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Clics Parking Lot

We haven’t even received our packages, and our first Clicomania epizod have ended already. I found some photos of the crafts from our first Clics building blocks.

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.

Clics Parking Lot
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Magneto Block Magnetic Building Kit

The Japanese magnetic set Magnet Block is known as Magneto Block in Europe. It comes in a case with a lid that serves as a building plate. 2 hemispheres with magnets are already mounted in the lid, and there are sokets for installing both balls and rods.

Magneto Block Magnetic Building Kit
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Metro Mags – Yet Another Version Of Magna-Tiles

Metro Mags and Magnetic Stick N Stack are most likely clones and cousins of the original Magna-Tiles. I don’t know what the quality of Metro Mags is. But something tells me that it’s no worse than the Magnetic Stick N Stack. And we checked this one and were quite satisfied, it doesn’t differ from the original in magnetic properties.

Metro Mags - Yet Another Version Of Magna-Tiles
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At The Bottom Of The Sea Of Japan

Some scene we made from Japanese waffle building blocks – Gakken.

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 these Japanese waffle building blocks, stack them, lay them, plug, or tuck blocks in different orientations, for example, horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.

At The Bottom Of The Sea Of Japan
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K’Nex Pal

One of the smallest sets of baby Knex – 16 parts in total. From all the details, we made this completely not-scary monster. The set is called Monster Buddies. We bought solely because of the closing black eyes and swirling horns. This is Knex’s policy – different sets have different interesting details, so you have to buy additional horns, ears, fins…

K'Nex Pal
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Tegu House

When we saw a picture of a house from the Tegu constructor this spring, we were eager to purchase a new set of Tegu Explorer. We settled on the Nelson version – pieces of orange, green, light blue, dark blue. The roof superstructure with the pipe is simply lying on top. It is not fixed, since there are no magnets at the base of the trapezoids. This is what confused me when buying a set. I was completely sure that the superstructure is holding by magnetic connection…

Tegu House