The magnetic construction set is one of the favorites. We build pyramids, towers, and castles, but recently the kids have enjoyed making panoramas. Arishka (2.3 years old) made the town with my little hints. She really loves the magnetic construction set and has been playing with a large magnetic construction set with 5 cm diameter balls for over a year. Now she has moved on to a smaller one. It’s challenging but interesting – you can’t make her stop.
Fish from the designer Genii Creation, caught with toy fishing rods. Fishing kept my younger daughters busy all evening, especially inventing interesting fish. They also used other magnetic constructors in this process.
Arishka’s geometric experiments with the constructor ended with the creation of this snake. The craft is also inspired by the impressions of a real snake the children caught in the lake.
A magic Tiko fortress on the mountain (real one we visited). For the purpose of the game, however, the boulders in the background acted like mountains.
Pythagoras, Tiko, and Tako are vintage building sets. They have big panels of different colors and shapes, that connect by the edges. Each piece has sockets and balls that can snap together, connecting the pieces. You can also connect the pieces of different shapes, as long as their sides match. This connection is strong enough to hold even the biggest structures together.
Because of the sockets’ form, Pythagoras and Tiko panels can form both flat surfaces and 3D shapes. The flexible joint connection means that you can connect the pieces at different angles. The bigger panels are huge – they are a few inches long, so kids can create toy hats or items to hold, and not just toys. They are sturdy enough to wear and to play with. There also are smaller pieces that can help connect the bigger pannels together or make smaller crafts. The pieces of this set have all kinds of shapes – there are different triangles, rectangles, squares, pentagons, and so on, all in different colors.
Sadly, Amazon seemingly has no sets exactly like Tiko and Pythagoras, but some very similar concepts also are interesting enough.
The author is my son (11 years old) made anteaters with long ears. Such specimen do not exist in nature, but this way they are much prettier, according to the son. We put 2 anthill pyramids, then made trees. The eldest daughter (9 years old) built a pond (in the upper right corner) with lush vegetation. 2-year-old Arishka, of course, took an active part, handing over the details and constructing flowers. The stones scattered throughout the forest are what the round and oval cicadas are then made of. You can read more about the life of anteaters here.
And this ship swam around the mountain river to its heart’s content – the children had fun with it all day long. I must admit to the quality of Tiko – the stones did not cause any damage to the parts of the ship, only scratched them a little. Unfortunately, the ship sank more than once, but still managed to sail a couple of tens of meters.
Pythagoras, Tiko, and Tako are vintage building sets. They have big panels of different colors and shapes, that connect by the edges. Each piece has sockets and balls that can snap together, connecting the pieces. You can also connect the pieces of different shapes, as long as their sides match. This connection is strong enough to hold even the biggest structures together.
Because of the sockets’ form, Pythagoras and Tiko panels can form both flat surfaces and 3D shapes. The flexible joint connection means that you can connect the pieces at different angles. The bigger panels are huge – they are a few inches long, so kids can create toy hats or items to hold, and not just toys. They are sturdy enough to wear and to play with. There also are smaller pieces that can help connect the bigger pannels together or make smaller crafts. The pieces of this set have all kinds of shapes – there are different triangles, rectangles, squares, pentagons, and so on, all in different colors.
Sadly, Amazon seemingly has no sets exactly like Tiko and Pythagoras, but some very similar concepts also are interesting enough.
A house, a hammer and a pyramid made by my daughter from Magnext building kit.
Another picture made from French Iotobo mosaic.
Magnetic tank figurine, made from Genii Creation set.
Vointage cannons made from the Japanese building set.
