SMARTLAB Toys Squishy Human Body with 21 Removable Body Parts with Anatomy Book

I bought this for my seven-year-old for Christmas and it is proving to be one of those elusive toys that combines fun and education. The booklet is great, explaining organs in plain (even humorous) language. There is no coverage of reproductive anatomy, which would probably be an issue for some parents, but they don't shy away from other bodily functions. The squishy parts are fun, and normal handling hasn't yet torn them. The intestines are especially clever, and must have been quite a toy prototyping challenge for the manufacturer. The forceps and tweezers, while cheap and plastic, are a nice touch. My only complaint is in the quality of the hard plastic parts. Despite great care, one of the pins holding the arm muscle piece broke off the first time we took the model apart. Both the leg muscle and arm muscle parts are separating at the seams. The pegs that are meant to fit into the display base are too big for the holes. I remedied this by "sanding" the inside of the holes with a 7/64" drill bit. I bought this as a holiday "lightning deal", but even at twenty bucks this is a good value for a great toy.

Since we homschool, I'm always looking for new things to help teach my kids! Recently we've been learning a lot about the human body and anatomy. I thought this set would be perfect since it gives them the ability to touch and see where each organ belongs. This set is pretty neat because there is quite a bit of information included with it. There is an easy to follow book filled with facts and information about each organ, as well as an organizer to help you keep track of parts when you're taking the body apart and putting it back together. The set also includes a set if tweezers and a set of forceps that you can use to move the body parts around. The "insides" are sticky and squishy so I would suggest keeping them covered when not in use as to avoid hair or other contaminants getting on them. This body does not have gender specific organs at all, so it's not technically a male or female, bit we decided to name ours "Mr. Guts" who just so happens to have a brother named "Mr. Bones" that lives with us. Overall, I'm very happy with this set! It has been a great tool to have to help my children learn more about the human body and it's many different parts and functions. I think this would make a great gift for any child 4 and older. I would suggest you make sure your child knows not to put pieces in their mouth as these could become a choking hazard to anyone smaller. One other thing I'd like to note is that this set is only big enough for maybe two or three people to use at once so if you're wanting it for a larger classroom, I'd suggest multiple sets.

Great for any age! Both of my kids had a blast playing with this. They didn’t even realize they were learning while playing with it! Great quality but some pieces can be easily lost.

Good and accurate model for curious kids to explore the layers of organs in a body by taking a toy apart and putting it back together. Initital 'wow' factor was diminished by a great colorful big picture on the box and a considerably 'smaller' (by comparison) model that came out of it. I wish the size of the figure was significantly bigger, but I knew the size limitations by reading the reviews when I ordered it. The biggest value of this toy for us was educational, that a kid CAN explore inside the layers of a body, organize the body parts on the body chart, and put them back into the model. There was LOTS of help required from adult, and at times only the adult could 'work' the toy and the kid got dis-interested if a step took too long. I am afraid the toy won't last long, as few prongs (that hold the hard parts) bent and and an organ or two tore/ripped off during the first use. The shell/skin and organs seemed definitely to small for adult hands, and sometimes to 'loose/fragile' and tiny in child's hands also. Kid are not gentle with toys in general, but they needed extra reminders of the 'squishy' factor of our internal parts. This actually was an added educational bonus for us, that it took patience and skill to put it back together (easier to take it out). Also, we could say that we need to be 'kind' and 'gentle' with/to our bodies, because they are soft and squishy inside and sometimes even 'breakable'. The kid seemed not to be 'grossed out' by the way the organs feel, and for that I am giving one extra star for the 'fun' factor with respect to the 3 star durability. If you play it "right", there is 'extra value' included in the package about the fragility of human life/body in general. Great begginer toy if you want to 'demonstrate' something following along the included Human Body book or any other 'HB' book you might have. This was our overarching goal --- to have 'hands on' model to go along with what you read about in books at this stage of kid develpment when they are curious about their bodies. Overall it was fun to 'touch' and experience something that otherwise it is only flat picture in the book. It is yet to be determined how many 'full use' (in and out) cycles we can get from it :)

This is a fantastic tool for a homeschool unit on the human body. I use it with my 6 and 4 year olds, but it is probably intended for 8-10 year olds. (I'm a physician trying to homeschool, and so my unit on the human body is probably far from typical!) If you don't homeschool, this is still worth having. Use it with your kids to review what they are covering in their lessons. (I believe that's technically called 'afterschooling'!) I don't think it would work well in a classroom, though. Way too small; it needs to be used with maybe 2-3 kids max at a time. I get it out for every lesson of our human body study. We look at the system we are studying, and it is a tremendous visual aid to understand the physiology. For example: Today we talked about respiration. The diaphragm can be tricky to explain, so I used this model. With the forceps I pushed the diaphragm piece up and down while making exaggerated sound effects. "What happens to the lungs when I push this up? What about if it pulls down? Where does the air go?" and they were able to see clearly how the diaphragm pulls air in and pushes it out. Never would've gotten that from a textbook. I also use this model for a Charlotte Mason style of narration. I can take all of the pieces out, and as I put them back in place ask "Hand me the stomach. Which piece is it? What does it do?" The youngest child gets the first shot, and then the older can add what he knows. For review I can hand my son the forceps and ask him to "tell me what happens to food." He can trace the path of an apple through the model and explain what happens in each spot. Visual aids are a huge asset when learning anything, but especially something that can be hard for a child to visualize, such as the inside of a body. Illustrations in a book are helpful, but this goes several steps beyond. A line sketch of "my digestive system" is good, but too abstract for a young child to really make any meaningful connection with the actual human body. This model is that connecting piece between books and the physical world. Just a warning: this is fairly delicate. Keep away from the littles. It needs to be kept put away and gotten out for school. Let it get mixed in with other toys and kiss your kidneys goodbye! If you are doing a human body unit, I also really like How Your Body Works, Grades 1-3 and First Encyclopedia of the Human Body (First Encyclopedias) . Good luck!

I recently bought the SmartLab Toys Squishy Human Body for my son and he absolutely loves it! The kit comes with 21 removable body parts and an informative anatomy book. The body parts are made of a high quality, squishy material that is durable and easy to clean. My son has been having a great time learning about the body parts and their functions. The book is full of interesting facts and helpful illustrations that make learning about the body fun and educational. It's a great gift for any curious child. Highly recommend!

I’m a medical student and my nephew loves anything doctor/medicine related. I got this for his fourth birthday and he was thrilled! All the legos and trucks stayed behind and he wouldn’t let this thing go. The pieces are very mushy and nice to play with, there’s a nice booklet that explains the job of each organ and it comes with plastic tweezers. It is a little challenging to put all the organs back properly and requires help from an adult who knows some anatomy the first few times.. also there’s no spleen. But all in all great gift for smart kids.

My daughter saw this at a local bookstore and she really wanted it. It was right after her 6th birthday and she received lots of gifts for her birthday, so I wasn't going to buy this for her just because she wanted it. She told me she really really wanted it, so I told her she would have to earn it. She filled out the chore charts for the next 7 weeks to save money for this. She worked hard and saved money, so I bought this for her (actually I ordered this on Amazon way before she saved enough money and I hid it in the closet and when she handed me her money i deposited that into her account for her future). She was very excited when she finally got this and this is a good educational toy, I agree. BUT some of the areas where the plastic parts are supposed to fit and make a somewhat snap sound, the holes are not aligned.... There is no way that my daughter's small hands (or my adult hands) can push it hard when the holes are not at where they are supposed to be.... She gets frustrated and so do I. Instruction is not so good in my opinion. There is no mention of shoulder blades and after carefully following all the directions (words and pictures), we were left with two bone pieces. It took me a while to figure out what they were (You might think I am dumb, but I am college educated and good at following directions). If it was up to me, i would give 1 star, but my daughter still likes to play with this, so i would give three stars.