Building Sets Reviews

for xmas i bought two sets for my grandchildren,on the box it showed sticks,balls and triangles. when they opened the box,no triangles just balls and sticks,you can't build anything eith those they were bored after 5 min.and its been in the closet ever since

This was the just gotta have it item on the 2004 Santa list.. My 9 year old was so sure it was gonna be as cool as all the pictures. He likes it but, bores with it quickly. I thought he would like it as much as all the other building block items like Knex/Lego but, he may build something and then is hunting another item. The quality is very good and it does do what it advertises. Maybe your child will spend more time with it. I thought it was overpriced and hard to find for the amount of play time he spends on it.

My 5-1/2 year old son received this for Christmas. He loves pirates and legos, so it seemed a perfect fit. We were wrong!
The Mega Bloks are poorly made, and it's very difficult (even for an adult) to get the pieces to stay together. Imagine how frustrating this is for a child.....we will never purchase Mega Bloks products again, we're sticking to the original LEGOs!

Nothing more satisfying than spending money on a gift that makes your child scream and cry in frustration...thanks MegaBloks!

Harr, landlubbers! Raise the mainsail! Hoist the mizzen mast! We're off to Treasure Island with the Mega Bloks Pyrates! Harrgh! When I discovered that Mega Bloks was producing a pirate line, I was excited. This is definitely something to look forward to, and given Mega Bloks's usual quality and attention to detail, their pirate islands and crews would no doubt be absolutely fabulous.

Well, the wait is over, the Pyrates have been subjected to my scrutiny, and here's the result.

Good news first. Check out these minifigs! This set comes with one of each type of pirate--Sea Marauder, Privateer, and Skeleton Crew. The articulation on these guys is awesome! Ball joints at the shoulders and hips for super posability. Legs bend at the knees, arms bend at the elbows. Head is on a ball joint as well. These are the best minifigs I've ever seen. You can pose these guys in ways that you could only dream of posing Lego figures. This is how all minifigs should be. But our good news doesn't end here. The detail and paint jobs on these guys is beyond fantastic. Detailed outfits, pirate scowls, adventurous facial expressions, texture detail on the outfits, hats, faces. They're like mini action figures. Accessories for our three guys include a cutlass, pistol, spyglass, ghostly harpoon for the skeleton, a lantern, a couple barrels, and treasure chest with gold.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the smugglers fort is a challenge to assemble. There are a good number of large rocky cliff pieces here. I had difficulty getting them to stick to each other. The pieces refused to grab onto each other. I had a look at the underside of a cliff piece (where it's supposed to click onto another) and discovered some excess plastic on a couple of the little pegs (which are supposed to grab onto the surface pegs of another piece). The excess plastic prevents the underside of the cliff from grabbing onto another piece. With some scissors and effort, I was able to shave just a bit of this extra plastic off and get the cliff pieces to stick together. However, there just isn't much connecting each piece to the other to begin with, so they easily fall apart. It's mostly a single, flimsy line of pegs holding the cliffs together.

This is a minimalist building set. Assemble some rocky cliff pieces, place a few plates and trap door across the middle, add in a few stock building blocks for good measure, put two walls with roofs on there to give it a remote semblance of being a "fort", slap some ladders on there, a couple rocks, a couple pieces of foliage, a palm tree, and we've got ourselves a very mediocre pirate island. Behind the fort (and I use that term loosely) is a tall lookout tower. Working features include the aforementioned trap door, a spring-loaded cannon, and... That's about it. Also included is a rowboat with oars and a shark.

Durability is less than questionable. Presuming you're able to get this thing built to begin with, don't expect to be moving it around much. I had the lookout tower and the cliff it's built on go crashing to the floor while trying to move mine. Aside from the design of the island being rather lackluster (it could use more foliage, at the very least), the design of the cliff base pieces leaves much to be desired.

Let's hope Mega Bloks's next attempt at a pirate island is easier to get up and running and better designed. My verdict: one thumb up for the minifigs, one thumb down for the smugglers fort. And my advice: stick with Captain Cutlass's Stormstalker, Dreadeye's Phantom, and the smaller island sets. Put together, they have enough of those cool minifigs to keep any pirate captain happy.

This toy is very well designed to look at, and has great potential for imagination. But it just does not stay together well. At the slightest touch, it can and does fall apart. But is has a lot of pieces and is very modular to put it in many different designs. My son and husband love playing with it

You get a decent vehicle and water tower prop for the money, but you must know you need to purchase the larger Thomas set, which comes with a full set of track, or the deluxe Thomas set (the priciest one with the tunnel and bridge). On it's own, you only get a section of track and can't use it as a real train on it's tracks. I've seen the straight tracks pieces sold individually in the Lego City line, which are compatible, but you won't be able to connect them fully without curved track from the Thomas set. I am not sure if there are curved track available from the Lego City line.

My son (3.5 yo) loves *everything* Thomas and Lego Percy is no exception. He plays with him almost daily even though he certainly has other Thomas and Friends options.

Part of the attraction is that he gets to build things (using his own imagination) with his Mega-bloks and Legos that work with Percy (duplo size). For example, this particular set comes with a special pair of blocks that pivot. This has allowed him to build his own `Cranky' and water tower, etc.

Also, he has some Lego wheeled vehicles (the four wheel 12-up peg size) that Percy can pull. These he has turned into some remarkable `coaches'. (Really some of them are huge! LOL)

Now as another reviewer pointed out you don't get much track with any of the Lego-Thomas train kits, but I wouldn't worry about it. This is actually one of the Thomas toys that track doesn't seem that important. My son just plays for hours on the floor making things that work with Percy - buildings, coaches, Cranky.

Five Stars. A great educational toy. Lego Percy is sturdy and allows for lots of creativity. My one suggestion would be to buy other Legos - particularly some with wheels that can be the bases for coaches- if you don't already own some. This way Percy is at his educational best. Your child can build all sorts of friends and equipment.

Note: Our Lego collection was 3099. I couldn't find it on Amazon but I think the Lego Duplo 140-pc. Bulk Tub (5352) ($15) has the wheeled base vehicles that connect to Percy.

My son is a huge Thomas fan and finding Thomas in legos, something he is good at putting together, is just wonderful. He hasn't put it down since we gave it to him!

When I saw a Gold City Junction Legos western toy set go for over $150 on eBay, I decided to instead find a much more affordable and comparable toy here at Amazon. I love this set! The pieces are very sturdy. I love the dark chocolate brown, light grey, rust tan, and scarlet colors the manufacturer used in this western theme. It's very pleasing to the eyes. There are 3 western themes I know of that Best-Lock has available: (1)this one here, (2)the fort with a cannon and armed men, and (3)the corral with the sheriff. I bought all three. Last night I finished putting together this one here with the stagecoach, store and horse trough. The sets come with easy-to-follow illustrated directions. Highly recommended, but do please be careful not to let any pets or very young children near these, as the pieces are tiny and can cause choking.

I love playmobil products but the price is usually to high. I grabbed this on sale and it was a hit with my 3 1/2 year old. She loves the details an played with it for hours the first day.

Another great set from Playmobile. We bought this to go with the Victorian house but my kids have had just as much fun playing with it on its own. Playmobil gets a lot of mileage in our house. Some of the sets are pricey but worth it.

beatuifully made and teacher's little girls to play mommy. I love the little yellow teddy and sky blue crib.

a amazing buy!!!