Solar System In My Room Remote Control Home Décor Night Light

It's a great little set. The distances between planets aren't, of course, proportional, but we've had lots of fun lying on the floor listening to the CD and watching them go round. Good price for what it is.We didn't have any noise issues as reported by some other buyers. Sure, it makes a noise, but what would you expect? Doesn't overpower the CD to listen at the same time.

First impression: Nicely packaged, vibrant colors on the planets, and each planet is easily recognizable even without having to read the name engraved on the bottom. The packaging is very secure, meaning you will need a knife or pair of scissors to open it. Visually my expectations were easily exceeded, and I was excited to get it assembled and up in my child's room.Assembly: Pretty straightforward and easy. One minor complaint is that nowhere in the instructions does it mention how to install the cardboard "rings" on Saturn. Second minor complaint is that it would have been nice to have Saturn's "rings" be made of something other than cardboard. Other than that it's an easy visual comparison of the support rods to match each one to the proper planet, and connecting the rods into the unit is a breeze. There are two motorized rings hidden behind the sun, the bottom for the 4 inner planets, the upper for the 4 outer planets (sad to say, but Pluto gets no love anymore) and each rod slides into a small mounting bracket. The brackets have the names of the planets stamped beside them so you get them in the proper order, but you will probably need either extremely bright light or a magnifying glass to see the tiny, tiny print. The rods are held in place by the weight of the planets and by gravity, nothing more, so a dab of glue might be in order for a more permanent assembly.Installation: Two toggle bolts are provided for installation in the ceiling. Folks, toggle bolts are overkill for the weight of this mobile even with the 3 batteries installed. Two 1 1/2" wood screws will suffice to support the weight in 5/8" sheet rock or thicker. As this was going in the corner of the room above a crib I measured 24" inches from each wall and mounted the ceiling bracket. No issues with clearance and the mount was solid with the two wood screws. Toggle bolts went into the parts drawer.Operation: Here's where the problems began. Set it up, turned it on, and hit the button on the remote. First click, the sun lit up just fine; not too bright to be a distraction in a dark room, much to dim to be a night light. Good enough or me. Second click, the planets began to orbit and...3/4 of the way through the first orbit there was a loud rubbing noise and a series of clicks, accompanied by a spasm of jerks and shudders from all of the planets. This continued for the remaining 1/4 of the orbit and then settled out to smooth operation again, until the same 3/4 orbit point was reached and the rubbing, clicking, and jerking began all over again. After 5 cycles of this I turned it off and opened it up to investigate what appeared to be a mis-aligned drive train.Fault identification: Of the six screws holding the top cover on, 3 were loose. Pulling the six cover and one battery screws off the top of the unit you can see that the upper and lower rings that the planets mount to are both ordinary ring gears...made of plastic...stacked on top of each other...loosely riding a groove in the housing. Since the first symptom displayed was a hard rubbing sound, I pulled both ring gears off and gave the top and bottom surfaces a very light coating of silicone grease. The drive gears came lubricated from the factory so I didn't need to apply grease there. Reassembled the entire thing, made sure all of the cover screws were snug, turned it back on, and was rewarded with 15 minutes of hassle-free operation before the clicking and jerking began again.Construction: This is what I think is the major flaw in this item. The entire gear train is plastic, which would be fine if the tolerances were better. As it is, there is just too much "slop" in the construction and the gears do not mesh tightly enough to ensure trouble-free operation. I don't know if it's a design flaw, quality assurance problem, or maybe the manufacturing equipment is just in dire need of a thorough cleaning, but both of the ring gears for the planets have more than 1/8" wiggle in them when the unit is assembled. That's more than enough for the gears to come out of alignment and fail to operate correctly.Final thoughts: I really, really like this. We purchased this along with the "Mars in My Room" and the "Moon in My Room" and are completely satisfied with both of them. Of the three, I was the most excited for the "Solar System in My Room" and it's a little heartbreaking that it is the only one that doesn't work correctly. If Uncle Milton can come up with a more reliable drive system I would have one of these in every bedroom in the house. Until that time, however, I'll have to be a little melacholy about how truly awesome this could have been. Three of five stars for form, visual appeal, easy assembly, and low cost. Two stars deducted for design flaw/poor quality control.

We bought this for my 6 year old who is very interested in space. He absolutely loves it. Despite a few negative reviews I read i purchased it anyways. It does make a little noise which doesnt bother my son at all. He turns it on every night and falls asleep with it on. The only thing I didnt like was that the pictures made it seem like the toy was clipped on to an exisisting light fixture when it actually has to be screwed into the celing. It looks great and works well though.

I think too many people are looking for a wow toy for a good price. I feel like I got a good toy for a good price.I liked it so much that I bought another one for a present. Works for a mobile for a baby that I am watching too.And for the person that says that it eats batteries either they have bad batteries or I got lucky. I have the same batteries in it since Christmasand it is Valentines Day. We use it every night before we go to bed and before nap for the baby. I think it is great for the money. It is better than the TV or ipad or video games. Thank you Uncle Milton who ever you are.

After reading a few other reviews I was nervous about the solar system being "Flimsy" or the motor being to loud. I purchased anyway and love it. The motor is very quiet! The solar system is not cheap or flimsy. Once it is together and up on the ceiling it looks perfect. I did not use wing nuts in the ceiling. It wasn't necessary because I have plaster ceilings with lathe so we just screwed it up. I definitely recommend this solar system.

My son loves it! Won't go to sleep at night without the remote to this and their counterpart Moon. As others stated it doesn't fit over an existing light fixture, which is obvious, and wasnt a problem for me (he didn't have a ceiling fixture). I suppose if he had and i wanted to put it there you could simply remove the existing fixture and put a plate over the outlet. Like all mobiles it's kind of flimsy, so be careful when installing. My only real issue with it is the noisy motor (i'm funny about noises though). I'll probably either end up replacing it or building a mobile from scratch with my son in the next couple years, but this was a great stepping stone (he's only 2). Batteries don't last a long time depending on how much it's used, but I use rechargeable batteries and a solar charger so I don't mind replacing.