Brain Noodles are a little difficult to describe if you don’t want to use the same description everyone else has used – “they look like giant pipe cleaners”. Because that’s exactly what they are. They’re ideal for mums and kids who love doing craft projects. They’re soft, malleable and brightly coloured. 
I gave my trial pack to Matilda, our family craft queen, but at just four years of age she’s just a little too young to really get maximum enjoyment from these bendy toys. The box recommends for ages five and up, so that makes sense.
There’s a very tactile, lush feel to the noodles and when they’re in your hand they feel very soft and squishy. They seem to be very well made, with no sharp bits poking through and no ‘moulting’ from the fibres. The packet also comes filled with accessories, such as googly eyes, pipe cleaners, stickers and feathers, all to help create animals and other fun stuff.
Finally, there’s also an instruction manual to get you started, showing step by step how to create some fun creatures, such as a butterfly, a panda, a lion and a parrot. Of course, once you get a feel for how it all works, there’s no limit – apart from your imagination – to how many characters and fun things you can make. There’s also a variety of Brain Noodle kits available that make different animals.
My 12-year-old neice sat down with Matilda (4) and the two of them made the butterfly. It took Eliza about 15 minutes to create the butterfly and when she finished it looked exactly like the picture. However, when she sat down later to make the parrot, she said it was much harder to figure out the instructions, which weren’t very clear in places.
This is the sort of gift ideally suited to children who like to work independently to figure things out, who are older than five years and who enjoy using their hands to create things. Some minimal parent supervision from mum or dad is most likely required for many younger children and would suit the kind of mum or dad who likes to get crafty with the kids. To a degree the noodles are re-usable, in that you can deconstruct your creation and start over, except where you’ve got things stuck on – the sticky things aren’t really re-usable. But I suspect you can buy packs of googly eyes from many craft shops if you wanted to keep making things with eyes stuck on them.
All in all, I love the product. It retails for around $14.95 and for that you get a well-made product with some instructions to get you started. It provides a good few hours of fun and really fosters creativity. My tendency is to say that this would be better suited to girls but really that’s mostly because my boys aren’t really very craft focused. If I built a lion or panda then they’d probably be more interested in this toy.
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These look great for my sensory seeking kids who certainly love the more “regular size” “pipe cleaners.”
Exactly how many pipe smokers ever used flurescent pink pipe cleaners to clean their pipe with anyway?
Bwahahaha!
Looks like heaps of fun. My 7 year old daughter would have a field day with them!
My 2 kids would LOVE these brain noodles! Fun way to get those creative juices flowing. Thanks Felicity!