Building Sets Reviews

My eight and nine year old sons are big Lego fans. I bought one set for each of my boys and they each built a different model. Both models came out great. The parts fit together beautifully and the finished product moves very well when played with. The vehicles are even better than they look in the pictures on the box. This was the first Technic set that they tried. I hope they enjoy future Technic sets as much.

This set is packed with 38 great pieces. It's fun to setup standalone or to use the pieces with other sets. My two year old doesn't play with the three little people much but he has taken his engines around this track many times. He thought the elevator on the platform was pretty cool when he discovered it.

In conjunction with a couple of packs of Suretrack Track Clips this particular set can be moved around the house without disassembly.

This complete starter set is a very nice jumping off point into the world of wooden train sets. The train and tracks are well built and nicely functional. Both have withstood the less than gentle play of a very interested 2 1/2 year old boy. The figures fit well into the cars, ride the elevator (with it's pleasing *ding*) or sit on the bench at the railway station. There are many opportunities for fun (and educational) play here.

We purchased additional cars and another engine at the same time, adding yet more fun (and educational) play for our 2 1/2yo son.

Brio makes wonderful toys. Given the level of interest our son shows in his train set, we will definitely add on to this set in the near future.

What looked like a fun Lego set turned out to be a disaster. Building instructions are deliberately left out--the child has to go to the Lego website to see them. Presumably the idea is to print them out, but the instructions run to 80 pages and on our older printer that was not feasible. We ended up returning the set (a Christmas present) and my son was very disappointed. My advice now for anyone buying a Lego set? Read the fine print to determine whether instructions are actually included in the box.

I just wanted to warn everyone that this item does not come with written instructions to duplicate the four creations. You must download from the lego website. These instructions are difficult to see on the computer and when printed it is especially difficult to see necessary fine details. As any lego lover knows, it's all in the details! What started out to be an "awesome" Christmas gift for an 11 year old boy has turned into a source of frustration. Buyer beware!

How many of you have older kids that chew on pen caps or pencils? At a routine pre-op visit to the hospital, we met a 10-year-old who had, in this manner, swallowed one of the plastic pieces whole. The plastic dissolved in his digestive system, leaving the two magnets free. They perforated his intestine, and he's now on his 5th day of hospitalization.

I agree that the CPSC sometimes seems to be overprotective, but to me a toy that could kill should not be sold and should be returned.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has RECALLED ALL MAGNETIX BUILDING SETS. DO NOT BUY!!!!

Lot of bad press on this toy recently. Balls are not the magnets. The rods have small but powerful magnetics in the ends. The magnets are fairly secure in their plastic housing unless your kid (or pet) decides to take plier like teeth and start chewing away at them. But in this case you should take some responsibilty for allowing a child to stick something other than food in their mouth. I can only wonder what else these kids are playing with unsupervised? Rocks covered in coliform, cigarette butts from ashstrays, mommies personal hygene items? If your kids are not old enough for unsurpervised play then watch them and let us have decent toys to spur our imagination.