Rhode Island Novelty Inflatable Globe Replica 16-inch

I bought this globe for a church VBS lesson for preschoolers, and it was the perfect size. It easily fit in their hands and was comparable to the size of a beach ball. It was easy to blow up just by using my mouth, but you could easily blow it up with a hand pump too. My dog got ahold of it and punctured the globe several places, but I was able to put just clear tape over the puncture and fix the problem myself and it has held up even with lots of preschoolers playing with it.

This globe is not very useful as a map.First, it is not 16" wide as described, it has a diameter of 10-12 inches. It's about 16" when deflated and stretched out in one direction.Second, the map has many defects. I'll give a lot of examples (I could give more), just to assure you that I'm not exaggerating.* out of date: It shows Yugoslavia, Chechoslovakia, Zaire, Upper Volta, Burma, Kampuchea, names that are 20 to 30 years out of date.* spelling errors: Ireiand, Grenda, Mauritalia, Egipt, Buruni, Eqguinea, Cybrus, Ukrainaia, Geopgian, Azerbrajan, Brune, Indoneisa* distortion at seams: an extra 400 to 500 miles is inserted around each of the six seams, giving the U.S. for example a very unfamiliar shape due to the seam running up the middle of it.* coloring: adjacent countries frequently have the same color with no clear boundary between, like Mexico-Belize, Guatemala-Nicaragua, Moldova-Romania-Yugoslavia, Syria-Lebanon-Israel-Jordan, Burma-Laos-Vietnam, Zaire-Rwanda-Burundi and many others.* coloring: a country may change color at a seam: Bangladesh is green and orange, Tanzania is pink and blue.* letters missing near seams: (C)ybrus (L)ebanon, (E)gipt!, (U)ganda, Rwand(a), (T)anzania, (M)alawi, (S)waziland* countries missing, like Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Eritrea, Cape Verde, Sao Tome & Principe.* The border and coastline of the U.S. is so inaccurate it's almost cartoonish. Natives of other countries would probably say the same about their borders. Central America, according to this map, is Northern Mexico and South Texas.If you want an accurate map, try the Jet Creations Political Globe (true 16" diameter), $9.23 at Amazon.

I read some reviews below about the ball looking different to the picture displayed. Mine is just like the picture with the blue background. My only complaint is that in some parts the seam lines don’t meet up correctly so parts of Australia are cut off for example. All in all it’s a nice little globe and great for the price, my kids have played with it a lot and it’s sturdy.

Anzania, Commonwealth of Independent States, misshapen Central America, Czechoslovakia, no Ukraine, no Congo, and a tiny Greenland are some of the more memorable mistakes with this globe. I guess that’s what happens when you get the Made in Khina model.

A couple of errors but this will be perfect to teach the kids while having fun.Fairly big, quality expected from a blowup ball, good colors.

Get 2 for the price of one. A globe that is fun to throw around. What more could you ask for?

The beach ball would NOT stay inflated because the insert kept popping out after inflated. I finally had to cut the tiny insert off and insert it into the blow hole and cover it with duck tape. I hope I don't lose the tiny insert!

A nice "globe" beachball for the price. I used it for a Vacation Bible School activity and it held up well. The map isn't very accurate, but that was not what I purchased it for. My kids have used it several times and it is a decent beach ball.