Backyard Safari Mega Magnifier

I got my boys a $9.95 Backyard Safari magnifying glass from Summit (cheaper than the $14.97 shown here on Amazon). The thing is HUGE! It's a fresnel lens, is plastic, not glass -- you know, like those lenses made of concentric circles like they use in lighthouses? It is a cute toy, and it is BIG -- like 15" across, and a foot wide. When I bought it from the bookstore, the clerks were transfixed by it (hadn't realized it was on sale there) and kept playing with it. My boys love it, and it's fun to use, with some slight distortion in the lens because it's such light plastic.



However, I would warn you that fresnel lenses are very effective magnifying glasses, and that means if you have a kid who has any procilivity for starting fires, this is an excellent means of doing so -- so be careful of that. Not that the product is dangerous per se, but definitely don't leave it on a windowsill or in the hands of a kid who knows that magnifying glasses = fire and likes starting fires.

By way of testing it, I was able to light up a piece of cardboard in 15 seconds (indoors, mind you) with this sucker, once I found the sweet spot. It burned a hole in a piece of cardboard in that amount of time. 15 seconds to smoking ruin!

This is a fun toy and, as a novelty, it can't be beat -- it is the biggest magnifying glass I've personally seen, but just be careful with it (and you'll want a welder's mask or some other means to protect your eyes if you're focusing that beam, because it's bright). Fun to play with, however. I found myself wanting to get several to extend the power.