Smithsonian Child Optical Microscope Kit with 150x 450x 900x Magnification

Ordered from Walmart.com and picked up in store. First for my friend's 9 year old son, my fiancé was jealous when he saw me wrapping it. So, I got one for him for Christmas too. Both were playing with them all night. You don't have to bend over to look into it, you can actually hold it up to your eye and look through it because the clips hold your specimen in place. The kid went outside and got dirt and stuff, the 31 year old looked at dog and human hair and some other fun stuff. Very cool for interested minds. Glad I got it for both of them. The scalpel is plastic and not super sharp. No complaints here!

This is a great little microscope and very strong I use the 450×most the time because the other 2 stronger settings are so strong you would have to be looking at something mighty small to use them its lots of fun and very easy to use

grandson is loving it and uses it a lot

It was somewhat difficult to focus up and down, then get a clear view of the object we were looking at. But once we got the hang of it, it was interesting to see the objects magnified.clearly.

This product is very educational. It let's a child explore science, math and other subjects for school. He is really interested in this.

But everything in here is dull or weak and easily broken because it's cheap obviously. Only one of the magnifying strengths work to where you can see anything and it's the weakest. The other two are blurry and both show the same white nothing with small tiny tiny dots on anything you look at. Make sure you have a small, long, and thin screwdriver because I didn't just have one in my home. It works for small projects for my homeschooling with my Children.

The set was purchased for a 10 year old girl and she is delighted with it. The body looks to be metal but is actually plastic. The scalpel looks like a real scalpel but is very dull. Not completely childsafe, but not a real scalpel in any way. It is a good inexpensive microscope to interest children and not too much of a loss if it gets broken.

You get what you pay for with this microscope. It says that it magnifies up to 900X, but the resolution is terrible. It is also very light, and the look/feel of it is very cheap. I wish it came with more prepared slides as well. However, it is a kids' microscope and only cost $20. I just thought that a microscope with the Smithsonian name on it would be a little better quality that it is.

No directions on how to turn light on, how to insert battery for light, How to use microscope, This toy would be fine if it had directions with it.

I had to purchase a microscope due to homeschooling. The tools in this kit are made of cheap flimsy plastic and microscope doesn't work at all like expected. I bought a Carson MM-300 Microbrite Plus 60x - 120x LED Pocket Microscope at the same time as this one but received the Carson first and it is SO much better! And cheaper. I am only keeping this one due to having the slides otherwise I would be returning. I plan on purchasing multiple Carsons. I am posting a photo from both microscopes of a slide I received with this Smithsonian kit of onion bulb epidermis. To get a decent enough look for this Smithsonian microscope I had to turn the light where it was essentially blinding me.