Customer Reviews

Building Cards: How to Build Castles (Klutz Building Cards)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My almost 7-year-old son saw this at the school book fair. I asked if he would really use it. Sure enough, he built something that night. When I went to look at it, I ended up building a full castle. This set comes with 150 pieces and you can buy more (of course) so you can build the giant castles shown in the booklet. One problem -- Klutz doesn't include a container to keep the puzzles in. The pieces come in plastic that you have to cut open and can't be reused.

Klutz doesn't even sell containers for its many items that come with lots of pieces. It would be nice if the booklets came with the pieces in a reusable box.

It's a fun challenge to come up with your own ideas as there is a lot you can do with the puzzle. The pieces are sturdy and feel like unbendable cardboard. Well, if you try your darndest, I'm sure you can bend it especially where the little slits are for connecting the puzzle. But when you're building, it doesn't give in like some puzzles do.

As the book says: "There are 58 leaves in this deck, but they break apart into 158 Building Cards." The cards are good quality laminated card stock, they really do snap apart easily at the perforations, and the basic building system -- four basic slotted card shapes -- work really well. The set also comes with one lonely plastic knight and the towers my kids build really are sturdy enough to support him.

Now at home I don't know how often my kids would play with this -- they have legos and playmobil and such, and I'm not sure how long I'd be able to deal with the flat little pieces scattered all over the floor. However for a family vacation or grandma's house, this is a *great* toy for kids suffering lego withdrawal. We go out and run around and play in the pool and when it's time to calm down, they come back to the hotel and sit on the floor and build castles and towers. For the ultimate travel set, combine this with one of the Safari Knights and Dragon Toobs -- they're fairly close to the same size as the knight that comes with the set. And when you break down the cards and throw in the knights, the whole mess still easily fits into small bag. Perfect when space is at a premium.

My only complaint (and the reason I knocked off one star) is the packaging. The 27 page castle building booklet comes perma-mounted to the display cardboard. And while the plastic case holding the cards *is* reclosable, the nice arch shaped cards that fit so neatly for display don't fit back in nearly as well after you break them up into their composite pieces. Which leaves me with a book that I need to throw out or cut away from the packaging -- not an easy job. I suppose I *could* just store a giant empty plastic container with a book attached, but why?

Still a great toy. The packaging says it isn't intended for kids under eight, but both my six and nine year olds love it. And so will any other kids who loves building and can manage standard size legos.

I got this for my 10 year old son. He loves it. He loves it so much I went back and bought another so that he and a friend could build together. Nice, sturdy card pieces with realistic artwork. Have to admit, I'm enjoying it also and I'm in my 50's.

I purchased these Building Cards for my 7 year old nephew as a Christmas present. I have always been happy with all Klutz products, my young adult children had many products when they were young. I was even more impressed with the Building Cards than I thought I would be. They were sturdy, directions were easy to follow, as well easy to be creative and make his own designs and easy to take along (especially important for my nephew since he was here out of state visiting with his family and going from relative to relative and easy for my sister-in-law to pack to take home). I highly recommend this product for any creative child. I know I will continue to give Klutz products as gifts.

I got this for my 5 yr old son for x-mas. He did need help with it, but really enjoyed planning out different castles for his dad and uncles to build. And of course the men really started enjoying it as well as the teenagers.