This is a classic magnetic mosaic with wooden pieces. It can create only flat ornamets and figures, and not sculptures, but is still very fun to play. The pieces stick to the magnet board which comes in the set to form pictures. This particular set is relatively large, since it contains 120 pieces of different shapes and colors.
Steel balls are too big to use them in building cars. However, you can still play with them.
These foam blocks hold together better if assembled on a metal or magnetic plate. Edushape also has a set with smaller number of pieces, but with a baseplate included.
The huge box hides smaller colorful boxes, each containing a small number of pieces. The boxes from the Genii Creation Transportation set have been serving us faithfully for a couple of years. I moved various puzzles and small building sets there. We did the same with the boxes from the Playground set. The huge box itself is unsuitable for storage, the building kit pieces fill up only a small part of it. So all Genii Creation sets was moved into a spacious plastic box.
A cube of snow and ice is a fortress. Inside is a throne for the king of the Ice World. The king is a recluse, lonely, spends his life thinking about good and evil. Made from Gakken waffle pieces.
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 pieces. 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 retro-styled K’Nex phone. Children absolutely love making things like that.
Made from EDTOY blocks by Willy (6 years).
The pieces of the Tiro technosaur figurine. There isn’t much to build from, but this thing is fun to play with.
The Japanese camel. A toy made from Logmag magnetic construction set.
This is a basic type of the Plus Plus sets – with 240 pieces in a plastic tube. There are many different colors and themes of Plus Plus Tube sets. This is a Glitter set, with pink and violet glittereng pieces along with common ones.
Danish Plus Plus sets are among the most popular and well-known “waffle” building sets. Almost all pieces in these sets are exactly the same – except for the wheels and the baseplates. However, even with only the basic pieces, you can build almost anything.
All basic pieces have exactly the same shape and size – they look like two pluses joined together, hence the brand name. Each piece has two pegs on the long sides one peg on the short sides, and the matching empty spaces. The pieces are thick, so the pegs are as thick as they are long. Because of this, you can connect the pieces in any direction, they will hold well all the same. So you can build both 2D mosaics and all kinds of 3D shapes, connecting the pieces vertically, horizontally, or even with an angle. The Danish schools use Plus Plus kits as an educational tool. They help teach kids basic STEAM skills and help them develop fine motorics and creativity.
To add some difference and more variety to the crafts, the Plus Plus brand offers countless sets with different numbers and colors of the pieces. There are pieces of different colors and hues, glowing pieces, pieces with glitter, and so on. The sets also may include any number of the Plus Plus pieces. There are also both small traveling kits and big gift sets.
