Veritasium Snatoms MicroSnatoms Magnetic Molecular Building Kit

I’ve been messing with the MicroSnatoms kit, and it’s honestly pretty cool! The tiny magnetic pieces snap together like real chemical bonds, making it a blast to build molecules and get how atoms vibe. It’s sturdy too—durable enough for my kid to play with and me to geek out on. Perfect for home learning or just messing around, and it’s compact for small spaces. Only hiccup? The smaller size means it’s a bit tricky to handle if your fingers aren’t nimble. Not a big deal, just takes some getting used to. Solid tool for chemistry nerds or curious kids!

Really nice, and allows the assembly of molecular models in a fraction of the time it takes with stick-and-ball models. The only downside is the fairly steep price, but they seem solidly made and should last a while I think.

These are pretty great. Quick and easy to assemble and disassemble. On the Snatoms website there are pdf diagrams to aid in modeling quite a few different molecules. I do wish the magnets were a little stronger as more complicated structures become delicate when handling. Also Derek, on the off chance you read these, I'd love to see a young adult friendly app of some sort to help keep emerging chemists/physicists engaged.

For $80 I think these are a bit expensive. Seems more like a $30 product. There aren't that many parts and they're much smaller than I expected (lack of research before purchasing). So it can be difficult to make larger molecules or molecules with more atom variations (balls are re-used to represent different atoms). That said, I would love to have 4 or 5 sets of these and many more atoms (sizes and colors). Like others've said, the magnets could be stronger to help hold the shape together better when handling them. They are very fun to work with and build molecules for a great visualization tool. My 6 and 8 year old instantly understood the concept of atoms and molecules, so that is a huge win. They also just kept playing with them and building more molecules. I could just stand back and watch. Much more visually appealing, and fun, than the non-magnetic sets.

I’ve been using these with my 9th graders— they’re awesome! The kids like working with them, they’re so much easier to use than the more common “snappable” models. I bought two kits, will be buying two more next year. Worth every penny.