Comments about GeoSafari® Mystery Rock®:

My 10 year old daughter loves everything rock, fossil, and gem-related. She BEGGED me to get her this for Christmas. I thought it looked pretty cool, so I did. The first disappointment was the size of the mystery rock "matrix" (i.e., the clay that the rocks and gems are hidden in). It was maybe 7 inches in diameter and three inches thick, max. Second, upon opening the box, we discovered that there are only 9 (or maybe 10, the information on this was contradictory) specimens in the matrix, NOT 15 as pictured on the box. Third, I understand why they give you a plastic excavation tool to unearth the rocks, so as not to damage them (they are quite small, and some are also fragile) but geez, this thing mostly wore out before she even got the first specimen out of the matrix. We resorted to carefully using the pointy end of a metal can/bottle opener. Fourth disappointment - after excavating the tiny pieces of turquoise and malachite (we think - it was actually just a tiny bead of some sort, same with the "emerald", which was not only a bead, but I'm fairly sure it may even be made of plastic), my daughter pretty much lost interest in this. We resorted to dissolving the rest of the clay in water to unearth the rest of the specimens. Her comment, "when they say hours of fun on the box, they really mean hours of work, for not much payoff," pretty much sums up this product.