Advantus 30502 12-Inch Globe with Blue Oceans, Silver-Toned Metal Desktop Base,Full-Meridian

I've wanted a globe for some time, but i've found it really hard to decide because of the reviews. All seemed worthless, to judge from them.i'm happy with this one. The stand is excellent, and mountains are depicted by elevations on the globe. As for accuracy, everything seems to be labeled, the labels are legible, and they aren't falling off. i'm not going to check see if Taiwan is depicted as a separate nation because i don't care. The globe is very attractive, and it gives me a good feeling for the real (not Mercator) sizes of the countries and continents in question.(A note about my method of reading reviews: i zero in on the worst reviews and try to winnow the nut-cases and whiners and unfortunates from those who make sensible comments. A great many of positive reviews seem to come from interested parties, while occasional really bad reviews are paragons of speaking truth to bad products. An alternative method of parsing reviews is to sort by date added. if all the latest reviews say "this product sucks," that is a bad sign.)

Does a perfect globe exist? Probably it does, but I couldn’t afford it. I’m happy with this one although it isn’t perfect.The good stuff: it came in a super sturdy box that held the globe stable during transport. (The manufacturer ships it, not Amazon.) The stand seems strong and sturdy, and of course I’m grateful for the 720° rotation. The colors are attractive. I even like the raised texture where there are mountain ranges. I’m glad that the United States is divided into states. Finally, although I’m not 100% educated on geography, I can say this globe is up-to-date enough for my purposes; for example, Sudan is divided into Sudan and South Sudan.The less-good stuff: I’m surprised to see that Canada’s provinces are named, but not outlined! Unless the lines are just so fine that I can’t see them, you have to guess their boundaries. Some cities are identified in the US states, but I was really surprised to see that state capitals are not identified! I suppose some state capitals are named, but Austin Texas (where we live), Tallahassee Florida, and other states I’m familiar with have various cities but not their capitals identified! I also think that city placement is close, but not 100% accurate. Nevertheless, this globe will get a lot of use in homeschooling, and will serve our purposes. I would buy the same globe again if I needed to for some reason.

This globe is durable, beautiful, and fun to touch!Pros:- raised relief! If you are a kid or a grown adult like me who cannot resist feeling mountains on a globe, this is an awesome feature.- sturdy! After years of aggressive spinning with 3 little boys, a couple of falls, and other fun :) the globe has a few spots that look like maybe the coating is starting to rub off. But overall, it's in great shape. Still spins just like it did when we got it.- beautiful! The colors are soothing, if slightly child-oriented. The two hemispheres came together just about perfectly on ours. Really nice to look at.Cons:- a few inaccuracies—see other reviews. For our purposes, this is totally fine. But geography majors may want a different product.- doesn't glow. I could see adding an LED that illuminates from the bottom. In fact, a flashlight does the trick. But the globe doesn't glow. Not a big deal IMO, but one of the few cons I could think of.All in all, I recommend this globe to those that can't help but "feel" the mountains or families with kids.Pro-tip:Follow the advice of another reviewer and switch the spring washers around… it really holds better that way.

We bought this globe for homeschooling 1 1/2 years ago. We use it regularly. I like that it can be swiveled in all directions so we don't need to crouch down to see the southern hemisphere. We do have to be careful to not get fingers pinched in the brackets. I think the coloring and borders depicted are good enough. We just noticed that the red lettering has faded quite a bit. Another reviewer gave a one-star review because of this. I do not know if it faded because of indirect sunlight or only because of poor dyes, but I am very disappointed! I also agree with other reviewers about the globe having a Chinese perspective on borders. Affordable globes are not easy to find. This one is pretty good but could use improvements.

I wanted to get a globe to have for our homeschool, but I didn't want to have to pay an extreme amount of money for a good one. There are many cheap ones out there, but I do believe you get what you pay for and I don't think they would last that long. Then I found this one. There were a few negative reviews, but they were thinks like the print is so small on some parts, well, there is only so much room. This globe was described by most reviewers to have a very nice stand for the price and they were correct. It is a metal stand that enables the globe to rotate in all directions, left right up down. It is metal amd seems very sturdy. I have had no problems with tipping at all. It is also a raised relief globe, which means that the mountain ranges and such are raised up and when you run your finger over them you can feel them. Great feature. The colors are great and the oceans, latitude and longitude are all marked out along go with the proper names for the ones that are usually noted. Over all, I think this globe is excellent in quality and a great price!

This is better than I expected! It is perfect. Every home really needs one as there is soo much information to be gained with this age old device.

Grandson loved it.