Building Sets Reviews

I bought this for my 4 year old son Marshall at Christmas. He loves it. He plays with it almost every day! His twin sister Jamey likes it too but not as much as my son. I found this toy to be worth the money.

As a child, Lincoln Logs were one of my favorite toys. You could build houses, forts, roads, fences, and just about anything else you could imagine for a piece of wood. Lincoln Logs have changed over the years, but they remain a wonderful toy to stimulate imagination.

This particular set is one of the larger sets available with 150 pieces, and 114 of those are wood logs. I think that if you are going to get Lincoln Logs, the more you have the better. I always wanted ever more Lincoln Logs to build even bigger forts, which was one of my favorite themes. The western and frontier themes seem to be somewhat old-fashioned for many children who would rather be punching video game buttons for hours than imagining what it would be like to create houses by hand, and then living in them.

This particular set includes pieces that are improvements over the original. Plastic windows, people, animals, a ladder and other miscellaneous pieces increase the imagination factor rather than detract from it. I initially was disappointed that the wood-slat roof pieces were missing from this set, but quickly realized that the plastic roofs remained in place as opposed to the wood slats that seemed to fall off the roof with little encouragement. On the other hand, you could use the roof slats in other arrangements, such as bridges and roads. The plastic roofs are better for younger children, though older children would benefit from the hand-eye coordination and the problem solving skills the wood roof pieces provided.

While I think it is interesting to build the models included in the original instructions, which includes a corral, blacksmith's shop and small fort, Lincoln Logs are sufficiently versatile and easy to use that even very young children begin stacking them with ease in their own configurations. This capability is a real imagination builder. I prefer Lincoln Logs for their greater reliance on imagination than most other building blocks and toys, which tend to emphasize a specific configuration.

John Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, first created Lincoln Logs in 1916. Strangely, he claimed that the construction of the foundation of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel was his inspiration for the toy rather than log cabins. The toys were an instant success because they developed good hand-eye coordination and for the other reasons noted above. The toys became an even bigger success after World War II and the baby boom era.

Lincoln Logs are one of the few toys that seemed to have survived for decades. There have been many challengers to Lincoln Logs, and they are probably much less popular with children today because of the many more sophisticated choices. However, Lincoln Logs remain a great toy, especially for younger children. Even older children, like those in there 40s and 50s, can find a lot of enjoyment in a toy that was much more popular in a previous era, and retains most of the characteristics that were the reason for that popularity.

When the toy arrived I was overwhelmed with the contents..I feel like I scored big ... the kids will love this christmas morning.

I bought this set for our family. It is very cute and fun (you can even take beards & hair off) but there are too many little pieces to get lost and the pieces tip over easily.

I have just started buying Playmobil items for my family and I bought this for my kids to tinker around with. Very high quality (as with any Playmobil item) and the figures are very detailed. Great for old and young alike. There are a lot of little pieces that could get lost, however you can call Playmobil and they will replace lost or broken pieces. Great for kids to learn what Christmas is all about.

Since my four year old daughter could walk she has always been fascinated with the ceramic Nativities I put out at Christmastime. I have never let her play with them for fear they would get broken. Last year I finally bought this Nativity that she can play with and rearrange. She loves it and it helps her to understand why we celebrate Christmas. I love Playmobil toys anyway and was glad when they offered this.