Nickelodeon Gak & Floam Review

Child of the 90s?  Remember Nickelodeon's Gak and Floam?  Well, they're back!  We've been having a blast playing with them.  They're great for playtime, creative fun, and have been updated with a new formula to make them easier to use and clean up.   

Gak has an unusual smooth texture and is made for squishing, twisting, squashing, rolling, flattening, twisting and all around hands-on fun!  It's available in Blue It, Yakkity Yellow, Goo Green, Tickled Pink, Purple Panic, in addition to the Rebel Red version we're playing with in our pictures.

Guess what Gak also does?  When you squeeze it, makes little cracking and popping noises.  Twisting and poking your fingers into it, will also get it to make cool sounds.  When we pushed our Gak back into it's container, ER couldn't stop giggling over the noises it made.  So if you kids get a kick out of that sort of thing, let's just say, they'll love Gak!

Have I mentioned you can also stretch it?  Stretch it, into really, really, long ropes?  You can also hold it up in the air and let a little drip out of your fingers and watch it stretch out into a thinner and thinner line of Gak all the way down to the floor. 

But the way we most liked playing with Gak was, using it to blow bubbles!  All you have to do is take a little bit and stick a straw into it.  Create a seal around the straw by pushing the Gak around it.  Then blow.  Talk about cool!  Now, I'll admit I was kind of skeptical about this working.  I was amazed by how well it worked.  ER had fun blowing bubble after bubble.

Gak easily passed the kid test, ER thought it was just the coolest thing.  So did it pass the mom test?  Yes but with the warning that it's for play with parent supervision.  The good news, it was pretty easy to clean up any bits of Gak left on our play mat with a damp paper towel.  It washed off hands easily too.

The downside is there is no way ER would've been able to clean up by herself.  Gak is sticky and slightly tacky.  If all the Gak wasn't wiped up right away, I would be worried it wouldn't come off at all.  I don't know what would happen in that case, and with the bright colors I don't want to find out!  ER was so excited to play with the Gak, blowing bubbles til the burst, slapping it from hand to hand, etc.  I could see bits flying around and getting stuck in odd places if I wasn't there to oversee the play and keep it from getting crazy.

Also, no matter how hard we tried we just couldn't get that darn Gak to bounce for us.  Whenever we tried it would just hit the play mat or ground with a thud and spread out.  This actually wasn't a problem for me.  I could just see bits of dirt getting suck in the Gak whenever it hit the floor...and it bouncing places it shouldn't, like onto the carpet.  My advice is have fun, go crazy, but wear play clothes and use a play mat like plastic place mat or a sheet of aluminum foil.  And always, clean up right away!

Now onto the Floam, a reusable molding compound you can create wth over and over or let let harden overnight into a creation you can keep forever.

Use Floam to mold, fold, flatten, and roll into shapes or free form sculptures.  ER enjoyed using her favorite cookie cutters to make a Blazin' Blue Poodle and an Electric Yellow Heart.  She loved adding a little face. 

The pebbly, sticky texture is fun to feel.  It can be molded onto things you have around the house, like picture frames, flower pots, pencils, or toys to transform it into a Floam masterpiece.

Available in Rockin' Red, Blazin' blue, Electric Yellow, Glimmer Green, Posh Pink, and Purple Power.  Each comes in an air tight container to store it in, with a mini shaper like this itty bitty star. 

Bottom line, ER loved making stuff with Floam.  She can't wait to shape more things!  I liked it a lot too, it was definitely something different and unique from the other molding compounds we've used.  I also felt more comfortable letting her play with this indpendently.  I could set out the Floam and let her keep busy with molding, shaping, and sculpting while I get some cleaning done without worries.

Gak and Floam are non-toxic, non-staining, phthalete-, latex- and BPA - free and are available at Target, Toys R Us, ToysRUs.com, Bed Bath and Beyond, A.C. Moore and Walgreens.  Both have a suggested retail price of $6.99.



Disclosure: Complimentary samples of both Gak and Floam were provided for review via Team Mom.  The opinions and experiences expressed are personal and unbiased.  No other compensation was received.