Review: Bloco Wildcats Construction Set

Once again, Timberdoodle has sent me something really great to review. Technically, it is A.-Age-Six who is doing the review, because it was sent with her in mind.

Bloco Wildcat Construction Set

Description
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this set, so I’ll tell you about so you will know. First of all, the big pieces are all foam–but not a flimsy foam. It’s nice because it is lightweight and a bit flexible, making it easier to build with. The connectors and caps are all plastic. And that’s it. It’s very simple.

We built these when A. was home sick from church.

When it came, all the foam was in large pre-cut pieces, and we had to pop all of the pieces out. You can throw away the frames after that, but it really isn’t much–almost every centimeter of space has been used. It’s easy to assume you don’t need all the little circles, but you do. {In other words, I’m warning you: don’t throw stuff away unless you’re sure you don’t need it!}

Ahem.

Directions are included, and after building just two of them, we {okay, mostly me} were able to get a sense for the logic behind it and make something on our own {see strange looking monkey creature at right}.

Does She Like It?
Yep! She really does! The appeal for me in agreeing to this review is that Daughter A. does not build. At least, not very often. She occasionally pretends to play Legos with her brother, but mainly she is chattering away at him while he builds. In this instance, she wanted to see these cats enough that she was willing to build them. This is progress in an area of weakness, in my opinion.

Wildcat babydolls?

Her only complaint is that they are a little fragile once you build them. Not terribly so, but I figured out that she still didn’t view this as a construction set. She wanted to build them once, and then play with them. She wanted to wrap them in blankets and coo at them. She wanted to push them in her stroller {which worked significantly better than the blankets!} In all, she wanted a build-a-doll set, not a construction set.

Well…let’s just say that getting outside our comfort zone is good for us. Having a three-year-old in the house that sneaks up and disassembles them when no one is watching helps, too. She is building more frequently than ever. I hope that eventually she will see them more as a puzzle, to be put together and taken apart repeatedly, because I really think learning to follow directions, and then later to build creatively out of her understanding of how it works, will be good for her. This is my big chance because she’d never go for blocks or “engineering” sets.

A Tiny Word of Warning
This set {and others like it} includes small parts that are not appropriate for toddlers and babies. Also, if you have a child who likes to put foam in his mouth and chew it {hypothetically speaking, of course} he will ruin it. My preschoolers did not harm this set, but there is a Lauri puzzle in our house which has seen better days.

I’m just saying.

Timberdoodle for Christmas
Have you see Timberdoodle’s 2011 Gift Guide yet? When relatives ask us for suggestions on what to get the children for Christmas, we often direct them to Timberdoodle. There are a lot of great gifts on their site, and one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that I can trust their quality. In browsing the selection from other companies carrying some of the same items, I learned that I can also trust their prices! For me, though, I like to buy from Christian families whenever possible, and that is another reason I like supporting Timberdoodle.

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Legal Disclosure:

As a member of Timberdoodle’s Blogger Review Team I received a free Bloco Wildcats Construction Set and 2011 Gift Guide in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.