We bought this for our granddaughter for Christmas. Way too expensive for what you get. The box wording does not say paint, chalk, and erasure are in the box but the design leads one to believe there is. Now we have to spend additional money to buy this stuff so the child can actually do something with it. Would not buy it again.
I bought this for my 5 year old daughter and we tried to take very good care of it. Within a few days of careful use, one of the latches bent, a hinge broke off and a piece of the edge came unglued. It is a great idea, but needs better construction. On a positive note, my daughter loved it and would have spent hours drawing and creating with the tools inside if I let her. However, I had to take the box away so further damage does not occur before I can fix it. The drawers work fine. The problem is with the two doors on top that flip out. Note about drawers; Little plastic door knobs pop out. Need to be glued in.
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Upon receipt of this item, I immediately opened it and checked out the contents to verify that it came with everything specified. I couldn't find the clips for the easel at first, but they were hidden beneath the ruler. The very first thing I noticed was the quality of the hinged closures and the hinges themselves. They are very low grade and I am definitely thinking about how long they will hold up. The second thing I noticed was that the easel is designed for use with letter size paper in the "landscape" direction. I should have paid closer attention to this, so I thought I'd make mention of it. Other than that, the few markers, oil pastels and colored pencils I tested worked great. My daughter won't get to use this until Christmas, and that's if it gets my husband's approval (which I am not so sure about)... For $40 with free shipping, what can I say... you get what you pay for... it will definitely keep my daughter busy, but I just don't know how long it will hold up and the scale of the easel is just too small for her big imagination. I think it's probably worthwhile for a child in the 3 to 5 year range. My daughter will be 6 soon and I am thinking that there is probably something that will suit her better. As I write this, I am feeling more and more confident that I will inquire about returning this item....Want Alex Art Box (113) Discount?
My daughter begged for this product so we got it for her as a birthday gift over a year ago. She continue to use it. I just wish it cleaned itself up! Many many pieces. One oddity is that the kit contains oil pastels, and for the life of me I don't know why the makers thought oil pastels were a good idea for a kid to have. (I removed them and put them in a baggie...they can be a real mess!)
I needed three small easels to display small paintings of mine on a shelf. These did the job perfectly and look great as well. These look nice enough I might even buy a couple more to display some other things on.