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K'Nex 350 Piece Tub
by purplekimmy
Lego has always been a favourite in our house but when K'nex appeared, it looked like fun and worth giving a go. Like Lego, I started off buying a smaller kit to make and have now worked up to buying big tubs of the stuff to allow so many more things to be made.
I paid £24.99 from Argos for our tub of K'nex, I have since ... worked out that it is currently on offer at Argos (£16.99) but it is still worth the £25 I paid for it. The red plastic box is similar to the Lego boxes, good sturdy thick plastic tub that can take a lot of being knocked about.
They have a warning saying this should be used by people aged 7 and over, there are numerous little parts to this, and so should be kept out of the reach of little toddlers or anyone under the age of 3. The parts of K'nex are quite sturdy too, some of our set have been bent but we have had none snap or get so badly damaged that they can't be re-used.
There are roughly 350 different pieces in the tub and this allows you to make anything from dragsters, Ferris wheels to creatures and cars. The only limit is your imagination and the ability to get it to look right. I have tried (with my son of course) to make things from my head, but they never look right and I always go back to the instruction manual. There are twenty models you can make in the manual. I love the Ferris wheel, it has been made many times but never fails to thrill me each time.
As much as I love Lego, K'nex does have that feel of proper construction somehow, possibly because they are not just clunky blocks, they are all different shapes, and size, and each have their own part to play. Although they do go together in numerous ways, they stay together very well and hold themselves in position. Demolition isn't hard either, I do find with Lego some blocks can be hard to prise apart, I have had to use teeth to get them separate, this doesn't happen with K'nex, they just pull apart very easily. Good hand to eye co-ordination builders, my son has troubles sometimes with shakes he can't control, and his hand to eye co-ordination is sometimes very off, but using these has helped him with this, he seems to not get so frustrated, maybe because he is building something. If you love Lego, you will love this. 10/10
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Mega Bloks Building Blocks Bag
by kojak123
My little girl was given a pack of these for her birthday (1st!) in September.
At the time we thought they were a pretty poor present from someone with little idea about what to buy a 1 year old, but after giving her a bit of freedom to play with them they are actually quite a good toy.
So, this is a thick but soft ... moulded plastic carrier with a zip closed top which carries 70 different sized interlocking coloured bricks. Essentially these are Duplo bricks (oversized Lego) under a different name.
There are a handful of square 'base' blocks which for quite sturdy platforms to build upon, then various heights of 1, 2, 3 and 4 long strips.
My little girl is now 15 months old, and so still not able to lock the bricks together, but she is able to stack them in small towers, though I have to press them together.
For the most part she uses them with her other toys - mainly bashing them against different things to see what sort of noise she can make! However, when she becomes bored and just wants to chew, these large plastic blocks are perfectly safe.
I have been using the bricks to teach her colours. We separate them into their respective piles and ask for a green or a yellow brick to see if she can differentiate between them. She is beginning to respond to this in a manner, but is still a little young for those sorts of games really.
Her favourite game with these is knocking down towers which I build for her.
While her coordination isn't advanced to the point that she can press them together, she is superb at separating the individual bricks and happily spends half an hour pulling them apart until none are connected.
A slight worry is that she is obsessed with the empty plastic pack they come in. We have to tuck it away out of sight and out of reach, because on the occasions she has got hold of it it's all she wants to play with! Obviously she is never left unattended, but it's still a concern.
In summary, the bricks are clearly on the verge of becoming one of the more played with toys, but I think 18 months+ is going to be the optimum age to play with them. The bag does say 1 year plus, but I think it's a bit young to get anything out of this toy.
For the price, these are good value. £15 seems to be a fairly standard price, with some of the big chains asking as much as £20 for this starter pack.
As I say, I'm sure these will be out constantly and will be added to (there are lots of add-on packs) in the near future.
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Mega Bloks Power Rangers Foil Pack
by princesschickpea
Blind packs of single toys are now common at the till area of most toy shops, and come in many varieties including Lego and Playmobil. My sons love watching Power Rangers Samurai on TV, and often beg me for one of these packs. So, for their most recent birthday, I got them one pack each to add to their present, since they clearly wanted ... them so badly.
They cost £1.99 and come in simple foil bags which have pictures on the front of all the different characters you could possibly get when you open the bag. Of course, you won't know who you're getting until you pay for it and open it. With some ranges of these types of blind packs, Lego in particular, you can usually give the bags a little feel and get a general sense of who you might be getting. Not so with Power Rangers Megabloks, mainly because all Power Rangers look (and feel) much the same. Inside the pack you'll find one character, a base block and a few acessories, which can be swords, helmets or shoulder pads depending on the character. They are very similar to Lego, as you can see from the picture above, the base block looks like a generic Lego block and the figures fit together in much the same way. To be honest, I can't really tell the difference between Megabloks and Lego. My sons are 4 and just getting into Lego, though for younger children these wouldn't be suitable, as there are too many small parts. The quality of the figures is very good though, and we haven't had any problems with them breaking, or the paint detail getting scratched.
As is always the case with these blinds packs, the more popular characters are usually the most rare and in this case, the Red, Gold and Pink Rangers are very rare, while the training mode form of the rangers (in that they aren't wearing their distinctive costumes) are pretty common and not as sought after. We were lucky and my sons got a blue ranger and a red ranger, though one of them had wanted a pink ranger and got a little bit upset. At 4, they are still a bit young to fully understand the concept of luck of the draw, so while they may be old enough to play safely with the toys, I don't think they're mature enough to deal with the randomness of it. This may vary from child to child, but bear in mind that a child might get very upset if they get a generic figure rather than their favourite character.
For the price, it was a bit of fun and didn't feel overly expensive for what we got. My sons enjoy playing with them, and have added them into their box of Lego figures - the fact that Megabloks figures are compatible with Lego is a major bonus in my opinion. The figures themselves are great for Power Ranger fans, but the element of surprise might be too much for some.
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