Building Sets Reviews

The figures and the assesories are what makes this set awsome. The Robin figure is one of a kind and looks great with his staff. This Minimate Version of Batman is also unique in that he comes with two capes. One of his capes can be spread open and his arms raised to look like he's ready to pounce on his enemies. They also include a normal cape, some cool "flip-open" type batarangs, and a suction-cup type grapple rope. The mini-batmobile is also neat in that when it moves the rear translucent flames rotate around. Overall this is a great building set that I feel is geared toward Batman collectors more than a childs "fun-factor".

The best part about this set is the Robin figure. His accessories are fabulous. Batman, without the cape, is equally good. The cape is bad because of the awkward positioning of it. It is in two parts that swing back and forth, not fun at all. The batmobile itself is alright. Too bad it only seats one, leaving another to hang on for dear life. Overall, a good buy.

There are a confusing number of magnetic constructions toys currently on the market with confusingly similar names -- Magnetix, Magneatos, Magnablocks, Geomag. Without putting them side by side, they also tend to look alike. So I set out to determine if the sets were really that different and if they were, which were/was the best by purchasing one set of each.

Geomag is, hands down, by far the best of the lot. It's one of the most interesting construction toys I've seen in decades of collecting and playing with construction toys and will be of particular interest to any children or adults interested in mathematics, geometry, or just plain 3-dimensional building. It's the sturdiest, best designed and manufactured (made in Switzerland), and its magnetic fields are structured in a way that makes it very gratifying to play with as the pieces pull together very powerfully. The company's introduction of "panels" to fit between the spheres and rods gives a rigidity and strength to your constructions that greatly reduces the number of pieces needed to build things.

All these wonderful things being said, Geomag, like all of the other magnetic building toys, are not only extremely expensive (a 184-piece Geomag set of just spheres and rods retails for about $100 for an average of 50 cents for each sphere and rod) but you need a considerable number of pieces to make anything other than very simple polyhedrons or other constructions. And if you want to actually build more than one or two interesting constructions and not have to deconstruct them, you will need many large sets. This translates into several hundred dollars but it is a great investment that you won't regret.