There was many of these half-Lego, half-K’Nex mixed sets.
LOZ DINOSAUR BUILDING SET LOZ0012
Category: Plastic Building Kits
Plastic building kits are construction sets designed for children that primarily utilize plastic components. These kits consist of various interlocking pieces, connectors, panels, and accessories that allow children to build and create a wide range of structures, vehicles, and other imaginative designs.
Plastic building kits are known for their versatility, durability, and ease of use. The pieces are often designed to fit together securely, enabling children to construct stable and sturdy creations. These kits usually come with a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, allowing for endless possibilities and encouraging children to think creatively and problem-solve while constructing their designs.
Many plastic building kits also incorporate specialized parts such as wheels, hinges, and gears, adding an extra level of functionality and enabling children to create movable and interactive models. Some kits may even include motorized components that bring the creations to life with spinning gears or moving parts.
These kits are popular among children of various age groups and provide numerous educational benefits. They promote fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, and logical thinking. Additionally, plastic building kits foster creativity, imagination, and cognitive development as children design and build their own unique structures and scenarios.
Overall, plastic building kits offer a stimulating and engaging way for children to explore construction, design, and engineering concepts while having fun and unleashing their creativity.
Spaghetteez Building Set – Duck
Another craft Spaghetteez brand proposes for its building sets. This duck utilizes a black connector as an eye piece.
Spaghetteez is a unique brand of building sets with flexible tubes. Basic Spaghetteez pieces are plastic straws of different lengths, and they not only bend very well but also keep whatever shape you twist them into. They can bend again and again to form a flat surface, they can wrap around each other, form knots, and so on.
All the straws have special connectors on their ends, so you can connect any straws together, or loop a straw by connecting its own ends. The sets also have special connectors that will hold the straws together at certain angles or side by side. Or, if you need to connect two straws by their middles, you can just tie them together.
Just like any other straw, the Spagheettez set allows you to create lightweight and hollow shapes. However, these straws can hold together upright if your craft’s shape allows it. For example, you can create an animal, and it will actually stand on its legs. The Spaghetteez sets also include wheels, so you can create a vehicle and actually roll it around.
Unlike with many other sets with straws, you can’t cut Spaghetteez straws and continue to connect them. Spaghetteez straws have special connecting pieces on their ends, so they won’t be able to connect if you cut the end off. Because of this, the sets have many straws of different lengths.
LOZ DINOSAUR BUILDING SET LOZ0011
LOZ don’t sell those sets on Amazon now, but these are basically Lego-like bricks with K’Nex pieces. Actual K’Nex has some Lego-like bricks, but in smaller numbers.
Lux Blox
Lux Blox is an interesting version of the “waffle” blocks. Each Lux Blox set has square pieces of identical size and shape. All these pieces have one socket and one peg on each side, so you can connect them to each other. Once connected, the pieces form a joint, so you can move them and keep them together at any angle.
However, connecting the pieces to the centre of another pieces is not an option, unlike in many “waffle” building kits. There are also no parts of any form other than the squares, which somewhat limits the building options.
However, there are many colors of the pieces available, and the pieces have a hole in their centre, so you can add them on an axis of some sorts. For this option, however, you will need to take an axis somewhere else.
There are many sets of Lux Blox available, including very big classroom sets for many children. There are also sets of different themes, and the sets with the rubber bands to enhance the moving crafts.
Overall, these sets have almost countless building possibilities, due to their ability to contact from any side and form movable, flexible joints.
K’NEX 35 Model Building Set – Jeep
One of the proposed crafts for the 480 piece K’NEX 35 crafts kit. The wheels and other mechanical pieces are the only extra pieces this set has. Most of the pieces are basic building K’Nex pieces. This set includes both large and small flake-like parts. It also has thick and thin rods, plus some rods that connect the big and small flakes together. These special pieces aren’t in every K’Nex set.
The kit comes with a big storage box, handy for keeping your unfinished creations safe. You can put your half-made toy in it and finish it later.
Like other K’Nex sets, these pieces lock together well. You can easily take apart your creations and build something new. The regular K’Nex pieces are sturdy, so your crafts can handle lots of play. The mini K’Nex crafts are a bit more delicate. This K’NEX 35 crafts kit includes pieces of both sizes.
While the crafts can be big, some pieces, especially the small ones, are tiny. That’s why K’Nex can be risky for very young kids who might swallow the pieces accidentally. It can also be a bit tricky for little kids to put together. That’s why it’s recommended for kids aged 7 and older.
Spaghetteez Building Set – Boat
This Spaghetteez boat shows different connectors each building set has. These connectors allow you to connect a straw’s end to the middle of an another straw.
Spaghetteez is a unique brand of building sets with flexible tubes. Basic Spaghetteez pieces are plastic straws of different lengths, and they not only bend very well but also keep whatever shape you twist them into. They can bend again and again to form a flat surface, they can wrap around each other, form knots, and so on.
All the straws have special connectors on their ends, so you can connect any straws together, or loop a straw by connecting its own ends. The sets also have special connectors that will hold the straws together at certain angles or side by side. Or, if you need to connect two straws by their middles, you can just tie them together.
Just like any other straw, the Spagheettez set allows you to create lightweight and hollow shapes. However, these straws can hold together upright if your craft’s shape allows it. For example, you can create an animal, and it will actually stand on its legs. The Spaghetteez sets also include wheels, so you can create a vehicle and actually roll it around.
Unlike with many other sets with straws, you can’t cut Spaghetteez straws and continue to connect them. Spaghetteez straws have special connecting pieces on their ends, so they won’t be able to connect if you cut the end off. Because of this, the sets have many straws of different lengths.
Clics Offroad
Clics Offroad is a set with big wheels to build different off-road vehicles. With relatively small number of pieces, it still offers many different models of vehicles you can play with after assembly.
ClicsToys, a Belgian company established in 2001, operates its very own factory located in Kempen, where they craft the popular Clics building blocks. These building sets mostly have square pieces, all sharing identical form and shape. What sets Clics apart is their ability to connect smoothly at the edges, allowing flexible joint movements.
Using these plastic squares, the creative possibilities are endless, even though Clics sets usually offer relatively few extra pieces and accessories. Some sets may include wheels and decorative panels, but few extra items. The true strength of Clics lies in the generous number of pieces in their sets, allowing you to make even biggest creations with ease. The pieces of Clics are too big to swallow and easy to hold, so they are safe, but some connections can be too tricky to younger kids. So the most sets are recommended for children who are 3 years old or older. However, these sets will be interesting even for the 10-years-olds.
The fundamental building blocks in Clics are square, which naturally leads to the cubic or brick-like structures. However, the great advantage of these blocks is the ability to connect them at various angles, making diverse shapes. Careful assembly can even give you triangular or sloping figures. Nevertheless, the most robust and tough structures in Clics are cube-shaped. Additionally, you can create flat mosaics by combining pieces of different colors.
Tiko Helmet
A huge helmet we built for the plush friend from the small Tiko panels.
Tiko is a vintage building set, just like Tako. But, unlike Tako, Tiko pieces are solid panels of different shapes. They also connect by the edges – each edge has some sockets and some balls at regular intervals. Together, the balls and sockets form joints, so you can connect the pieces at different angles. The pieces themselves have different sizes – some are palm-sized, and others are smaller. But it’s possible to connect the pieces of different sizes, as long as the sockets match. Some big pieces have open centers – and these openings also have sockets, so you can add something there.
Since some Tiko pieces are so big, you can easily make crafts that are as tall as a 10-year-old child, and parts will actually hold together. Or you can make flat mosaics if you want to, and then roll them to make a 3D figure. There are no people figurines or decorations, but the building possibilities are endless. With Tiko, can create abstract shapes, buildings, toy furniture, and even something they can wear themselves. It’s a pity this set isn’t available to buy anymore, but there are some similar toys with the same basic concepts.
Gakken Diving Mask
Gakken are probably one of the most popular “waffle” blocks. The Gakken Blocks sets have many different forms and shapes of the blocks. There are arched blocks, blocks with different numbers of pegs on different sides, and figurines. There are also some pieces that can work like the rails for the Gakken trains. That same pieces are just as thick as any other Gakken blosk, and you can use them in many ways, not just for building rails.
Gakken are Japanese sets, and Japanese Amazon have bigger choise of them. But the shipping may be long and expensive. In countries that are far from Japan, finding these sets can be more tricky, but there are plenty of sets that have pieces of the same shapes.
Original Gakken Blocks sets were invented in Japan in 1960s. They original purpose was education and helping children develop imagination and fine motorics. Gakken quickly became popelar in Japan, and they are one of the oldest “waffle” blocks that are still around. There are many sets that try to repeat Gakken concept, but not all of them have this high quality. Another similar set brand is Danish Plus Plus, but in Plus Plus all the pieces have the same shape.
Mounting logs in houses for gnomes
The mount holds very well, you can easily move and lift it. Surprisingly, I really liked it even with an internal protest against plastic logs.