Product review: Magic Marbles

I bought these Magic Marbles a little while ago, and you simply must buy these things! You can get them cheaper from this place, but you don't really need that many. The kit came with 5 grams, and the other place sells them in groups of 50 grams. You may want that many, but need and want are different things.

All these things are, is a kind bead that absorbs water and becomes a gel like marble. Simple enough, but they have some fun properties.

The kit comes with a small tank, which helps because it gives you something to put them in. However, you can't put all the marbles in the tank and expect them to grow to full size. For once, there's actually too much stuff for the thing that they include to put them in. This means... MORE SUFF TO PLAY WITH! Unapproved uses! WOOO!

Now, what makes these things really fun, is that they have the same refraction index as water, so unless you look very close, you can’t tell they're in there. If you have colored ones, you just see splotches of color. While they're being sold as a toy here, the real use for them is growing water loving plants. They hold water and release it slowly, so you don’t need to water quite so often. I'm going to buy some bamboo, which should look neat held up by these marbles. They also feel neat when you slip your fingers in and wiggle them around.

Let's look at some pictures...




They start as these tiny little beads.


You put the beads in water...




If you look close, you can see the edges getting fuzzy...






Folly wanted to help.




These are those invisible splotches I was talking about.


With a bright light behind them, you can see the edges of the marbles.







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What one looks like in my hand with a bad photo...


Then I put them in the pirate cup.





I really like these things.