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.
The orange sun rises over the sea, a palm tree bathes in its golden rays on a small island with a sandy beach. A scene made from Unika gears.
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 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 Unika 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.
This is a package of a smaller Qubits set with 50 pieces. The Qubits brand doesn’t use normal boxes, offering their own, more ecological package.
Qubits is a small toy brand making very interesting and unusual building sets. Qubits sets have only two types of pieces – rectangular planks and multi-triangular pieces.
The multi-triangular pieces look like they are made from many connected triangles. They can connect to each other with the matching holes and pegs in the triangles’ centers. Each of these pieces has the same shape, but, connecting and overlapping, they create strong, flexible openwork structures. They can create any shapes and forms, flat or 3D. However, triangular shapes are the most sturdy and resilient ones.
There are also rectangular pieces, that can connect with multi-triangular ones both with the edges and with the openings on their surfaces. These pieces can also connect to each other. Both shapes come in multiple colors, often random, colors. Together, these two shapes can create many surprising and fascinating crafts. Sadly, Qubits have no extra pieces like wheels, so the number of moving crafts and toys is somewhat limited.
Qubits are big enough to be safe even for toddlers – they are few inches long and wide. However, these sets can be confusing for the smaller children, so the recommended age is 6+.
Japanese sets somehow quietly, but very quickly made their way to Amazon and became more accessible… Among them is Gakken aka New Block Gakken. And now, forgotten 3 years ago, the dream of a waffle building set + tools set began to hover again in our house. Probably 2 potential owners of this set have grown up during this time. The set has 80 parts of 22 types – basic “waffle” parts. There are also screws and nuts, and also tools, including a saw, a screwdriver, a wrench, and a hammer.
You can use the tools in constructions along with other parts. Each tool has a special protrusion for connection with parts. A screwdriver, for example, can be the nose of a spaceship, and a saw can propel a quite nice flying machine nose. Naturally, you can, and should, use the tools for their intended purpose – unscrewing, tightening, sawing, hammering. Knowing the quality of the Japanese Gakken construction set, I expect the set to be very useful and entertaining. It comes in a box with a lid that serves as a base for construction. You can attach the crafts to the special slots on its surface.
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.
Japanese brand New Block Gakken added gears to their sets. You can spin and spin again and again, which is actually reflected in the name. Well done, what more can I say!
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 New Block Gakken. 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.
A friend from the Chinese building set Straw Art Kit (manufacturer 4M). This girl is uncomplicated and simple. But she played and danced with her sisters for a long time and even went crazy with them at the sports complex.
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.
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.
This 480 piece K’NEX kit 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. As with the other K’Nex sets, you can easily assemble some crafts with actual moving parts. In this case, the rotor blades can rotate, just like blades of a real helicopter.
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 480 piece K’NEX 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.
