Crayola 3-D Activity Kit Underwater Adventure Toy Review

Crayola 3-D Activity Kit Underwater Adventure (credit: amazon)

For outdoor chalk play that is more exciting than drawing with chalk alone, Chicago families can purchase a Crayola 3-D Activity Kit. We sampled the Underwater Adventure kit and found it to be worth the price and a good, safe, creative outdoor activity for young kids.

What is included in a Crayola 3-D Activity Kit?

Our Crayola 3-D Activity Kit, purchased for $9.99 at our local Toys "R" Us store, came with eight sticks of double-ended two-color 3-D sidewalk chalk, a pair of sturdy 3-D glasses, a blending brush, a bottle of blue Crayola sidewalk paint, and four giant plastic ocean-themed stencils (seahorse, crab, angelfish, and fish).

A small 3-D How To Book pamphlet is included to explain how to use the 3-D chalk.

How does Crayola 3-D chalk work?

Before we tried this kit out, we thought there was some special material mixed into the chalk to make it look three-dimensional when viewed through the 3-D glasses. Actually, it is the pairing of two contrasting colors that makes some colors look like they are floating and creates a 3-D effect when a sidewalk chalk drawing is viewed with the 3-D glasses.

Pink and purple colors from double-sided
Crayola 3-D chalk. (© Renée Carver)

Essentially, Crayola selected the two colors paired in each dual chalk stick based on how well the colors contrast with each other. Two colors of a similar shade (like red and pink) will not look as far apart from each other when viewed through the 3-D glasses as two contrasting colors (like red and blue) will. As the instruction pamphlet notes, "Warm colors, like red, appear HIGH. Cool colors, like blue, seem LOW."

How well does Crayola 3-D chalk create a 3-D effect?

With the 3-D glasses, some of the Crayola chalk colors did appear to float, creating an illusion of depth. The 3-D effect was clear enough for an almost 4-year-old to perceive it. To make sure the effect would work, we spread the chalk in a thick, dark layer. Interestingly, the effect lessened after we used the included blending brush to smooth the chalk evenly over the concrete surface.

Using the blending brush to spread and
smooth the chalk colors (© Renée Carver)

Reasons to buy a Crayola 3-D Activity Kit

• This Crayola kit collects all the pieces together that you need to create 3-D art, especially the contrasting colors of chalk and the 3-D glasses, saving shoppers the bother of tracking the individual pieces down themselves or trying to figure out which colors of chalk will contrast the best.
• The stencils that come with each Crayola 3-D Activity Kit (underwater stencils and jungle safari) are themed to create nice 3-D pictures like fish darting in and out of seaweed or jungle animals peeping around leaves. There are even tips included with the kit for how to use the stencils to create such scenes.

Reasons to buy different Crayola 3-D Chalk sets

• Younger children may do better with a set of Crayola 3-D Giant Chalk. Its large size makes Crayola Giant Chalk easier to hold and harder to break, and younger kids may prefer doodling to stenciling and be happy with only chalk and 3-D glasses.
• Child artists who want to design their own creations without the use of themed stencils will get more value for their money from the Crayola 3-D Deluxe Art Set, which comes with 5 giant dual-colored chalks, 16 pieces of sidewalk chalk, two pairs of 3-D glasses, and two chalk tools that hold several pieces of chalk at once to allow kids to create rainbow effects by drawing parallel lines of different colors.

Crayola 3-D Activity Kits on sale

Through May 17, 2009, this Crayola product is part of a buy one, get one half-off sale at Chicago Toys "R" Us stores.