Review: Hello Kitty Plaster Rotator Creator

When our first Toyologist parcel arrived on our doorstep, Missy Woo was immediately drawn to this. She has recently discovered Hello Kitty and so its arrival was very welcome. She wanted to play with it there and then but unfortunately, she had to wait for a couple of weeks. She's been away on holiday with grandparents so it was only once she was on half days at school that we managed to have a go.

Missy Woo's first attempt at making plaster. It wasn't successful!

The idea is that you create little plaster figurines of Hello Kitty by using a cute pink machine - one of Missy  Woo's favourite colours. You put plaster inside a plastic mould, place it in the machine, and turn the handle so that the plaster is spun around in the mould. After about 10 minutes spinning, you leave it to set in the mould for about half an hour, remove from the mould, leave to dry overnight and then you paint as you wish.

That's the theory. In practice, it takes some work to get the plaster right. The instructions are very precise - you mix 15g plaster with 9ml of water. Luckily, we have a digital scale so we can weigh 15g of plaster but 9ml was almost impossible. However, we found that 9ml was not enough because the plaster was too thick, set too quickly even if you poured it in the mould straight away so wouldn't slosh around enough to make a complete mould. The instructions said to make a flowing paste and we felt it needed a little more to achieve this. Add too much water and the plaster becomes too liquid, leaking around the edges of the mould too much and the final figure becomes too fragile as the layer of plaster is too thin. We broke a few just taking them out of the mould, Missy Woo broke another trying to paint it, and Monkey broke another grabbing it when he was racing his sister to a painting session!

Doing a bit of rotating. 

Finally, after about 5 attempts, I got it right and made a solid figure but even then, I had to add 2 lots of plaster to the mould! I reckon you could get it right with a bit of practice (and I'm not very skilled at this sort of thing anyway) but I feel the instructions need a bit of work to make them clearer. Getting the plaster just so seems to be the key to success. A slightly older child than Missy Woo would still need help from an adult to do the mixing, pouring and placing in the machine. Once in the machine, Missy Woo loved turning the handle and watching it spin round but again, needed a bit of help from a grown up to spin it enough times. I think she was a bit disappointed the mould making wasn't instant, particularly as she had to wait overnight for the cast to set before she could paint. Unfortunately, I can't show you her final work of art because for some reason, she decided to paint it black and it really doesn't photograph well. Children, eh?

Missy Woo gave this the thumbs up but how much of that is down to the painting and the fact it's Hello Kitty, I am not entirely sure. The machine being pink may also help a lot. It does suit her down to the ground because she likes to draw, colour and paint a lot. From the grown up's point of view, it is slightly fiddly, and I think the plaster making needs a bit of work. The equipment is well made and solid and there is plenty of plaster in the box for the price, which is £19.99.

This could be a great present for a little girl who likes making things and loves Hello Kitty - that's most of them - but it does need a lot of help from an adult. However, I feel it could be improved by working on the instructions for making the plaster so that it gives a more consistent and successful result. I'm sure our house will soon be filled with Hello Kitty figurines. I'm just hoping they don't all end up painted black.

Our second Toyologist Parcel turned up at the end of last week so look out for more reviews here soon.

(I was provided with Hello Kitty Plaster Rotator Creator to review and have received no other compensation. The opinions stated here are my own, and have not been influenced by the aforementioned compensation.)