Wunderbox makes several all-in-one portable sensory bins that make it easy to take the fun with you wherever you go. We were sent a Dinoland bin to review, and we love it!
The bin is a 14-inch by 14-inch ArtBin box with a snap lock lid and a handle for easy portability. The Dinoland bin comes with a two-pound box of Kinetic Sand, a Toob of dinosaurs, a Wild Safari Tree Fern, a few dozen vase filler marbles, a plastic scoop, and a square of plastic sheeting (for keeping things tidy).
I surprised my son with the Wunderbox when he woke up a few days ago. He loved “unboxing” all the goodies that came inside. He took each item out and examined each one. When I told him that box contained a bunch of sand, he was hooked and ready to play!
We laid the plastic sheet out on the rug and dumped the sand in. Without any prodding or direction from me, he immediately set to work placing the tree, all the dinosaurs, and then the glass marbles into the bin to make a scene. Once he was done, he mashed everything together, running his hands through the sand. Kinetic Sand, for anyone who hasn’t tried it, is a very cool product that plays a lot like sand but “sticks” to itself pretty well. It can be formed and shaped sort of like wet beach sand without actually being wet. We repeated this scene of creation and destruction about a half-dozen times before we moved on.
I asked him to move all the dinosaurs and marbles out of the sand. With a little assistance from me, we had everything cleaned out of the sand. I then said, “Ok, I have an idea for something else we can build. Go get your bucket of guys.” And Owen immediately chimed in, “A Sarlacc pit!” Never has the saying “Like father, like son” been more appropriate. The Sarlacc quickly devoured Yoda, regular Han Solo, Hoth Han Solo and his tauntan, and Luke Skywalker. They were soon followed by a snow leopard, Captain Hook, and an old M.U.S.C.L.E. wrestler. Then the construction crews came in and cleaned everything up. The grand finale was a battle between Captain Hook and Peter “Luke Skywalker” Pan.
Now, you may be thinking that these are all items you could purchase yourself and make your own bin. That is absolutely true, but, just like mystery subscription boxes, these are carefully curated items combined into each themed box, and get you a deal over buying the items yourself. The Dinoland box is $49, and buying all of the items on Amazon (so less than full retail) still would cost you about $70.
There are currently six different sets to choose from based on your child’s interests–fairies, farm animals, deep-sea, space, and under the sea in addition to the dinosaurs. Each set is priced at $49.99, and there are a bunch of cool add-ons if you want to enhance your child’s sensory bin. After just a week, we’ve already gotten our money’s worth out of the bin, and I’m sure we’ll get a ton more play time out of it for many months to come.
