Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set

Editor's rating:
9.0
Reviewed by Bobby Brower
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We like

  • Builds confidence and social skills
  • Develops better motor skills and hand-eye coordination
  • Helps to better define reading comprehension skills
  • Will entertain your child for a long time as they learn new tricks
  • Perfect for the budding magician no matter their age
  • Pieces are made of wood and highly durable
  • Comes with a base that doubles as a storage container
We don’t like
  • Pieces can be constructed wrong
  • Small pieces are easily lost

How it works

Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set has been found to be either amazing or not impressive at all by those that have purchased the set. The magic set does have a lot of positive and advantageous qualities that build confidence in young children, but most people seem to get hung up on the quality and design of the set. More purchasers seemed to be satisfied with the set than those who were not satisfied making the Melissa and Doug Magic set a toy to consider for gift giving or helping any young child or adult who wants to get involved with magic to do just that: be involved. The magic set comes with ten tricks that will help your child master the art of magic. The set is designed to be durable and the tricks seem fairly easy to learn and perform. Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is worth considering when shopping for a great toy or gift.

 

Design

Design

The design of the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is one that is sturdy and durable. Most magic sets are designed out of plastic pieces that are fragile and look and feel low quality, but the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is made entirely of wooden pieces. The durability of the pieces and detailed design of the artwork add an extra level of realism to the set. The aesthetically pleasing artwork sets the stage for a show that is more believable and more interesting to learn. The ten tricks that come with the set are the Disappearing Ball, Magic Coin Box, Secret Silks, Great Escape, Magic Number Prediction, Money Maker, Egyptian Prediction, Vanishing Zone, Cylinder Squeeze, and Vanishing Coin. Each trick comes with its own unique set of detail designed wooden pieces and each trick has its own unique set of skills that must be mastered to perform the trick flawlessly. The entire kit also comes with a hinged box that when fully opened serves as a stage on which the tricks can be performed. When magic tricks are not be demonstrated for an audience, the box becomes a storage box for all the pieces to the tricks and the box closes and can be easily stored for your next magic show.
Safety

Safety

The Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is not recommended for children younger than eight-years-old as there are several small parts that can pose a choking hazard. The Disappearing Ball trick comes with a small sponge ball that can easily be ingested and choked on by a small child. The other tricks require the use of small coins and small cylindrical pieces that can also be dangerous to young children. Parental supervision is required whenever a child younger than eight-years-old is playing or learning with the set due to the high risk of choking or not being able to fully work with the pieces that make up the tricks. The set itself is very light and can easily be carted around and performed anywhere your child sees fit.
Age Range

Age Range

The Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set has been designed to entertain children between the ages of 8-years-old and eleven-years-old. The four year age range receives the most benefits from using this set. Of course, anyone over the age of eleven-years-old can learn the tricks and receive just as much enjoyment as a child who is between eight and eleven; however, any child younger than eight-years-old should be accompanied by an adult because there are certain aspects of the set that will require adult assistance. The set has been targeted for eight-year-olds because there needs to be a certain level of reading comprehension to successfully perform the tricks. The set comes with an instruction manual that describes in great detail how to perform the tricks with success. The reading level that the instruction manual has been written to is best understood by anyone eight-years-old and older as the instructions are at a second or third grade level. Some parents and grandparents have purchased the set for children as young as four and have found that children of that age have not yet developed the motor skills and dexterity necessary to perform the tricks. Other parents have purchased the set for children as young as seven and have found that they did not comprehend the instructions and lost interest due to their inability to perform and understand the tricks. Eight-years-old is the minimum age that not only understands the tricks, but has the dexterity to perform the tricks.
Motor Skills

Motor Skills

One of the major benefits of the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is the practice is offers when it comes to dexterity and motor skills. The tricks need to be performed with the usual “sleight-of-hand” skill set that every magician needs to master in order to successfully perform a trick. As your child continues to practice the tricks, they will build upon these skills and these skills are necessary in everyday life especially if your child plays sports. The repetition of the tricks helps the brain build better reasoning skills, and the comprehension of the directions also helps in building reading skills.
Hand-Eye Coordination

Hand-Eye Coordination

The best way to master the art of magic is to have top-notch hand-eye coordination. One of the other important benefits of the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is building the skill of working together what you see with what you are doing. The biggest benefit of this skill is the confidence that your child will build in being able to stand in front of a room of people and successfully perform a trick that will amaze adults who always appear to know more. The near perfection of the hand-eye coordination is the key to successfully completing the trick and will help your child successfully complete all the tricks in the set.
Confidence Building

Confidence Building

The Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set’s most important benefit is the building of self-confidence in anyone who attempts to complete all of the tricks. The steps that are necessary to get to the point of successful completion are not easy and each step builds upon another skill set that once mastered will give your child (or anyone who is attempting the tricks) confidence in all areas of their lives. The reading of the directions will help with reading comprehension and then taking what you have read and putting it into motion helps children with turning an idea into reality. The repetitious practice of learning the tricks will help with patience and understanding, and then the successful completion of the trick builds confidence. Once learned, the tricks will then be performed in front of an audience, which builds social skills as well as feeling comfortable in a social setting especially on a stage, which that act builds public speaking skills and being able to take command of a room. In all, what seems like a fun toy to buy for your child in order for them to learn magic has so many hidden benefits that will aid in your child’s development that it almost feels as if the set is a magic trick all on its own.
Creativity

Creativity

One of the biggest benefits of the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is its ability to help your child’s imagination grow. Like any magic show, there is a certain level of dramatic flair coupled with showmanship that goes into performing a trick for someone, and that experience allows your child to be creative in not only costuming but setting up a story that holds their audience’s attention while they use their sleight-of-hand skills to perform tricks and “wow” those that are watching their show. The art of magic gives the magician free range to create a world around what they are doing in the spirit of putting together a fully immersive experience. All aspects of the world of magic require a creative mind and fully thought out plans to create the perfect show.
The Tricks

The Tricks

The Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set comes with ten tricks for your child to learn. The tricks are Disappearing Ball, Magic Coin Box, Secret Silks, Great Escape, Magic Number Prediction, Money Maker, Egyptian Prediction, Vanishing Zone, Cylinder Squeeze, and Vanishing Coin. The Disappearing Ball trick is where you place the sponge ball into the box with the pyramid top and when the box is reopened the ball is gone. The Secret Silks (spoiler alert they are really made out of polyester) is when you put the silks into a bag with a handle and after saying the magic words the silks have mysteriously vanished. The Great Escape is a dual cube trick where a smaller cube is placed inside a larger cube and the smaller cube mysteriously vanishes from the inside and winds up in the hands of the magician. Magic Number Prediction is a set of wooden number charts where the magician predicts the outcome of the numbers, and the Money Maker is when one coin goes into the bowl, but somehow three coins come out. The Egyptian Prediction places a set of coins into a small sarcophagus and the magician can predict the order in which they will come out, and the Vanishing Zone is a small box that when a small wand is placed through the box, the wand magically disappears. Finally, the Cylinder Squeeze places a red, blue, and green cylinder into a small box and when the pieces are released on the opposite side they are in reverse order while the Vanishing coin gets placed into a small box and when the box is turned on its side the coin slides into the unknown and disappears. All ten of these tricks have a medium level of difficulty, but once your child learns them they will want to perform them for anyone who will watch.
Price

Price

The price for the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is spot on for a toy in the genre of magic and skill building. Where most magic sets are made of hard or flimsy plastic, the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is made entirely of wood. The durability of the pieces is meant to be high; however, some purchasers have found that the quality of the wood wanes and the pieces become more fragile as time goes on. Other purchasers have also found the pieces in some of the sets were not created to the proper dimensions and some of the tricks could not be performed. The latter has been found to be a rarity, which still keeps the set in a proper price range considering there are more benefits to this set than anything else.
Conclusion

Conclusion

The Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is a great buy for any child who wants to learn magic and wants to build several skills that are important to everyday life. The skills learned like reading comprehension, motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and public speaking and performing are essential in educational settings, professional settings, and social settings. Kids will get the opportunity to not only practice these skills, but they will also get the chance to immerse themselves into a learning setting where they will work towards a goal and accomplish it. After accomplishing the goal, kids will then get the chance to show off what they have learned adding pride and confidence to the experience. The Melissa and Doug Deluxe Magic Set is reasonably priced and easy to find in stores or online. It’s a great toy to entertain your child and give them something to work on that could take weeks or months to perfect. It will also develop new skill sets for your child that will aid them in several areas of life.
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