Champion Sports Bowling Set with Plastic Pins - Ball Included

The quality is great and it feels like you’re playing a real game of bowling. We use the set at the assisted living facility where I work and I predict it will last a long time! The other indoor sets out there were really made for children, but this one feels close to the real thing! The residents love it and bowling has become a popular activity. My only advice would be to purchase a foam bowling ball along with it so a larger range of abilities can play. 5lbs was a little too much for most of the seniors there but adding the foam ball makes a great set!

I would say these are somewhere between a 4 and 5 star rating. The reason I rounded up and went with 5 stars instead of 4 is because of the price. I think for the price these are really good. The ball is a really good strong rubber material tha should last a long time. The pins are a fairly heavy plastic, but could probably be just a little bit thicker and maybe just a little bit heavier too. They are weighted, but not as much as I thought they would be. I wasnt expecting them to weigh as much as a real wood bowling pin, but they just dont seem to have a lot of weight to them. Almost feels like maybe the weight in the bottom is just from having an extra thick bottom layer of plastic. Like I said, the plastic for the pins is decent, but can easily be smashed in if accidentally stepped on. You could smash them in with your hands too if you really tried. So they will hold up well I think to regular use from the heavy rubber ball hitting them and the pins hitting each other, but they definitly wouldnt hold up to kids accidentally stepping on them or falling on them, etc... But that is more on the product owner to take care of them versus it being a bad product for the money.

Although the bowling pins are hollow plastic they seem pretty sturdy, and the ball has some weight (5 lb), and should last with some care (one buyer mentioned theirs split on the seam - probably need to avoid hitting the floor too hard). The pins and ball are full size so make this fairly realistic for practice, except for substantially lower weight, and whether you have space for standard length bowling lane. Although the set seems decent, the price does seem a bit high for the construction, although shipping via UPS was probably not cheap and is included. However, I have some suggestions in preparation for use, partly due to other comments I’ve seen. First, I briefly used an orbital mouse sander to smooth the plastic seam along the diameter of the bottom of the bowling pins, so they sit with less wobble on a smooth floor. Second, the pins are pretty light, at a little over 6 oz, so the ability to add weight seemed beneficial. Some people referred to “filling” the pins with sand, but doing this literally (full), would be substantially heavier than professional wood pins which would be 3 lbs, 6 oz. It seemed to me, for home use, somewhat proportioned to the included bowling ball weight, compared to a standard bowling ball, that bottom weighting the pin up to around a pound with sand, which is adding about 10 oz, or around a cup of sand (about 1.5 inches in the bottom), makes the pins sit more sturdily on a smooth indoor, or on an outdoor surface. This may not seem like a lot of weight but it makes them feel much more substantial, without making them overly heavy. Perhaps you’ll want to use a little less if primarily using the bowling set with smaller children, so will require less force to knock the pins over – but I’d suggest at least ½ cup of sand. Note that you can buy a bag of pre-washed play sand at home depot for less than $5. I would suggest that you obtain and use a small funnel that fits the existing bowling pin hole in the top. Do not drill/open up the hole more as some apparently did so a larger funnel will fit, because it will likely make the plug fit looser when you put it back in the top. Also I suggest you take some sand out of the bag that your purchased, and put in a thin layer (maybe an inch) in a pail and let sit maybe 24 hours, to try to ensure the sand is dry before trying to pour into the pins, because sand I purchased which was in a plastic bag, had been stored outside. The sand was only slightly damp, but initial attempts to pour thru the funnel would clump repeatedly and had to be forced thru with a rod, taking more time and effort than you might think. After being more thoroughly dry, it pours easily through the funnel. Other accessories you may want – bowling backstop which will keep the ball from going too far away from your target area, and keep it from knocking into whatever is behind your pins. You can buy one (for about what this bowling set costs), but otherwise might just use some boxes, or I’m thinking about using several pieces of 2”x4”x4’ wood in some way possibly in the future. Also a “ball cup” that holds the ball in place might be handy and not too expensive (around $6). – Have fun!

The weighted bowling set has been a huge hit with the multi-age groups of children I work with and is perfect for many events! It was a popular attraction at an outdoor "Fall Festival" in October. The kids loved the game and were lined up to play the entire time of the festival! I used the game indoors recently with children ages 5-12 and they are already requesting it for the next group session! The kids are challenged to see how many strikes they can get and all of them like the authentic ball and pins, just like a real bowling alley! Another fun aspect of the game for them is resetting the pins! I couldn't be happier with this purchase!

I would have loved this item but bought it with a package of sand as it said I could fill it with sand to make them more stable and more like real pins but there is nowhere to put in the sand without drilling a large hole. Then how do I stop the sand from coming out?

The media could not be loaded. It is the perfect indoor bowling set. I bought it for my mom's birthday and she loved it. Perfect for adults and kids. This set was the closest I could find to realistic bowling in the bowling alley but made for home.

The pins are not weighted when the set arrives. You have to remove the cap from the top of the pins to weigh them down with sand or whatever you choose. The ball is nicely weighted. My bowling set was well packaged and organized. I waited a long to order this. I'm glad I caught the sale and purchased it. Can't wait to challenge my family members to a game.

This is a nice set. More expensive than I would’ve wanted though. The ball is hollow but it has some weight to it. Pins are kind of light. It’s a good set. Just more money than it should be