Soldering is just something, as with most things, that take practice and practice to get right. I'm 19 now and started soldering at around age 7, and even in that relatively short amount of time, you can become very efficient at it. Just takes practice and practice, and it pays off, I can solder a 28 pin DIP device in about 5 seconds flat
In fact, maybe you could even look at the kit as a goal to learn soldering, grab yourself some perfboard and a few basic components and try soldering them up, and move onto the kit when you feel comfortable. It's actually quite difficult to kill electronics by soldering unless you're doing something very wrong, like using pipe brazing solder, or using an iron that's too hot etc.
If you're really not keen on trying the kit again, your best bet is probably to get something like pschlosser posted above and just remove the laser, and replace it with your own. You can pick those up for a couple bucks on eBay, sometimes they go under the name "laser crab"