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.
