Building Sets
by Age  Playmobil Rescue Set
(Playmobil)
Ages 18 months and up, $10.99 -- These little figures are a great
introduction to Playmobil's world of building. The are good
for fine motor skills, independent and imaginative play. Our
toddler testers had lots of fun playing with the vehicles.
 Transforming
Timmy (Mega
Bloks) Ages 18 months - 4 years. $14.99 -- Timmy was
tested by a group of children between the ages of two and
four. According to the teacher observer, "it was very
appealing. The parts were of an appropriate size, not to
many of them and relatively easy for the little hands to build the
trucks." They were substantial enough for the kids to
enjoy hours of pretend play following construction. A great
grandparent gift!
 Large
Quatro Blocks Tub (Lego)
Ages 12 months - 3 years, $19.99 -- According to our teacher
reviewer "Lego has another winner." Tested by a
group of toddlers the teacher reported that "this set was
perfect for that age group. The platform was easy to set up
as a base for the perfect size blocks. Just enough pieces
with meant not too many for a 2 1/2 year old to clean up on their
own. A real winner!"
Thomas
Interactive Barrel Loader (Learning
Curve) Ages 3 and up $29.99
Fans of Thomas the Tank Engine movies will really
enjoy this high-tech train set uses. The set teaches
children while they play, uses friendly voices and good
manners. Each station has specific instructions that the
child needs to follow such as counting or colors. Our
testers which ranged in age from 3 to 7 all had fun with this
toy. Although the sets tracks are plastic it's fully
compatible with the classic wooden railway. Requires 6 AA
batteries.  Zoo
(Playmobil)
Ages 4 and up, $99.99 -- According to our reviewers aged 4 -7 this
is "awesome". Once it's set up there's a ticket
booth, pond with lily pads, and tons of animals. It provides
hours and hours of pretend play. It comes with lots of
people, animals and extras. According to the mom reviewer
"there are tons of small pieces and the zoo takes about 1
hour to build maybe a little more. Set yourself up in advance with
ziplock bags for all the pieces you may not decide to
use." The mother of our testers loved the fact that
this encouraged imaginative play without the requirement of
batteries!
 Block-O-Dile
(Lego) Ages
2 - 5 years, $14.99 -- Tested by 3 and 4 year old it was
reported that "they LOVED it!" Although it was not
super easy to do the kids were fascinated by the sweeper
concept. They all had fun building on the back of the
Block-o-dile and practicing sweeping up the pieces when they were
done.
 Castle
(Haba)
$30
This set has everything you need to make a fabulous castle and do it
creatively too! Our testers aged 3, 4, 6 and 7 loved it!
Their mom reported that they had fun construction and deconstructing
their castle. They then made tunnels that their little train
went through. Set includes: towers, battlements, 2 fabric flags and
much more. 59 pieces.
 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1421 Combat Lair
– (Mega
Bloks) Ages 6+, $49.99
Our 5 and 7 year old testers helped their mother assemble this set.
According to our testers, "the nice part was the set is really four separate parts to assemble. It was great to have smaller, manageable tasks for each of us to work on. The set also comes with stickers to decorate certain parts with. This was a big bonus, especially since the set took over an hour and half to assemble.
Mega Bloks tend to be a bit difficult to attach even for adults which can be a bit frustrating. However the completed set is a bit impressive. There are lots of gadgets, including a trapdoor hidden garage door, swiveling punching bags, and a combat table which allows the turtles to have “mock fights” with the help of a drawstring on the table. This is a large set, 320 pieces. One you won’t be quick to disassemble too quickly. There are lots of small weapons, oh and don’t forget slime. The boys love it."
 ProBuilder Starter Construction Set
Code Blue (Mega
Bloks) Ages 7+, $19.99 -- “What do you like about my big rig, Dad? I like the detail!” I kid you not, a quote from
our 7 year old tster about his completed Mega Blok truck. The
mother of our reviewer is quoted as saying, " I love this set. It came with its own carrying case!" The case is large enough to hold all the pieces, the 2 instruction booklets and the works in progress. The instruction booklets even
rates the vehicles by difficulty level. Just be warned, Mega Bloks are bit of a challenge to connect at times. However, the end products
will always leave you amazed at their level of detail.
 Fighting Phoenix
(K'nex) Ages 8 and
up, $19.99 -- This model, part of the K'nex Alive! series, seemed pretty "alive" to our 8-year-old tester, who promptly named it
after the phoenix in the Harry Potter books. He built it successfully at
all three levels of complexity -- basic, moderate, and advanced -- and
needed help only with stretching the fabric wings over the frame. He
points out that each level adds a lifelike feature: "The easy one can caw
when you press a button. The intermediate one can flap its wings. On the
advanced one, its head can move forward and backward." He keeps it on his
desk, adding, "It looks cool." The sound module comes with three button
cell batteries already installed.
 Big Air Ball Tower
(K'nex) Ages 10 and
up, $99.99 -- Our 10-year-old expert builder managed to assemble this enormous contraption in just two days, even though, at 5
feet, it's taller than he is. A vacuum device at the bottom of the tower
shoots plastic balls up through a tube to the top. From there, the balls
may go randomly down any of three paths that involve tubes, tunnels,
ramps, a trampoline, a loop-de-loop, a spinning wheel, and a pivot,
ultimately dropping back into the vacuum device for another round. The
structure takes a lot of adjustment to keep the balls on track, so this is
best for a creative builder who likes to tinker, and who may enjoy coming
up with alternate paths and solutions for difficult bits. Says our tester,
"It's really cool. I'd suggest it to anyone who likes creations that go a
lot of different ways and who doesn't mind taking a little while to
build." The instructions let you choose either a small or large version;
although our tester plunged right in with the big one, he suggests that
trying the smaller version first could help builders gain experience.
Requires four D batteries.
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