building Archives - Mummy's Little StarsMummy's Little Stars

The Meccano 25 Model Set 4×4 Off Road Truck is a fabulous set for confident builders of construction sets. It is aimed at ages 9+, but my soon to be 9yr old was keen to get stuck in and give it a try along with the help of her Meccano loving granddad!

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The set comes with 443 durable metal parts, off-road wheels, real tools and instructions. There are 25 models to choose from or of course you can always build your own, but we started off with a big chunky looking 4×4 motorised truck. There are lots of pieces, that come in various bags, but we found that putting some of the tiny bolts and screws in small pots helped us with staying organised during the build and stopped them rolling across the table.

meccano-2 It was lovely seeing both my dad and daughter working together with an almost 60 year age gap. My dad’s favourite childhood toy was his Meccano sets so this brought back great memories and is a type of toy he really enjoys. For Miss M this was a challenging build but something she really wanted to try out and put her all into attempting to build and of course her little fingers helped to manipulate some parts in rather small gaps that were difficult to get into. meccano-3 I loved Miss M’s determination as she constructed the Meccano, it wasn’t easy and she did require some assistance but throroughly enjoyed it and learnt a lot from following the instructions and finding the correct pieces. The build was definitely fiddly in places but I think the results are worth it when you see the finished creation. meccano-4 I didn’t time how long it took, but it definitely requires a good few hours to put a large set together like this but that adds value to it and is something you can attempt in one day or spread over several sessions. meccano-5 Here we are with the finished truck. It looks really study and tough although you do have to be careful with pieces working loose so it’s good to go over it as you construct it to tighten each of the nuts. I will say also that with this model you use every single one of the tiny nuts included. It would have been nice if they had included a couple of spares as if you do lose one, you wouldn’t be able to complete the build. meccano-6 Some fun features on the truck are the opening doors and the pull out winch at the front which can be rolled back in as desired. There are also a couple of wing mirrors on each side of the vehicle which is a nice touch. meccano-7

The vehicle is motorised and with batteries will move along the floor itself. We did have some initial issues with the drive shaft working loose, but after Granddad looked over it, we now have a working model. The switch is a little fiddly to reach to switch it on but once it’s on it’s fine. The children loved watching it move back and forth across the kitchen floor and we have a lovely build from Meccano which we’ll keep on a shelf when not being played with.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

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Gears! Gears! Gears! is a fabulous range of creative, building sets using tactile gears and cranks to wind the pieces round, creating a magical moving scene. We received the Movin’ Monkeys set from Learning Resources to play with.

The Movin’ Monkeys set comprises of 136 pieces which includes base plates, coloured gears, cranks, tree parts, monkeys and a sticker sheet to decorate some of the gears. There is also a very easy to follow instruction booklet which allows you to build the entire scene as shown on the box. The instructions are clear and broken down into manageable sections.

Miss M immediately got to work building the first tree and added the gears. This gave her a little bit of a challenge to follow the build instructions and construct the pieces correctly. To build the whole set is quite a challenge for a young person and although this set is aimed at age 4+, I’d definitely suggest a slightly older age would be better. Miss M is 6 and I feel this is a great construction set for her and something very different to the normal construction toys you see. She did require some guidance and assistance but I’m sure she’ll improve each time she plays.

Mister B decided to take it upon himself to build the palm trees. He gathered all the necessary pieces and within a few minutes he proudly showed off his bit of construction work! He was so pleased with his trees and carefully held onto them until the rest was built so he could put them in their correct places.

The pieces slot together quite easily although quite firmly so the set is quite durable and doesn’t fall apart easily once built. Once we had constructed the full build, it looked like a brightly coloured jungle scene and both children were eager to see what happened next. The next step was to add the monkeys which can be hung from numerous trees and branches either by the hooks on their hands or tails. Then it was time for the magic – would it work? Miss M slowly turned the handle on one of the gears and very cleverly all the cogs starting turning at the same time, the monkeys starting moving, spinning and swinging around the trees and my two children looked upon their Movin’ Monkeys jungle scene in amazement!

Both were keen to take turns in turning the gears and have fun moving the monkeys around to hang from different places, the Movin’ Monkeys construction set certainly gave good play value for a while once it was built.

What I like about Movin’ Monkeys is that it is both a construction set and then can be played with as well. You can be creative and build any design you like out of the set, however big or small. On her own Miss M likes to build just a small tree structure that she can get turning and is quite fascinated watching it move. This allows her to be creative independently and as she gets older she’ll become more confident in building bigger jungle scenes.

You can watch Movin’ Monkeys in action here:

Overall I think Movin’ Monkeys is an interesting, fun construction set that a child aged 6+ would get the most value out of. It’s made from brightly coloured, durable plastic pieces and has lots of fun features for the monkeys to play on. Being a large set with a lot of pieces, this enables you to be versatile with the building and use your imagination to create a different design every time.

A great bonus of this set is that it is compatible with any other Gears! Gears! Gears! sets so you can join them up and make a huge moving scene! Why not try a set today and see how creative you can be with moving gears?