Wow I wish I'd had a toy like this when I was little. Since our move last summer, we regularly drive past a wind farm with several dozen wind turbines, and they captured my son's attention. So this gift was right up his alley! Assembly itself has the appeal of a LEGO project as you attach connectors for the basic structure and of a gear toy as you put together the gear box and decide what ratios you want to use. Although it turned out to be too tricky for little hands to assemble (I had some minor trouble myself--it seems better suited for man hands), my Big Boy was captivated and insisted on attaching the blades himself! The blades are huge, very impressive at well over a foot long each. And then we got to set it up in the back yard. It was not a particularly windy day by local standards, but it was spinning softly on a light breeze within a few minutes. When it turns fast enough, it generates enough current to light a red LED or power a rechargeable battery, so it has the cache of actually doing something. And for the older and more patient kiddos, the turbine comes with a booklet with suggestions of ways you can modify the design and corresponding experiments you can run. We will see whether there is any chance of that holding the 3-year-old's attention--I suspect that part will have to wait until he is a bit older.
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