Spy Labs Inc: Secret Codes and Ciphers by Thames & Kosmos | Learn How to Make & Exchange Coded Messages! | Essential Tools & Tricks of the Trade from The Detective Gear Experts for Young Investigators

Christmas stocking gift

This is a good teaching kit for a child that is interested about codes and passing information back and forth. It does lack the information about when cyphers were used and for what. I did gift it with a book about spies during the revolutionary war.

This review is for the Thames & Kosmos Spy Labs Inc: Secret Codes and Ciphers, Learn how to make and decipher four types of secret codes. I love that this comes in a metal tin to store the spy tools. The kit itself is a little underwhelming. It includes a small direction insert, cardstock pieces for a cipher disk and polybius square, a piece of rope for Quipu (knotted codes), and chalk to leave vagabond messages. The knots and chalk are more of a suggestion for kids to create their own secret spy code. Overall the box is fantastic and the kit is good but not what I expected. The pieces are flimsy and some of the code methods are much more simple than expected. Despite my underwhelm I think that my kid will have some fun with it and will enjoy using the tin to store treasures in when he’s done with the coding tools.

I did not expect this tin to be so tiny. He used it but it was just so tiny .

This came and was much smaller than expected. My daughter received it for Christmas and was excited, we will see how it holds up!

For all the young detectives out there, Thames & Kosmos Spy Labs Inc. Secret Codes and Ciphers is a hidden gem. Sure, some might grumble about the “quality,” but let’s be real—it’s $6.95 and a kids’ toy. This kit does a fantastic job of teaching concepts about codes and ciphers, making it more informative than you’d expect from a toy. It’s packed with essential tools and tricks of the trade from the detective gear experts, perfect for young investigators eager to learn how to make and exchange coded messages. Overall, it’s a great value and a fun, educational experience for budding spies. Unlock the secrets and dive into the world of espionage with this awesome kit!

These items are extremely small and are not high quality. The cipher disks are not perforated at the right place, so when you punch them out, the letters on the inner cipher wheel are cut off and difficult to read. The pieces are very small and will be easy to lose. I do like that it all comes in a nice tin. Chalk was broken into three tiny, nearly unusable pieces. Sticky note in picture for scale only.

This secret code kit was a fun activity for the kids that kept them busy for a few hours. It came with easy to understand instructions, and the kids quickly learned how to use it and wasted little time exchanging goofy messages to each other, coded in a way only they could decipher. The kit itself is small, so I imagine this would also make a perfect stocking stuffer during the holidays. This was my first time trying a product from Thames and Kosmos but I think I will be ordering more in the future based on how much fun it was for the kids and the fair asking price.