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Redbox Mini Builderific Set
by Mephit
I bought this construction set from Trago Mills, a local discount store, for £4.99.
Builderific is a bit like a cheap plastic version of Meccano. Sets come in various sizes. The 78 piece set is one of the smaller ones and you get 2 large triangular pieces, 2 smaller triangles, 15 straight strips of various lengths and some ... angled pieces; all of which have holes at regular intervals to allow you to join them together, using the plastic nuts and bolts included. (The nuts and bolts are counted as part of the 78). You can bend the strips to make curves. The main pieces are all brightly coloured, in yellow, purple, green and orange. There are also 4 black wheels included and a plastic spanner for tightening your bolts.
The box this set came in lies flat and the flap can be lifted to reveal the contents. Each type of piece is kept separate in its own plastic indents. This makes it easy to keep the pieces neat and tidy, so it is worth keeping the box for storage.
Inside the flap are pictures of things you can make using the 78 pieces, including a giraffe, moped & sidecar, airplane, helicopter, forklift, tank and dinosaur. We also got a big booklet of possible makes included, but this was unfortunately aimed at people who'd bought the larger sets. The children were enthusiastic about making several of the things there, and to realise they didn't have the necessary pieces was very disappointing. The box tells you that 10 toys can be made using the 78 pieces from the Builderific design booklet, including a boat and a peacock, although you can think up your own. Some of the models you can put together require a bit of imagination/squinting to know what they're supposed to be (particularly the dinosaur!)
It's quite a simple set to use and it's easy to follow the suggestions to produce a model. Construction sets have great developmental value in utilising fine motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination and in learning how to follow pictures & written instruction, as well as trying things out using trial and error. The Boy likes to put lots of bits together fairly randomly and declare what it is at the end! It's also an opportunity to work together, either with a parent or another child to build something. Construction toys stimulate the imagination too and can have further play-value in playing with the completed models afterwards. With the Builderific set, you get all these good outcomes and a lot of fun too. The set is suitable for children aged over three.
One thing we have found is that quite a few of the models expect you to bend the plastic strips round. This works fine for the most part, but the strips don't necessarily return to flat afterwards, and we have had a couple snap during building. Obviously it's quite a cheap construction set and the durability doesn't seem to be there. That said, the nuts and bolts fit together well, and we haven't had any problems with cross-threading.
Currently the children are more interested in Lego than this construction set, but it does get some use at home. Their school has a big box-load of it, which is well-used during wet-play.
I think the Builderific's pretty good at the price if you're not sure whether your child will enjoy this sort of construction set, but a higher quality set (such as Junior Meccano) would probably be a better long-term investment if your child is really into building. I also think I should have bought a larger set, because the 78 piece one is quite limited in what can be made, especially if more than one child wants to use it. So it's not a whole-hearted recommendation from me.
The Boy (6) says "I think it's really good, but it can get a bit boring."
The Girl (11) says "I think it's good, I like all the bright colours and you can make cool things with it, but that bit snapped, remember? I wish we'd got a bigger box of it as what we can't make a lot of the things from the booklet-thingie. It's not amazingly-amazing."
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Quercetti Super Marble Run Vortex
by jazzypinkpuppet
My son received this marble run as a 6th birthday present. Here is how he got on with it ......
The box is brightly coloured, with a huge picture of the marble run on the front. It appealed to my son straight away and he was looking forward to playing with it.
The box is made of a strong cardboard, it opens at the top ... rather than having a lift off lid which isn't a major problem, it just means packing away takes a bit longer, and that you need to tip the entire contents out to find a piece you are looking for.
In the box you get 80 pieces of kit to enable you to make a marble run, the pieces mainly consist of small tubes to make the towers or 'legs' as my son calls them. You also get about ten longer runs, four 'feet', little windmill, a big red vortex bowl and three toppers.
I found it quite daunting at first as there are no instructions included, there is a little sheet with some pictures on and there is the big picture on the box but that is all the help you get. It is far too tricky for my son to do alone, he can fix the pieces together easily enough but to get them in the right order for the marble to flow down is just too hard.
You can change the way the run is set up by either trying to copy the pictures on the guide or making up your own designs. This is quite a challenge and can be frustrating for my son at times, but we have lots of fun choosing the pieces and trying to figure out how the marble will flow. It encourages him to forward think and understand the concept of how one wrong piece can make the whole tower stop working.
Once the tower is set up, it is great fun. We can spend ages just watching the marbles run through the course. It is quite relaxing. We also choose different coloured marbles and race them down the run, or we try to put as many marbles as we can in the top and he loves just watching them whizz around the Vortex.
The marble run is pretty sturdy, the feet are not as solid as some other runs we have played with and although it is OK when it is being played with, I think if it was knocked in anyway it could come tumbling down.
It is a lovely game to play with my son, as it involves lots of interaction. imagination and fun.
My little boy really enjoys playing it at the moment and I think as he gets older he will be able to design more elaborate runs or introduce additional parts.
You can buy this marble run from Amazon for about £15, my friend said she bought it in a small independent toy shop in London so you may find it in your local stores.
I think £15 is a fair price for this set, it has provided us with precious time together and is an educational and fun game to play.
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