PlayMonster Yarnimals — Panda — Loop Your Own Panda — Craft Kit — Make Your Own Animal Toy — Ages 8+

It was a gift and I think she liked it

This was a Christmas gift for our 6 year old granddaughter who was thrilled with it, who had it done in no time and felt great about her accomplishment!

I thought this was going to be so cute, but it's actually awful.It's not a "latch hook" craft at all. It does include a hook, but it's a small crochet hook, not a latch hook. The yarn is also not cut into small pieces, and you aren't asked to do so.There's no color guide printed or indicated on the penguin's body. There are a lot of the small holes, so using the printed guide on the instructions and counting the holes is tedious, frustrating, and nearly impossible.You are supposed to pull the yard through the square holes and form loops. There is nothing to hold the loops in place, and they are all connected! One wrong move, and some or all of the loops you have already made will be gone with a domino effect. You have to judge/decide for yourself how long to make the loops -- a very subjective thing to entrust to a kid. You or the kid will probably want the figure to be identifiable at the finish, and loop length will affect that, too. You're also working on a 3D form, making the loops close-up, one-by-one. So getting the loops even is not easy, even for an adult. And, since they are actually big strings of connected loops, you cannot even trim them like you would with a traditional latch hook craft. Also, you need to make sure you don't make the loops too big because you could potentially run out of yarn!The yarn is not a good quality/type for this project, and it is too thick for the included hook. It gets pierced easily, and just falls apart when that happens. It's also difficult to pull the thick yarn through the tiny, inflexible holes.If you put the plastic "practice" heart inside the penguin, there's a chance it will catch on the yarn, and destroy your work. Even if something pulls on one of the loops from the outside, your loops can be destroyed.Overall, this is not the fun kit I expected. Even though the body form is decent quality, and the completed project should be cute, getting to that point takes a lot of work and I predict there will be more tears and anger than smiles and laughter by kids trying to make this penguin.

I was excited to get this kit. It's relatively easy to do, comes out very cute and fluffy. I am happy with the end result. The only problem is, there isn't enough of purple yarn to finish the toy. I had to use my own white yarn, which wasn't matching in the texture-but I made it work. The instructions say to cut a piece of yarn of specific length to work with, however it's best not to cut the yarn and work off the yarn ball- that way you're not wasting yarn on tail ends. I had just enough white-but I was working off the yarn ball; and I didn't have enough purple-i followed instructions and cut the yarn, I was only short for the back of 2 ears. Had I worked off the ball I would have had enough.Overall, I am very displeased that the yarn was not enough. It's supposed to be a project for kids, so I'd expect that there is a little extra in case of a mistake or loose looping. I am still happy with the final product.I did have some trouble snapping it together. After it's snapped, the side cheek keeps popping even after slight squish, so if you're planning on letting a kid play with it-i recommend using something like glue or fabric tape to reinforce the inside of the loops and to glue or to tie together the halves of the toy.

The toy was suitable but I bought this as a gift. It was not wrapped in any kind of packaging so when it arrived, it was squashed and scuffed.

I bought this for my daughter and she has been so busy making the design on it. She loves it.

So cute but extremely difficult to use, and I’m a crafter who has done a variety of crochet/latchhooking/punchneedling/etc! Most of the positive reviews are fr the panda, so wondering if a less slippery yarn made it work? Also the yarn didn’t come in a ball or cake so we dealt with a lot of tangles. Also, the design isn’t printed on the plastic form. Sadly we’ll be sending it back after lots of trying but no success.

This build your own stuffie toy is rather fun!I initially gave it to my eight year old but she did not have the stamina to finish the project and lost interest before it was completed. My nine year old was able to finish it though and it’s rather cute! It’s much bigger than I thought it would be and might be a little too big of a project for your kiddo? It comes with everything you need though and would be fun if your kids like detail oriented projects and can persevere.Overall I would buy this again as a gift for the right kid and would recommend it for a kid with lots of attention.

My granddaughter received this for her birthday. I'm a competent crochet and knitting person and this is difficult for me. The yarn is not fully caught by the hook provided, the loops look nice but pull out with ease, unravelling any previous ones if you snag a loop.I would not recommend this for any age