Super Slime

Super Slime is the basic gooey play material that children reach for when they want stretching, squishing, and a lot of hands-on mess. By our assessment, its best feature is exactly that simple tactile payoff, because slime does one thing very well: it can be pulled, pressed, folded, and dripped in ways that keep attention for a while. The downside is equally plain, since slime can dry out, pick up dirt, and turn into a cleanup job if it is used anywhere near fabric or carpet. In practice it is cheap-feeling fun in the best and worst senses of the phrase. It sits in the toy aisle beside putty, dough, and stress-ball style fidgets, but it is more chaotic than most of them. The appeal is immediate, and the patience it asks for comes later, when the table needs wiping.