Disclosure: This product was sent to us free of charge for the purpose of this review. However, as per my PR Info page, this review represents our honest opinion of the product. This post may contain affiliate links.
Product: So Slime Gooey Snails Slime Race Set
Price: £17.99
Age Range: 5 years+
Manufacturer’s Description: Get ready for an epic slime race adventure with the So Slime Go Gooey Snails Slime Race set! Watch as the excitement unfolds with endless slime-filled fun. Simply add the slime to the slides, position the colourful snails, and let the thrilling race begin!
Rating: (2/5 stars) Review: Lydia was thrilled when this arrived to review, as it looked really appealing and fun to play with. Unfortunately the reality didn’t live up to the happy smiles on the box; although it was fun and brought smiles to the girls, I don’t think it is worth the price or the space it takes up. Inside the box you get the instructions, the plastic snails and slides, and two packets of slime. The packaging is fairly protective; the smaller parts, slime and instructions are all in a plastic bag, and the larger parts are wrapped in cardboard and tissue paper. You have to put the slides together which was quite fiddly to do, especially since some of the plastic is pretty flexible and doesn’t stay clicked together firmly. In fact, the plastic parts that are supposed to keep your snail contained at the top of the slides are so flimsy that I could not get it to stay clicked closed once the weight of the snails was added in, and at one point when the girls were trying to race their snails one of the flaps came off in her hand. The slime that comes with the toy is very runny and clings to the plastic, snails and your fingers – the girls made a mess very quickly with it! It comes in two different colours and just getting it to pour out of the bags into the slides was a bit of a nightmare, and most of what they did pour made its way to the bottom of the slide before they had a chance to race their snails. Georgie felt the need to give her snail a shove to help it along as her slime had mostly run down to the bottom, and then had to help it along again when it fell over and got stuck. The slime starts mixing right away and you end up with a purple mixture once you have had a single snail race. It definitely doesn’t look anything like the slimed up snails on the box. In addition to ineffectively sliding down the slide, each snail can be used to interact with the slime. You squeeze the shell to suck up some slide, and then squeeze it again to produce a slimy snail trail behind the snail. This then turned into a puddle pretty fast! The slime is very hard to contain since it is so runny, and it certainly can’t be stored back into the bags. Unlike the So Slime Milkshake we reviewed there is nothing provided to keep the slime safe for future play. Lydia still has the milkshake slime and gets it out when she wants to smush it around some more, but this slime was definitely a one-and-done product. Of course, this leaves you with the snails and slides with no slime to play with them again in the future. They take up a fair amount of space and you can’t really play with them without the added lubrication to help them slide down, so you end up with a bunch of flimsy plastic and two toy snails. This felt really quite wasteful and in an age when we need to be more mindful about our environmental impact – and passing on those values to our children – this single use plastic toy wasn’t the best example to be setting. You can buy additional snails to play with the set, and each one comes with a bag of slime, but at around £5 per mystery snail bag that makes it a pricey way to get more playtime from the toy. The kind of ‘normal’ slime that you can buy in tubs at the toy shop probably isn’t liquid enough to run down the slides enough. It did bring big smiles to their faces and they enjoyed playing with it when we had it out, but at the end of the day a bunch of slimy tissues and a pile of plastic ended up in the bin, and we spent almost as much time on the cleanup as we did playing. Needless to say, this toy failed to impress both the girls and myself. Two stars. Great fun for a short while and a sensory experience if you enjoy a weirdly runny yet sticky slime, but not much value for your money. Lydia says: It was fun while it lasted but then it got very messy and you could only really play with it once. The slime was very sticky, which I did not like. At least, it was still an enjoyable experience. Georgie says: Terrible. It looked so much better on the box than it actually is. The slime is really wet, really sticky, and it gets everywhere – I hate it!
