Yet another Magformers toy. It can’t fly, but children can carry it around and play with it.
A Cuboid Multicolored Owl from the Magformers Family
Author: TatianaZh
Clics Trees
A model the manufacturer proposes for the Clics blocks set – a tree with a spherical top.
ClicsToys is a Belgian company that was established in 2001. It makes the well-known Clics building blocks in its own factory in Kempen. Clics building sets have square pieces of identical form and shape. They easily connect at their edges, creating joints you can move.
With These plastic squares, you can create surfaces and fold them into 3D shapes. There are endless possibilities, even though Clics have very few extra pieces and accessories. Some sets have wheels and decorative panels, but this is pretty much it. On the other hand, Clics sets usually have many pieces, so you can create something truly complicated from just one set.
Since the basic pieces of any Clics blocks set are squares, all the basic forms you can assemble from it are cubic or brick-like. However, thanks to the movable joints, you can assemble them at different angles, creating different shapes.
There are ways to create triangular or sloping figures if you assemble the pieces just right. The cubes, however, are the most sturdy and reliable structures this set can offer. There are also a possibility of creating a flat mosaic, combining the pieces of different colors.
Straw Art Flower
Flower from the Chinese building Straw Art Kit (4M manufacturer). It’s a bright and simple building kit, we love it.
Building straws, also known as building tubes, are a popular type of construction set with unique possibilities. They allow you to create silhouettes and contours of different objects and animals. All crafts from these sets can bend and move, so kids can actually play with their creations.
Instead of blocks, these sets have flexible plastic tubes, that look and act like soft cocktail straws or cable isolation. they can bend in any way and hold any position you want. The tubes usually attach to each other with special plastic connectors. The connectors can look and work differently in the different sets, but there are always many ways the straws can connect. The most common version is hard pins that go inside the straw’s hollow end, fixing it in place. Some connectors of this type have only one or two pins, some may have eight or ten. they also can have different forms, like sharp corners or straight rods. However, this connection type usually means that you can connect the straws only with their ends, and never with their middles.
These straws have great building potential, but, sadly, they can’t hold their shape under pressure (unlike, say, block towers that can hold something on their top). The straws’ building possibilities also depend on how long they are.
The Well
The balls easily attached themselves to the metal box, and these magnet ball bars are strong enough to stand and hold a bucket.
K’Nex Cross
We experimented with Arishka with openwork buildings – and we got this cross. Lately, we really liked to make non-living things from Knex. We get some nice patterns from it.
Zoom Mushroom
You can find the round red piece in the ZOOB Traveler travel set or in the huge ZOOB 500 set. There are 4 of these round pieces and they form a building platform when inserted into the lid. The diameter of the circle is 3 inches and ithas 13 holes. It easily forms a wheel or a shield – but in this case a mushroom was built.
Back in 1997, inventor Michael Grey introduced Zoob, a toy inspired by the science of motion and organism development. Zoob represents an acronym for Zoology, Ontology, Ontogeny, and Botany. Each set has rod-like pieces with joint balls and sockets on their ends. Each of these balls has small bumps on its surface. So the joints can both move and stay in a certain position if you need them to.
This innovative toy has a ball and socket connection system, mimicking the natural movement and design of people, animals, and machines. With just five basic shapes, Zoob offers 20 different ways to connect them together.
Zoob building sets have won awards because they’re different from regular building blocks. They use plastic pieces that snap together, like gears and joints, to build all kinds of objects. The options are limited only by your imagination. After you build something with a set like ZOOB Traveler, you can actually play with it – the pieces were designed to move after being assembled, so you can have fun with the toys you create.
Zoobs are great for helping children improve their fine motor skills. The pieces are small enough to easily manipulate and put them together, but they’re not too tiny like some other toys, so it’s easier for kids who find small objects tricky.
Sadness
A sad and tired Kid K’Nex critter. They are always so emotional and unique.
Clics Steamboat
And here we have a Clics steamboat and two boats.
ClicsToys is a Belgian company that was established in 2001. It makes the well-known Clics building blocks in its own factory in Kempen. Clics building sets have square pieces of identical form and shape. They easily connect at their edges, creating joints you can move.
With These plastic squares, you can create surfaces and fold them into 3D shapes. There are endless possibilities, even though Clics have very few extra pieces and accessories. Some sets have wheels and decorative panels, but this is pretty much it. On the other hand, Clics sets usually have many pieces, so you can create something truly complicated from just one set.
Since the basic pieces of Clics are squares, all the basic forms you can assemble from it are cubic or brick-like. However, thanks to the movable joints, you can assemble them at different angles, creating different shapes.
There are ways to create triangular or sloping figures if you assemble the pieces just right. The cubes, however, are the most sturdy and reliable structures this set can offer. There are also a possibility of creating a flat mosaic, combining the pieces of different colors.
Tegu Magnetic Wooden Dog
Tegu Explorer Set – Nelson. The parts have good size – they are large, and the dog is almost the life-size of a little poodle. The short plate is 3x6x0.7 cm. The medium plate is 3x12x0.7 cm. The long plate is 3x21x0.7 cm. The short support (pillar, prism) is 3x3x9 cm. The long support (pillar, prism) – 3x3x18 cm. If you add large ears, the head may fall off – you need to carefully consider the size of the pieces.
Gakken Flower
One of the things we liked mostabout Japanese Gakken set are rounded pieces with holes. Most waffle blocks don’t have pieces like that.
Unlike Plus Plus waffle blocks, Gakken blocks have pieces of many different shapes. They have round and curved pieces, long beams and H-like pieces. The empty spaces inside the blocks also can have different sizes and shapes, so you can stack inside different pieces in different positions. All this allows even more building possibilities than the waffle blocks sets with similar pieces. However, some pieces have less connection opgtions, because they don’t have pegs on the sides, or have only one hole.
Gakken brand appeared in Tokyo back in 1946 when it became an important component of Japan’s post-war efforts to rebuild the nation. Back then, it became incredible important to properly raise a new generation that will be able to create a better future.
The founder and educator, Hideto Furuoka, created first Gakken waffle buidling blocks. He later told that his inspiration was traditional Japanese wooden houses. There he saw an idea of flat blocks people can took apart and rebuild again when they need to. So he decided to create a toy which repeats this principle. Children can connect Japanese Gakken set building blocks, stack them, lay them, plug, or tuck blocks in different orientations, for example, horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.
