5 Years+ Construction Toys
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K'Nex Moto-Bots Turbo
by louisechackett My son loves to build things and enjoys both creating his own inventions and following instructions to make something specific. With this in mind I bought him various building kits for Christmas and one of the items I purchased was the K'nex Moto-Bot series Turbo. ==What is it?== K'nex is basically a building ... system which uses plastic rods, cogs and such like. With the Moto-Bot series they have introduced four robots which you can build and which also feature a motor in order to make it move. In our case the Turbo Moto-Bot looks quite like the Disney Pixar character Wall-e and so I thought it would be something that my son would enjoy creating and playing with. The Moto-Bot came packed in a sturdy cardboard box which featured a picture of the Turbo robot created on the front as well as information telling us that the product is designed for children aged seven years plus and that it features a choking hazard for children under three due to small parts. What is quite prominent on the front of the box is the information which states the robot uses a motor and to be honest this probably was the selling point for me as I think it offers something a bit more than your usual construction kit because of the fact that you can make it actually work once you built it and I knew that this would be something that would appeal to my son. ==Building Turbo== Inside the box all of the pieces required to build Turbo are enclosed in plastic bags and there is also a set of colour instructions. With anything like this I always make sure that my son and I set out all of the pieces in to their own little groups checking off that there is the correct amount in the kit before we begin to build. With this kit there are an awful lot of pars with there being 73 tiny rings to count just as an example! I would advise that you make sure that all of the parts are counted though because specific things are required in each part. Once we had laid out all of the pieces on the floor my son and I turned our attention to the instructions and I have to say this is where my main issue with any K'nex kit begins really because the instructions could be so much clearer than what they are and it would make life a whole lot easier. With the K'nex instructions you are basically given a page that will perhaps say steps 1-4 and you are shown a small picture of what it should look like at the end of those steps along with a larger picture which shows you what you are meant to do but the steps just aren't broken down very well and so it can be tricky to see if you have completed everything in each step. What would be so much better would be if they were to follow the lead of Lego for example who offer individual steps which are always quite small and so easier to follow. As we went along building the Turbo Moto-Bot I have to say we did find some steps easier than others and in particular the parts in which the cogs are slotted together were quite hard to follow even as an adult and the issue was that if you did slot them together the wrong way they became near impossible to prise apart again resulting in a lot of stressing and throwing things around the room (from me mainly whilst my son looked a bit worried!) Again I would say that the instructions didn't help here and should they have been clearer perhaps it would have been less stressful to build the robot. Whilst I appreciate my son isn't yet seven, he isn't far off, and I would say there is no way a seven year old could build this on their own and I would say that the majority of older children would need adult input too. My son is capable of making his own creations using his K'nex bucket so it is not a case of not being able to connect the pieces and such like, just more that it is quite a complex thing to build. I would imagine that it took us around two hours to fully build Turbo and it was at that point that we realised we hadn't put the batteries in the motor! Ooops! Luckily for us we were able to unscrew the motor and add the two AA batteries without having to dismantle Turbo or I don't think he would have ever been built again! Once Turbo was ready to be played with my son took him in to the kitchen where we have laminate flooring where the rubber on the robots wheels would be able to move more freely. You have two options when you switch Turbo on and you can either have him move forwards or backwards and he will basically move in a straight line whilst his big eyes spin round as well. Whilst this sounds quite simple it is nice for my son to see that he has made a functioning, moving robot from K'nex and he is quite proud of that fact and will show people what it does when they come round to the house and such like. Sadly this is about as much as Turbo comes out to play and for the most part he is sat in my son's toy box because if you are a bit heavy handed with him his hand will fall off or something and whilst this is easily put back on I think it is a bit annoying for my son and so I would say that once built this item becomes much more of a display item rather than an actual play thing. I do think this is a nice item and were the instructions clearer I would certainly recommend it because even as a display item I think it is a nice thing for your child to be able to say they made with you or whatever. I would say you do need a lot of patience to be able to complete this kit though and it is rather frustrating as you go through the steps but you do get a real sense of relief and achievement once you see it working! ==Price and availability== I purchased the K'nex Moto-Bot Turbo from toys r us where it cost me £14.99 and it is still available at that price. Having looked online though the price ranges greatly with home and bargains selling it for £9.99 and someone on amazon selling it for £31.99 so I would certainly advise looking around for it should you be interested in purchasing it. Thank you for reading my review! Read the complete review |
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Klip Kitz Toy Story Buzz Lightyear and Spaceship
by louisechackett When I saw the Klip Kitz advertised on the television before Christmas I felt it would be a good buy for my son as he loves to build things and is pretty good at anything like that. What was also great was that the product seemed to be linked to Disney/Pixar and was following a Toy Story theme. My son already has some Toy Story toys ... and so I picked up the kit in which you could build a Buzz Lightyear and his Spaceship. The product comes in a reasonably large cardboard box and inside there are sheets of plastic pieces all of which have lots of individual pieces within them which you need to snap off to build the items. The first thing I would say to note here is that all the pieces are numbered and are shown as numbered within the instructions so it would be a good idea to just remove the pieces as and when you need them when following the instructions. As we got all the pieces out of the box and began to look at the instructions I began to fear that this whole thing was looking quite complicated, especially considering that the product is aimed at children aged 5-6. When we began to build the Buzz Lightyear I realised that my fears were in fact a reality. Pieces of the Buzz had to be fit together in a certain way, with ball joints facing a certain way and I have to say the instructions were not particularly clear on this even for me as a thirty year old! My son helped for a little while in building Buzz and then got fed up and so I gave him some of the spaceship which he was meant to colour so that his attention was held. As I continued making Buzz I discovered that he didn't really move and that only his feet moved! The only way to make Buzz move was to dismantle him. I tried to do this as the kit claims you can take the things apart and rebuild them any time you like....well in doing this I managed to snap a piece of Buzz's arm and so I am not sure that this is all that possible with the smaller parts of kit anyway! When I had build Buzz I passed him to my son with a sheet of stickers that came with the set and allowed him to stick them on to Buzz pretty much wherever he thought they should be, His toy and all that! I then set to work on the spaceship. My god, I can honestly say it was a complete nightmare! Pieces of the ship just did not fit together properly and a good portion of the ship is made from card which just seems very flimsy to me. I ended up with cuts all over my thumbs from trying to clip the parts together and I know there is no way in this world that my son, who is very good at building and putting things together, could have tackled this product on his own. I think from start to finish it perhaps took me around two hours to build the full kit and even then parts kept dropping off and needing re applying. So Buzz and the spaceship were built. They were ready to play with! My son began to play with the toys and almost immediately parts of the ship began to come loose or fall off. I don't think this was anything to do with my building skills and more to do with the poor quality of the product which was just flimsy and frankly quite pants! Next off fell Buzz Lightyears legs....again and again and again. I continued to reapply the legs and fasten the front again as even this was an impossible task for my son as you needed to arrange some cogs in a very particular order and then get the front on as fast as possible in the hope the legs didn't fall out again whilst you were doing this. As such my son became fed up playing with the toy and it is now sat in his bedroom window and will probably rarely be played with again. As a display item yes it looks quite cool but as a toy it is rubbish. I bought the kit as a present for my son and yet it was so difficult to put it together the only input he could really have was to add some stickers and do some colouring...not really what I had in mind when paying £15.00 for a toy. The kit also claims it can be taken apart and put back together but my son has been warned not to take it apart because if he does I will throw it in the bin rather than attempt to build it again! I would love to give this product no stars as I really do think it is totally useless as a child's play thing but sadly as I have to award it something it can have one star for looking cool in his bedroom window. In all honesty I wish I had just packaged it up and taken it back to argos and got my money back as I knew from the onset my son would have no chance with this and I doubt any other five year old would either! Don't waste your money! Thank you for reading my review! Read the complete review |
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Ikea Bygga Construction Set
by Mangosun What a great construction set for little boys and girls! We bought it for our son in August and he just loves playing with it. I would recommend it to any child who is interest in construction toys and does not take small parts into the mouth. My son cannot follow the instructions presented in the booklet yet but he is using his ... imagination to create different models such as vehicles and robots. At the beginning we showed him what could be done with all those different parts by creating four different models from the assembly instruction: an airplane, a digger, a motorcycle and a helicopter. That was a great fun for the whole family! There are photos of differend BIGGA models created by the members of the Flickr IKEA BYGGA group; you can see how versatile this construction set. It is possible to create so many different things: a dump-truck, an ostrich, a cart, a peacock, a rocket, a dog, a train engine, a giraffe, a jet, a truck, a seesaw, a tractor, a robot girl and even more. Your child definitely will not be bored! http://www.flickr.com/groups/713552@N20/pool/ Key features: Creating different models helps your child to develop fine motor skills and also eye-hand coordination; a step closer to becoming an engineer :) The storage box has loose walls and holes which can also be used in the model-making or as a storage. Quality: The quality is very good considering its price, £9.99. I would not tighten up the parts too much as you might have difficulty in taking them apart. If it happens use the L-shaped screwdriver because the other one is a bit too soft in this situation. The parts of the construction set are made of the ABS plastic, Synthetic rubber and Solid acacia. I have seen similar construction sets on the Internet but this is one beats all of them both by its price and idea. My son has been playing with this set almost on a daily basis unlike with his other toys. He is not getting bored. Have fun! Read the complete review |
5 Years+ Construction Toy |
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1 review Construction Toy / Motorised Meccano car to build and play. |
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1 review Construction Toy / Brand: K'Nex |
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1 review Brand: Vivid Imaginations / Construction Toy / Age: 5 Years+ / Type: Model construction kit |
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1 review Manufacturer: Ikea / Construction Toy / Age: 5 Years+ |
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Brand: Revell / Construction Toy / Age: 5 Years+ - Quickly assembled - no glueing required. No Painting requires, multi coloured printed. Illustrated assembly instructions. Wings and turrets are moveable |
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1 review Brand: Quercetti / Construction Toy / Age: 5 Years+ |
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Brand: K'Nex / Construction Toy / Age: 5 Years+ - Works with all leading building bricks |
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8 reviews Construction Toy / Manufacturer: K'nex. Construction sets for ages 5 and upwards - Construction sets for ages 5 and upwards |
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4 reviews Construction Toy / - Construction sets |
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| 5 Years+ Construction Toy Recommendations 1 | ||
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