Customer Reviews

Lego Crazy Action Contraptions: A LEGO Inventions Book (Klutz)

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although the book says ages 9 -12, I bought it for my 6 year old and he loved it. It was recommended by a 1st grade teacher. We have worked together on building some of the contraptions and have had a lot of fun. He could easily follow the picture instructions, but needed help on the words. Much better than buying the kits and building what the picture shows. This "book" comes with pieces you usually find in the Technic sets or have to special order through the Lego catalog. Also combines Legos with things you have around the house - string, balloons, etc. - to build all sorts of things. I really like the fact that it isn't just step by step how to build something but also gives ideas on how you can put a new twist on what you have built and asks you to expand upon it.

Teaching in a specialized school with a vast amount of equipment I was pleased to find a Lego book that will probably last a lot longer than the Lego Technic cards which are easily lost or misplaced. Having written the third grade science curricula for our city I can see that this activity book would satisfy the beginning objectives taught for the simple machines unit. I like the inventory page with labeled photographs of each piece. It is important to teach the students the names of each LEGO piece so that there is a commonality of terms when designating which piece to use in the construction of each "contraption". The pictures are clear. The assembly of the projects is easy for students to follow. The projects are interest-grabbing to a child.

You get a book and a few little special lego pieces in this kit. The lego pieces are typical lego quality- sturdy and fairly easy to use. You follow the directions in the book and using the special lego pieces and the legos you already have at home, you can build some cool contraptions. Some are easier than others to build. However, all are doable and all live up to my expectations. Very Fun.

Enjoy.

IF you are like I am and look for toys that are quality toys that encourage creativity and exploration of the world around you, Lego toys are great. If you look for toys that have more than a button to push, lego toys are great. The toys are quality toys that can grow with your child and continually be added to to make new and exciting things.

I can't say enough good things about this kit. The book comes with a nice variety of Lego Technics pieces and makes some very intriguing gadgets. The pieces with the book include gears and pulleys and kids will just love these! Some of the projects can be built with just the included pieces but to make them all you will need to add some of your own common bricks. I purchased two of the very small tube type sets (Lego #4-99) at Wal-Mart and a large green base and that gave me enough extra pieces to build all of the projects in the book. The additional small sets were very inexpensive (Less than $12.00 for everything). You can also get extra sets of the special parts at the klutz website for only $8.00. The extra sets will allow your child to build two of the rubber band cars, cable cars, or balloon powered cars and have races with their friends. Of all of the nice projects in the book the Kentucky Do-Nothing is the star of the show! You won't want to take it apart. It is a mechanical wonder and very easy to build. The parachute launching cable car is another of my favorites. Try it outside on a long stretch from tree to tree. Children and Adults will love this book. Will give you a day or two of fun with your child that you won't soon forget. Kids need toys like this to put down the video game controllers for a while. The step by step instructions and photos are top notch and anyone can follow them. Very educational and fun! I collect educational toys and science sets and this ranks at the very top of my collection in the fun department.

A nifty little book to get traditional LEGO folks started thinking about how the bricks can be made into useful machines. A great plastic "coming of age book" for kids who like LEGO playsets, but haven't started with Technics.

I wouldn't recommend the book for hard-liner LEGO Manics, anyone on LUGNet.Com, or the LEGO Robotics mailing list.

This is definitely something to purchase for those kids that have a ton of legos but either don't use the books that came with the original set or prefer making up their own models. You could purchase it for a child that doesn't have many legos, but I would recommend purchasing one of the "blue buckets" (It's a starter set of basic bricks in a big blue bucket - under $... in most cases) to go with it as 5 of the 10 contraptions call for pieces that are not in the bag attached to the book. One of them called for 39 2X4 bricks, and even with all the buckets of legos my 9 year old has, it took us a while to collect that many. Also, in order to build another item in the book, I have found that we usually had to take apart whatever we had just built (i.e. the parts in the bag are only enough to make one contraption at a time). That might seem annoying to some kids.

My husband and I purchased this book for our son for Christmas. I was a little startled by the price, but thought we'd try it anyway. Wow! We spent the entire afternoon making these contraptions. Some of the contraptions may be too difficult for younger kids to build, so parents join in on the fun! Just imagine, you too could have fishing line running across your living room for the Tapdoor Cable Car Parachute Machine to zoom on.

I just rec'd this book yesterday, and my son has already built several of the items. He loves this book, and his friend is ordering the book today after spending the afternoon building with him. Instructions are easy to follow and the projects are fun to play with.

My opinion is that legos shouldn't come with instructions. I grew up with legos, and had a lot of fun making up my own models. When I watch kids play with legos today, they don't seem to get the idea that you can do a lot more with them than what is printed on the box. This book quite nicely addresses that problem by showing some of the most crazy contraptions I've seen. They do very clever things with legos, and make models that actually move and do things. My favorite is the candy dispenser that you can load up with M&Ms or Skittles. Highly recommended.

The very small tube type sets (Lego #4-99) mentioned by Margaret are in fact set 4027. They are discontinued but can be found online. The large green baseplate is set 0626 which is widely available - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/sim-explorer/explore-items/-/B00000JIVS/0/101/1/none/purchase/ref%3Dpd%5Fsxp%5Fr0/104-2930945-6101549

Took me awhile to figure this out so I thought I'd share