Klutz Crazy Action Contraptions product reviews

I love Lego but not a great fan of the themed kits you can buy that only make one or two things. When I saw 'Crazy Action Contraptions' this I got excited as could see that it could actually provide many hours of entertainment. When I received this I couldn't wait to sit down and make and learn something new, quickly I had an excited 3 1/2 year old sitting down beside me and choosing a design in the book he wanted to make (well really it was for me to make for him). We had fun following the instructions and building the Wall Rocket Racer.

As an adult it took a bit to work out the instructions as although very clear with a picture and written words for each step, I found that identifying some of the pieces tricky as the colours were not the same as in the book and also the rods were all different lengths but same colour.

Once I had made the first contraption, my son was happy to play with this until we had time the following day to make another contraption. It gave us great opportunity to talk about following instructions to build something, how to put the Lego together and also look at the mechanic of the design.

I was surprised the next day at how excited my son was to break up the first design to make another (we normally have a melt down when needing to break Lego builds). This time around he helped find the pieces and put some of them together, he even identified when I had put some pieces together wrong. By the third design we made he was actually putting it together himself and I was just helping find the pieces.

I loved this product. Although I know it is probably not designed for 3 1/2 year olds I was surprised at how much he got involved in the making of the designs and also the discussions of pulley's, cogs etc and how they made things work. We have now made all designs at least once and I can see that both myself and him will not be getting bored of this quickly. It is a great activity that fills in a little bit of time to make and then gives lots of hours of fun. I like how the pieces can be stored with the book in a secure but easy to open case.

I have a son who likes building things and with this little kit you can build almost anything you like, as it says there are 16 kits you can build from following the instructions in the book (such as the Top Spinner which was the first one built ) but with a bit of engineering skill (which I unfortunately have none of what so ever) many more interesting contraptions could conceivably be built. Combine this kit and book with your general lego blocks and the possibilities are limitless.

What I like about this is it can encourage your littlies (or yourself) to think outside the box and see what else can be made with the supplied equipment.

This is the sort of thing that can keep the budding your engineer in your family quiet for ages.

These 16 contraptions are Lego models that can do all kinds of stunts. They look cool, have funny names and I enjoyed building them from the start. The bad thing about them is that I got really confused with the troubleshooting and thought that the contraptions were not meant to work. I really liked the annoy-o-matic because it's funny when mum and dad try not to listen to the sound it makes, but warning: be prepared to be grounded for a month or two! Another good thing is that it offers great education on Lego constuction and can do a lot to strengthen the mind.

Awesome! What more needs to be said?

Oh, OK... I guess a bit more detail would be good... Let's see... it has over a hundred lego bits that come with it, so unlike some other Lego books I have seen and bought over the years, you won't need to rely on having a huge barrel of the stuff at home to make use of this book.

The assortment of Lego pieces in here is great, with plates, blocks, tech blocks, rubber bands, cogs, wheels, axles... you name it! If you *do* happen to have a stash of block at home, you can easy swap colours, build duplicate models for competition races etc, or add special 'extras' to your models... like bumper bars, or extra noise-makers.

It's great for kids of all ages, and skill levels, as the instructions are indeed easy to follow... but as with all construction books, be sure to look *very* carefully at the diagrams to ensure you are putting the pieces in the right spots. 1 or 2 nubs out of place, and you could find yourself un-building the models nearly completely to fix a simple glitch.

I was really impressed at how clear and concise the instructions actually were. My 9yr old son breezed through the whole book, even designing a few improvements using only the blocks in the pack. He noticed that in the rubber-band speedster how the positioning of a couple of plates rubbed against the band, slowing the car down. However by moving one plate forward a single knob, and adding a couple of small 1x2 bricks to lift the 'spoiler' off the axle bearing, the car could get top speed on smooth floors, and was able to move above snail-pace even on carpet!

The only toy out of the whole lot he is forever banned from making again is the Annoy-o-matic rattle. Once was one more than enough. It works SO well, I'm tempted to surgically remove that page from the book.

Overall, my favourite would have to be the battle-top spinner. Despite the abuse caused to innocent cogs by impact with another spinner, it's a lot of fun trying to aim them and get them doing a 'dance of defeat'... a real challenge both of us enjoyed. Inexpensive in the extreme, especially when you look at the shelf-price of regular Lego packs, this is a wonderful way to introduce a novice to the joys of Lego, and a great way to expand your kit, for the die-hard fans.