A couple of weeks ago I went to The Range and couldn’t resist buying their biggest box of loom bands – yes, 25,000 little rubber bands! Plus accessories. The loom is called “Loom Twister” by HGL.

Here is a little review of what was in that large, exciting box, and how it compares to other similar products I have used.

Big Box

The box is very big, nearly 3ft long! Whilst, like all modern product boxes, it is bigger than it really needs to be, it does give a good indication that this really is a bumper box of bands.

Inside there are 30 little sections, each containing a plastic bag full of loom bands. There are also two plastic looms, six plastic hooks, a bag full of S-clips and an instruction leaflet.

I paid £25 for this product in August 2014.

TT LoomTwister Box

The Loom Bands

The bTT Loom Bandsox says “It’s All About The Bands” – and indeed it is. I bought this for the ridiculously high band count. And 25,000 bands is a LOT of bands! I am almost tempted to tip them all on the floor in a big pile just to see how exciting that looks. But the thought of having to sort them again after squashes that one!

Most of the bags contain a single colour of bands, covering the usual range of bright, cheerful colours. There are also some bags that contain mixtures of 2 or 3 colours. Bags of jelly bands, shiny bands and two-toned bands are also included. The picture on the right is my actual box. Further down the page is a picture of the back of the box which shows another sample of the contents. I assume the exact bands included vary from box to box.

The bands seem to be a very good quality. I have been doing a lot of creating with them, and so far only 2 have snapped. This compares very favourably indeed with loom bands from other sources. They are regular and do not have any odd bits sticking out, like some bands have. The colours are bright and attractive.

 

The Looms

The looms have the pegs fixed permanently in the off-set position. You can not remove the rows of pegs like some looms. Obviously this means you can not make any of the projects that require a loom to be in the square position. On the plus side though, the fixed bases make these looms very sturdy and there is no risk of them springing apart as has happened on other looms when there is a lot of cross tension from the rubber bands.

The looms have a little groove around each peg and to me this has been made on the wrong side of the peg. One usually hooks from the open side, so that is where the groove would make the most sense. Where it is I can not see why one needs is. And sometimes, if there are a lot of bands on the peg, it is hard to get one’s hook under the bands when hooking because there is not a groove on the open side.

I have been using the looms and despite the odd groove design they seem very sturdy and lightweight. Having two means it is much easier to make longer bracelets – ones that actually go right around the arm. One loom is purple and the other is blue.

TT Loom and Hooks

The Hooks

Hmm, these are decidedly poor quality. I broke one within minutes of using it. The hooks bend easily and can not hook more than 3 or so bands at once without struggling. They are fine for very simple designs but unlikely to last long if you like making charms or complex bracelets that use multiple bands. I am using mine to store components on whilst making characters and animals. Four of them were yellow and two were blue. I say were because two have broken. I am using my trusty metal tipped Rainbow Loom hook instead.

The Rest

There is not much one can say about S clips, is there? The included ones are sturdy and quite tightly “looped”, meaning that it is a bit more fiddly to get one’s bands into them, but once done they are far less likely to come undone again than a looser style of clip. There are 500 included.

The instruction leaflet is rather unusual. Half is composed of photos showing how to make the most basic looped style of bracelet – something which the cheapest loom packages include too. The other half of the leaflet shows various combinations of bands and how to lay them out. This may be of use to the more experienced crafter, who is looking to develop their own designs. A couple more actual project would probably have been of more use to the majority of purchasers, in my opinion.

TT Loom Twister Box

Summary

I am very happy with my purchase. 25,000 bands for £25 is obviously the equivalent of 1000 bands for £1. Around here bags of 600 go for £1 and upwards. So even ignoring the hooks (which are best ignored, to be honest), and the looms (which are very usable) I feel I got a bargain. Plus I got the convenience of a large number of bands in one easy purchase.

The Range have other sizes of these packs. I saw a 20,000 band one, a 10,000 band one and a 4,800 band one. They also have many bags of different colours and speciality bands, as well as a wide range of reasonably priced storage boxes and other accessories.

I have no affiliation with The Range, or the makers of this loom set. I am just a regular customer who is happy with their purchase 🙂

Loom Twister with 25,000 loom bands- a review
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