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Your cart is empty.These unique inflatable globes are fun to play with and a great way to learn about the world we live in.
Gordon Maupin
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2025
This is a fun and educational beach ball. It is always handy to have a globe around to view the Earth in a true perspective. I wish I'd had one at home as a child. Now that I have one it is fun to consult occasionally. It might be helpful for flat earth's....but I guess there is no help for them.
Cynthia Whisennand
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2025
The Civil Air Patrol has an Aerospace program for K-6 students. For the K level program you need a globe that is like a beach ball for them to play catch with. It is to teach them about the Earth having more water and less land masses. It survived 8 Kindergarten classes.
Gigi
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2024
It seems good so far. As others have mentioned the poles are cut off which is kind of annoying. It's not the highest quality globe but if you want something 1/2 toy 1/2 educational it's pretty good. I picked this because I was hoping the ball aspect would pique curiosity while also making it less breakable. I like that we can take it with us easily and that it would be easy to deflate and put back together if traveling.
C A
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2024
This is a mega cheap, globe beach ball -for the money its great. The map is readable and it holds air for atleast several weeks. My kids chuck it around and it seems sturdy enough.
Amy D.
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2023
I'm a geography teacher, so accuracy is very important to me. I spent hours searching for a globe with accurate political boundaries. Unlike many other, more affordable globes, this globe actually has political boundaries that were drawn in the 21st century. While $17 seems pretty steep to me, it's worth it for the accuracy when every other globe out there has a 1993 map from the post-Soviet collapse (Commonwealth of Independent States? Really?) I haven't thoroughly inspected it for spelling errors, but overall it's much better than other globes out there. It has survived several games of "toss the globe" with my 7th graders, so I will rate it fairly sturdy as well. It is a little larger than other globes, but not too bad. It makes it easier to read the lettering.
Andrew Thomas
Reviewed in Canada on January 7, 2022
The plug to inflate the the ball is perpetually leaking. Not worth the money.
Anatikd
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2015
Not great, but it's inexpensive and meets my environmental education purposes. Mine is somewhat difficult to inflate and becomes visibly deflated after 24 hours. If I was going to be using it on consecutive days, I would need to re-inflate it each day. I only use it for occasional lessons, however, so this is not much of a problem. I was looking for a basic, inexpensive inflatable globe that showed the ocean and continents with realistic colors and some topographical detail (as if seen from space, but without clouds covering anything up), and this fits the bill. It also shows ocean currents and names many countries (useful when trying to point out the range of a specific species), but I would not recommend it for studying boundaries between countries, as these are not very clearly marked. This said, it is not a particularly good-looking globe. Even when fully inflated, mine has wrinkles and puckers. If I were using it with adults I would definitely want something a little better-looking. Bottom line: it's not the best or the best-looking, but it works for someone who needs an inexpensive, portable, inflatable globe with a realistic depiction of the ocean and continents.
Westerner
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2013
Frankly I was shocked at how expensive decent (Replogle) cardboard globes are. Really shocked. Admittedly they are finer quality than this beach ball but considering they cost 10 to 100 times as much, they'd have to have far greater utility to make it worth my money. Frankly, with Google Earth or even "Marble" providing immensely more detail than the largest and most expensive fine-quality Replogle globes can possibly hope to show, the only reason I can see for spending on an expensive globe is to acquire a decorator item priced to suit the level of decor in a fancier home, office, or business. But for a simple visual aid that is truly three-dimensional and not just an Open-GL or Direct-X construct on a 2D screen, a cheap globe suffices. This one is bigger than the cheap cardboard ones, contains plenty of detail (like the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) and can easily function as a corresponding model to further detail on Keyhole/Google Earth.A smaller carboard globe might be fine for a personal desk reference, but for the classroom, this globe is perfect.My only tip is to hang it by the molded-in eye using some fishing line and a disconnectable hook. The globe's smooth vinyl surface will easily scratch if you scuff it on the floor by kicking it around like a beach ball.I've had mine hanging within reach of my Kindergarteners for a year. I regularly unhook it and use it in discussion. They're also extensively skilled in Google Earth and probably have a better grasp of geography than most high school students. For the price of a 20" Finley globe, I can get this, two high-end 10" tablets, and a 30Mbps internet connection for 12 months. Admittedly, the paper globe is finer, but wow...
Jeannie T
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2011
This is a regular beach ball with a globe printed on it. The only disappointment was that the poles are covered, so one piece of the globe is missing (part of Antartica). I bought this globe for a preschooler for Christmas. He likes to play with it and asks simple questions about where we live. It was worth the price and seems sturdy (he throws himself onto it regularly as if it were an exercise ball). It is a beach ball though, I am sure it will not put up with too much abuse! This was a cheap alternative to the super fancy earth balls you can buy. In my case, our preschooler would not appreciate, need, or otherwise understand a satilite imaged ball or a real globe, so this was a nice choice.
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