Gakken Sawmill

We have a new wave of construction from the Japanese Gakken set and similar sets. My son, 4.4 years old, makes a lot of things from the construction set – both the simplest things and complex ones. These diving mask, a watering can and a sawmill are the most recent examples. In this machine, the lighter blue part is moving along the dark blue one. It is pressing the material being cut to the sawing discs))))

Gakken are probably one of the most popular “waffle” blocks sets. The Gakken 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 Japanese Gakken set 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 New Blocks 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.