Posted on 9 Comments

Not Clics, But Very Similar

I bought this Clics clone because of it small price. The pieces turned out to be 3 mm smaller than original Clics, but of great quality. Maybe it will be useful for someone.

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. There are also many Clics clone sets of different quality.

Not Clics, But Very Similar
Posted on Leave a comment

Unika Gears

This gears building set set by the Ukrainian Unika brand comes in a plastic jar for later storage. This is an interesting and fun building set with many unusual possibilities.

These gears are a version of a popular type of building set. The gears in this one are not rotating on top of some structure – they are the basic building blocks of the set. The gears connect if you interlock the pins, or if you stack them. With these simple connections, you can build different shapes, sculptures and mosaics.

All the gears have the same shape and size, the only difference is the color. However, there are still many possibilities to build, especially if you have many pieces. The gears can also interlock if you connect them at an angle. Sadly, the possibilities to build a moving toy are very limited, because the gears can’t really move once they connect. There are also no extra pieces or decorations, so the gears are the only things you have to work with.

The gears themselves are rather big, they are safe for the small children to play with. They also can hold together even in a very big craft without falling apart.

Unika Gears
Posted on 1 Comment

Japanese Waffle Blocks Railroad

A Gakken set for building railways, spaceships and ultra-modern cars. It comes in a plastic box with a lid. The lid can serve as a baseplate for construction – it has special slots into which you insert construction parts, so the craft can be fixed directly to the lid.

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 set. 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.

Japanese Waffle Blocks Railroad
Posted on 2 Comments

Chicco Let’s Go!

You can compose the towers in any way you like. Alesya placed the tower on the tractor, and the magnetic elements made it possible to attach the cubes to the side. And then a cheerful cat climbed up. Go!

Chicco is a well-known and popular brand of all things for infants and toddlers. Chicco mostly makes strollers and other similar items, but there are also Chicco toys, like these building cubes. They are big, and colorful, have simple pictures on their sides, and are easy to grab and connect. The set also has wheels and animal heads. Obviously, the cubes are way too big to swallow accidentally, so they are safe and easy enough for kids who are older than 9 months. The cubes have magnets in them, but they are under the plastic surface. The cubes themselves are sturdy enough to prevent the magnets from falling out, so it’s not a safety concern.

This set looks very simple, but it is a good toy for smaller children, with many connecting possibilities and ways to play. You can build vehicles, animals, and houses, and use cubes as both 3D shapes and simple pictures. It’s a good way to enhance a toddler’s imagination and a safe way to occupy the child for a long. It’s a shame that these sets are not that common, even while the idea is pretty obvious.

Chicco Let's Go!
Posted on Leave a comment

Constructor Elements By Tehnolog Company

These are pillars to which you attach wall panels and floors, connected by lintels. You can build the pillars up to the height you need. They have grooves to insert the walls, and the walls have holes for installation with floor-ceiling pins. Their can look very different, I didn’t find the version we want yet, but we don’t lose hope.

Constructor Elements By Tehnolog Company
Posted on Leave a comment

Construct-O-Straws

Construct-O-Straws is an american version of the construction set with elastic tubes. It’s is not the only one, however. There is an another, simpler Canadian version called Straws and Connectors with the tubes and X-shaped connectors. Their site offers some building instructions.

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. 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.

Construct-O-Straws