Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

You may remember that we reviewed for Aquabeads last summer, and Monkey really enjoyed making some sun catchers for his bedroom.  Well it was time to try something with a little twist and this time we would be looking at the Aquabeads 3D Animal Set.

Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

The Aquabeads 3D Animal Set is an add-on or refill set so you will need a sprayer, layout and base tray to complete the various activities.  The set does come with over 500 beads in various colours, 4 template sheets, 1 3D layout tray (we received 2) and instructions (although the instructions were missing in our set.

Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

The template cards show you how to make a 3D Panda, Lion, Turtle, Chicken on a nest with eggs.  The Aquabeads 3D Animal Set is aimed at children aged 4 years and over and a 5 year old Monkey needed some help with the 3D aspect of the designs.

Luckily I still had the instructions from our Aquabeads Jewel Starter set, so I had a look through them to remind us how to set the beads.  We had planned on using the base and template tray from this original set to help make the flat parts of the designs, but soon realised we had round ones, and you really need square ones to hold the templates still.

Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

Monkey did try to place the beads without any help but he kept moving the tray and losing his place, getting frustrated.  So I did have to help him out.  He wanted to make a Lion so we started with that design first.  The templates are really easy to follow and you select and place the beads accordingly.

Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

With the 3D template tray it’s just a case of filling the ‘holes’ with beads, Monkey managed better with this and we do have a bead placer from our starter set to help too.

Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

You then spray the beads with water and allow to set for 1 hour.  From experience we normally leave for longer than this so all the beads fuse well.  Once the beads are set you are ready to assemble the animal into a 3D shape.

Now without the proper instructions I couldn’t figure out how a child would be able to remove the beads from the 3D tray.  In the end the only way I could get them out in one piece was to work the beads away from the tray with a knife and then gently pull. Monkey couldn’t get them out at all – but maybe we were doing something wrong and with the instructions it would all be much clearer?  I don’t know.

Anyway, the design template showed us how to put the pieces together, again spraying with water to set in place.

Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

Again, you leave the beads to set, we left them for another hour and then Monkey had his 3D Lion and he really liked the effect.

Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

The Lion is really quite robust and has withstood a week of playtime with Monkey.

A few days ago Monkey was having breakfast with his new friend Leo, and he asked me if there was a cat template in the Aquabeads 3D Animal Set.  No was my reply, why?  Can you make me a Brewster while I’m at school please Mummy?

Uum.  I’ll see what I can do.  Don’t you just love being a Mum at times!  I decided to use the Lion template and just change the colours to be more Brewster like in the hope that would be ok.

I don’t think I did too badly.

This is a lovely little refill set, it would be great if there was a proper storage tray for the beads with a lid or little resealable bags.  For us, it didn’t work quite so well without a square base and template tray, but Monkey still had fun and he enjoyed watching me join in too.

Priced at £4.99 the Aquabeads 3D Animal Set is available from all major retailers and I’ve included by Amazon affiliate link below for your reference.  There are a number of other new Refill sets and I think we might add the Sea Life set to our collection too.

disclaimer:  we were sent this set in exchange for an honest review

3 thoughts on “Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

  1. Thanks for this review; I think my daughter will love it, but she’s 7yo and could probably deal with the fiddly bits – although the extraction with a knife doesn’t seem very child friendly!!
    Great, honest review. TY
    x

  2. Good review. My daughter is currently obsessed with Aquabeads even thought we don’t have any – I think she has used them at breakfast or after school club. Granny has bought some beads, but bought a refill kit so we are now waiting for the starter kit to arrive. So I’m sure from next weekend we will be Aquabead busy.

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