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Zoob Knight

A Zoob knight with a smaller square. Sadly, Zoob brand doesn’t make these small pieces anymore.

Back in 1997, inventor Michael Grey introduced Zoob brand, a toy inspired by the science of motion and organism development. Zoob represents an acronym for Zoology, Ontology, Ontogeny, and Botany. Each set has rod-like pieces with joint balls and sockets on their ends. Each of these balls has small bumps on its surface. So the joints can both move and stay in a certain position if you need them to.

This innovative toy features a ball and socket connection system, mimicking the natural movement and design found in people, animals, and machines. With just five basic shapes, Zoob offers 20 different ways to connect them together.

Zoob building sets have won awards because they’re different from regular building blocks. They use plastic pieces that snap together, like gears and joints, to build all kinds of objects, limited only by your imagination. After you build something with Zoob, you can actually play with it – the pieces were designed to move after being assembled, so you can have fun with the toys you create.

Zoobs are great for helping children improve their fine motor skills. The pieces are small enough to easily manipulate and put them together, but they’re not too tiny like some other toys, so it’s easier for kids who find small objects tricky.

Zoob Knight
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Geomag Pro-L Pocket Set

Geomag Pro-L sets have more powerful magnets than other Geomag sets and are made for older, more expirienced kids. Bigger Pro-L sets have rods, balls and panels of different shapes. There are also small Pro-L sets in portable cases. They have no panels, but, since the magnets are more powerful than usual, you still can build many interesting things with these sets.

Geomag Pro-L Pocket Set
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Tiko Hammer And Sicle

Some other Tiko toys we made – with a sudden political turn 🙂 Like all big Tiko toy items, these sicle and hammer are as big as the real ones and you can actually hold them.

Pythagoras, Tiko, and Tako are vintage building sets. They have big panels of different colors and shapes, that connect by the edges. Each piece has sockets and balls that can snap together, connecting the pieces. You can also connect the pieces of different shapes, as long as their sides match. This connection is strong enough to hold even the biggest structures together.

Because of the sockets’ form, Pythagoras and Tiko panels can form both flat surfaces and 3D shapes. The flexible joint connection means that you can connect the pieces at different angles. The bigger panels are huge – they are a few inches long, so kids can create toy hats or items to hold, and not just toys. They are sturdy enough to wear and to play with. There also are smaller pieces that can help connect the bigger pannels together or make smaller crafts. The pieces of this set have all kinds of shapes – there are different triangles, rectangles, squares, pentagons, and so on, all in different colors.

Sadly, Amazon seemingly has no sets exactly like Tiko and Pythagoras, but some very similar concepts also are interesting enough.

Tiko Hammer And Sicle
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Hape Bamboo Magnetic Mosaic

We took the photo of the mosaic next to a box and a chocolate egg container to give an idea of the size – a small tablet in a huge box. The set includes a tablet with pieces and corners with an elastic band for hanging the tablet with the finished work on the wall or door. There are only 24 pieces – 16 triangles and 8 squares. The mosaic comes with a booklet with 20 samples.

Hape Bamboo Magnetic Mosaic
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K’NEX Flower

A 3d flower my son built from Knex 100 models set. He actually started with the 2D things before making this one.

K’Nex comes in two sizes: regular and mini K’Nex. It also includes both thick and thin rods, and some rods can connect the larger and smaller pieces together. Not all K’Nex sets include mini parts.

Like other K’Nex sets, this one features pieces that securely lock together. You can easily take apart your creations and use the pieces to build something new. Regular K’Nex pieces have stronger connections, making crafts sturdy even during active play. Mini K’Nex creations are a bit more delicate. Knex 100 models set has only regular pieces.

Although the crafts you can make with K’Nex can be quite large, some of the pieces, especially the mini ones, are very small. This can make K’Nex sets risky for small babies who might accidentally swallow the pieces. These small parts can also be a bit challenging for younger kids to assemble correctly. That’s why it’s recommended for children aged 7 and older to use K’Nex sets.

It’s also worth noting that most K’Nex sets don’t provide detailed crafting instructions. Some packages may only show completed toys as examples. However, thanks to the versatility and creative possibilities K’Nex offers, this usually isn’t a significant issue.

K'NEX Flower
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Guidecraft IO Blocks Center – Figurines 4

Guidecraft blocks center has people figurines. You can make them stand, or you can remove their legs and put them inside the sockets in the pieces.

This set is more than a building kit, this is, as the manufacturer puts it, an education system. This Guidecraft IO Blocks Center set includes building blocks and a real child-sized wooden table with storage bins!

The table in this set is very similar to the common adult tables, with the storage shelves in usual places – except these deep plastic boxes hold building toys and not papers. The table surface itself is a construction baseplate – it has holes to fix the pieces. This allows the gears to rotate in their positions, and your kids can build bigger crafts without them falling apart.

The building set itself has big, chunky pieces of different shapes. They have thick square pegs and crevices that can snap together and can connect the pieces in different positions. The set also includes bent slide pieces, axis parts, and figurines. The figures look like cubic Lego people, except they have no moving legs.

Overall, this is an ambitious and unusual set. It has great potential, but buying the whole table for just one building set brand can easily be an overkill for many families. The table itself has very specific holds, so you can’t use many sets with it – pieces from lots of building toys simply won’t match these square holes.

Guidecraft IO Blocks Center - Figurines 4
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