Telephones are one of the most favorite building themes for children when we play outdoors.
There Is A Connection!
Guidecraft IO Blocks
Guidecraft IO Blocks are very similar to Gakken New Blocks and its clones. They have pieces of similar shapes. However, it is not a “Gakken clone”, because some pieces are unique, and you can’t find them in the actual Gakken sets. Even if this set was, in fact, inspired by Gakken, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Many countries released their own waffle blocks over the years, often with their own unique tweaks, and this only added variety to the market.
Gakken is probably one of the most popular “waffle” blocks. The Gakken Blocks 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 Gakken trains. Those same pieces are just as thick as any other Gakken block, and you can use them in many ways, not just for building rails.
Gakken are Japanese sets, and Japanese Amazon has a bigger choice 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 Blocks sets were invented in Japan in the 1960s. Their original purpose was education and helping children develop imagination and fine motor skills. Gakken quickly became popular in Japan, and they are one of the oldest “waffle” blocks that are still around. There are many sets that try to repeat the 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.
Gakken Samurai
Samurai made from the Japanese waffle blocks (Gakken). Gakken brand has a set with tools: a screwdriver, a hammer, bolts, nuts and nails – Tool Set. Kids can use the tools together with the parts of the set. We liked this option; the children found several suitable bolts and nuts in the toy arsenal and attached them to crafts to make eyes and ears. It turned out, of course, not as nice as the original, which has larges caps and nice color (silver), but it was interesting all the same.
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.
Japanese waffle blocks (Gakken) 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.
Tegu Future Series – Circuit Racer – Complete Set
New Tegu series made in shades of natural and blue. There are 4 kits in total: Robo, Magbot, Circuit Racer, Magnetron. In addition to the color scheme, the sets are united by the theme of robotics.
Veatree 160pcs Magnetic Toys Upgraded
A classic magnetic building toy made by Veatree brand. The set contains metallic balls and colorful rods of equal shape and size. The rods in this set are longer and overall bigger than in the most similiar kits. Children can create all kinds of shapes from these parts, and the magnets are strong enough to keep the assembled toys together while children move them around.
The must stable and sturdy basic shape you can assemble with this set is a simple pyramid. By repeating this structure, children can learn basic engineering principles and create big and complicate sculptures which will actually support their own weight.
However, magnetic pieces of this set are strong and relatively small, so they may be dangerous for smaller children.
Magformers Super Brain Set
220 pieces in total: 39 triangles, 35 squares, 2 pentagons, 4 rectangles (double squares), 2 hexagons, 10 isosceles (high) triangles, 4 super large triangles, 6 super large squares, 4 rhombuses, 4 trapezoids, 4 small rectangles (half square ), 8 sectors (a quarter of a circle), 1 super-rectangle (triple square), 8 arcs (arches), a figurine and 88 additional details.
MAGNA-TILES Builder – Black Pieces
The dark pieces seen there are parts of the road. However, they are essentially the same as any other Magna-Tiles pieces, so you can mount them anywhere you want.
Magformers Pythagoras Set
Pythagoras is an educational set, focusing on helping kids to understand geometry with 2D and 3D magnetic figures. The pieces are typical Magformers frames, though Pythagoras has more different shapes than other Magformers sets of this size. However, this set has a booklet offering geometrical activities and games. It can be an interesting educational asset – but no one will stop you from just playing with it either.
PIXIO 200 Piece Set
This set has somewhat medium size and color choices for the PIXIO sets, so you can build many complicated crafts from this set.
Gears!Gears!Gears! Movin’ Monkeys
Movin’ Monkeys by Gears!Gears!Gears! a jungle-themed set, and it has 103 pieces – interlocking baseplates, poles, and, of course, gears. With this set, you can build an upright construction, add the axis pieces, and decorate your craft with the gears. Then you can turn a crank on any of these gears, and watch all the connected gears rotate. It also has the monkey figurines you can add to the palm trees by their tails, spin, twist and turn.
The pieces of this set are big and sturdy, so they can survive many years of use. This set is not very complicated in its concept, so you can give it to the children you are 3 years old or older. Gears!Gears!Gears Movin’ Monkeys is a great toy for the children on the Autistic spectrum, and will keep them occupied for a long time.
Learning Resources is a popular and well-known toy brand from the USA that specializes in STEM toys. Gears!Gears!Gears! is a series of building sets with moving and rotating gears in them. These gears may have different functions in different sets, but you can mix them and use them together. Gears! Gears! Gears! sets show exactly how the gear transmission works, and you can use them as a colorful and simple explanation of the gear physics.
