Science Project Experiment Catapult Kit (S.P.E.C.K.)

This is well packaged, has great instructions, and was great for my son and husband to construct together for my 5th grade son's science fair experiment. This is not a toy, but is quite capable of being used and not falling apart.My guy received 4th (Honorable Mention) at his school's science fair! Having this pretty impressive catapult to display along with his board, undoubtedly helped.

It was easy to assemble and worked well. We did have to make a new arm as the wood was so soft that it broke in half after the third use but it met our needs for my kids school project.

This catapult is much sturdier than the other one I purchased. It's being used for my sons science project, and it was simple enough for him to put together him self.

After my 12 year old son opened it for Christmas we put it aside until I had a chance to put it together. A motorized griding stone works well to file off nubs that were attached to larger wood cut-out frame. After coating pieces with mixture of boiled linsead oil and turpentine, glued spacers together and glued side frames to slots in base. Also glued axles to base and bucket box together, except lid that must be removed to add or remove weight. My son used it to battle an army of knights.

Before reading this review it is helpful to know how the kits arrive. You will receive a small bag of miscellaneous parts, and two large wood platforms where the larger parts are "mostly" cut out, with just a few small tabs that need to be cut out the rest of the way. Keep in mind that removing these tabs (and sanding all of the edges of every piece to avoid splinters) will take about an hour per kit.I now have 8 of the SPECK kits. My first one was great - the pieces were cut well, the materials were solid, etc. Kits 2-4 were of sightly lesser quality (mostly in the way the pieces were cut) but still a good product. I recently (March 2014) ordered 4 more kits and was surprised at how the quality has dropped. The pictures displayed here show the OLDER kits, not the CURRENT kits.1. First and foremost is the wood. The original catapult kit was cut from solid Birch wood. Very sturdy, very pretty. The new kits are cut from PLYWOOD. Yes, it is premium grade birch plywood, which looks good on the surfaces, but this is a kit with several small pieces, so there are a lot of edges exposed. Many of the pieces that create small triangular corners have pieces broken out of the layers in between the outer veneers, resulting in a clunky appearance, and requiring corners to be sanded down past the broken out parts. Also, many of the tabs broke during shipment, which resulted in strips of wood being peeled off of the outer layer of veneer on several of the pieces. This requires a lot of extra sanding time, and makes the pieces come out in all different sizes (not good in a kit).2. Next is the rubber bands: the original kits came with a fistful of long, heavy duty rubber bands that held up to a lot of abuse. The newer kits come with bands that are half the length and half the diameter, resulting in many breakages on the first use.3. The piece of leather for the sling in the older trebuchet materials is now just a junky piece of thin cloth.4. The instructions used to be printed in full color, now they are just black and white copies, which makes it difficult to see what the pieces are in the various designs.Overall I am very disappointed. I would much rather have seen the price go up $10 than have a kit that will have a much shorter life span, and looks so sketchy right out of the box. Yet another great product that has been ruined by cost cutting.