STRAWS & CONNECTORS

by Roylco

Product Features

• Hours and hours of fun
• Great for building up fine motor skills
• Expandable
• Ages 5+

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 16 x 11.1 x 2.7 inches ; 4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B0015344GM
• Manufacturer recommended age: 5 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,324 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

Product Description

Age 5+

Simple to use for endless hours of imaginative play! Make play houses and forts, design buildings, engineer spacecrafts. Appropriate for a wide age range. The most economical building set around! Includes idea guide. 705/pkg

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good toy with some flaws, January 14, 2011

By 

Atiq U. Malik (San Antonio, TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:1.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: STRAWS & CONNECTORS (Toy)

We buy lots of learning/educational toys for kids and 705 pieces version reached couple days ago. Below are my thoughts:

Pros:
- Lots of pieces; enough for three Kids to create their own independent structures or work jointly on one big one
- Good for all ages; elder ones can ask younger ones to work on smaller pieces to incorporate into bigger scheme later
- Lots of possibilities; with some limitations on creative side (see cons below)

Cons:
- Straws have no "grooves" or "snap-ons". One shallow cylinder goes over a solid cylinder (male-female joint in technical terms). This means shallow cylinder will wear-out soon (when it widens with use or when *** it is left connected overnight ***). So the life of this toy is going to be very short. How manufacturer could have extended it? See recommendations for manufacturer below
- There are "beams" (straws) and connectors in this toy. Since joints have four corners when you put these together one joint can connect/hold 4 straws meaning there should be more straws than beams. What you get is 390 straws and 315 joints. This ratio is not enough. No matter what you build/construct, 100 or more joints are always left unused. So the ratio should have been 500 straws and 200 connectors
- Straws are not "flexible" enough to come back to real shape bent at 90 degrees once (not as bad as straws you buy at Walmart but these should have been better since this is a toy and regular straws are not)

Recommendations for the parents and manufacturer:

- Parents: Make sure straws are not left "connected" over an extended period of time or joints will lose strength (less elasticity - as diameter will increase where straws go over connectors)
- Manufacturer: Be practical. Add some "curved" straws so that kids don't keep twisting and turning straight straws to form curves and please please extend life of this toy by extending joints from 1/4" to 1/2 inches

Over-all it seems expensive since it is not going to last long you can tell it OO the Box; 3 stars for the fun while it lasts!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great creative building toy, May 4, 2008

By 

M. Ames (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: STRAWS & CONNECTORS (Toy)

My kids enjoy this building set. It really is unique and allows them to be creative. The only down side is that the straws can break if you bend then too far. I'd also like to see the price come down a little. when it said 705 pieces they are couting the little tiny connectors as well as the straws. I didn't realize that when I bought it. But overall we were pleased.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars lots of fun for kids and adults, November 16, 2009

By 

Linda (Omaha, NE) - See all my reviews

= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: STRAWS & CONNECTORS (Toy)

We use these straws and connectors with kids and adults alike. The set is large enough that you can divide it easily into 4 or 5 sets. We divide up our groups into equal sized teams and give each team a set of straws and connectors. We challenge each team to get as creative as possible and build something, anything. I'm amazed at how much fun both kids and adults have with this challenge. And what a good team builing activity it is!