ran out of the good ones and found these buries in the desert with all those old E.T. Atari games.

This not good quality

No matter what we did with this or what type of light we tried shining through it, nothing would give my children the desired effect. The only time anything happened was standing outside in the sun and holding it up in the air - we'd get random little rainbow splotches on the ground here and there. Nothing we did would produce the desired focused effect.