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.
Oodles of Pals is a big set, with 116 pieces. Along with the basic Kid K’Nex pieces, it has wheels, horn/tail pieces, showels, paws and other decorations. It has no significant theme – this set is all about crating weird and unexpected creatures.
These two Gakken-like waffle sets are closer in size, but you still can’t use them together. Malysh pieces (light blue ladder, the whit and the lighter yellow piece) are 0.5 inch wide, while Igrushkin pieces are 0.6 inch wide.
Waffle blocks are very popular type of plastic building blocks. In these sets, each piece have pegs and square holes, and you can connect pieces in multiple ways to build both 2D and 3D crafts. The bricks connect to each other seamlessly, almost like in a jigsaw puzzle, so you can make endless combinations in any order you want. There are many brands of waffle building blocks, Gakken and Plus Plus are the most popular and well-known ones. This, however, is rarer Gakken-like waffle sets.
Blocks by different manufacturers may look different. In Plus Plus sets, for example, all blocks are exactly the same, the only difference is color. These old ex-USSR sets, however, has pieces of differnet shapes, and some extras, like figurines or wheels. There are also a number of long, bar-like pieces that help connect waffle blocks together. You can stack many waffles on one bar, which helps to create thick and solid crafts.
The waffle blocks themselves are small, each side of a block has only one or two pegs. Some blocks has H-shape and no pegs at all on some sides. This is a downside, because you can’t connect anything on these sides. Sometimes, however, these pieces are very handy, because you can stuck them in small openings to support the craft around it. It all other regards, it is a typical waffle block building kit with small pieces.
You assemble the body from its two halves, and the base of the neck goes inside. Some pieces connect with joints, some with pegs.
Some more ex-USSR Gakken-like building sets. The top row is Igrushkin brand, the pieces 4.5 inch wide and 0.6 inch thick. The lower row is Belorussian Samodelkin set. These pieces are about 2.5 inch wide and 0.35 inch thick. Both sets are very similar to the Gakken sets, but the size differs drastically.
Waffle blocks are very popular type of plastic building blocks. In these sets, each piece have pegs and square holes, and you can connect pieces in multiple ways to build both 2D and 3D crafts. The bricks connect to each other seamlessly, almost like in a jigsaw puzzle, so you can make endless combinations in any order you want. There are many brands of waffle building blocks, Gakken and Plus Plus are the most popular and well-known ones. This, however, are rarer Gakken-like building sets.
Blocks by different manufacturers may look different. In Plus Plus sets, for example, all blocks are exactly the same, the only difference is color. This old ex-USSR set, however, has pieces of differnet shapes, and some extras, like figurines or wheels. There are also a number of long, bar-like pieces that help connect waffle blocks together. You can stack many waffles on one bar, which helps to create thick and solid crafts.
The waffle blocks themselves are small, each side of a block has only one or two pegs. Some blocks has H-shape and no pegs at all on some sides. This is a downside, because you can’t connect anything on these sides. Sometimes, however, these pieces are very handy, because you can stuck them in small openings to support the craft around it. It all other regards, it is a typical waffle block building kit with small pieces.
Family of mice. Ahead, of course, is a troublemaking baby mouse, on the left is dad mouse, he is taller, on the right is mom mouse.
I once started making a tower from TIKO for my 2-year-old nephew (he really loves all sorts of towers). Then my oldest and I got carried away, and we built a tower from almost all the Tiko set parts, we had only 5-6 pieces left. At first, the tower stood behind the curtain on the windowsill, waiting for the right moment and mood of the kids. The right moment came, we armed ourselves with a camera and showed the tower to the kids. The nephew’s delight knew no bounds!
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.
Another K’Nex thing we added small toys to.
The tank’s turret rotates up to 360 degrees.
All figurines and items of this set – and the castle itself, of course.
This is one of many K’Nex sets offering to build carnival rides. This set is a big one, it has 744 pieces, mostly classic K’Nex building pieces. there areno decorations to speak of, but the set has a small motor and some gears, so you can build moving crafts.
