Customer Reviews

ThinkFun Shape By Shape

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this as a party favor for my daughter's 5th year-old birthday. She loves tangrams and this is just an extension. Her friends have also enjoyed this and some parents have mentioned that their children cannot put this down. It is ideally suited for those who love to solve puzzles and have an affinity for spatial relationships.

This game, along with the other ThinkFun games (Brick by Brick, Square by Square, etc.) are WONDERFUL. They include challenging puzzles for kids and adults alike, and are great brain-building tools. The games are all made from a very durable hard plastic, many of which come with a slide out tray underneath to store the "puzzle" cards in. The puzzles include hints and solutions on the opposing side in case you get stuck. I would definitely recommend these to anyone who likes a challenge, as well as to those parents who are looking for a truly "educational" game for their child.

My 6 year old son just received this toy for the holidays. Both my wife and I played it with him last night, and we all enjoyed it. It's durable and well-engineered to fit compactly together. The puzzles are a nice degree of difficulty for a 6 year old, not to mention fun and challenging for adults. This is because the number of pieces is just right, not too many or too few, and the use of two primary colors to define a red figure inside a yellow background gives enough visual information to solve the puzzles with just a little persistence.

This was fun to play together my son, but I suspect it will also keep him busy on car trips or other times when he wants to figure out the puzzles himself.

I'm a middle school English teacher. When my students finish their work early, they are allowed to play with logic puzzles that I have acquired over the years. I just purchased this product, along with several others, and am extremely happy with it. It really makes you think.

I completed the rooster; it took a while but I did it. You feel such accomplishment when you get all the pieces to work. When the kids are successful, they will say (tongue in cheek), "I smart." After completing it, I couldn't help saying, "I smart." Get one--you won't regret it.

I bought this toy ThinkFun Shape By Shape for my 4.5 y/o. He loves it, and it keeps him away from the t.v. and busy when I am helping the older children with school work. I have never seen my son sit still for as long as he has in the last week, and each time he solves a puzzle he jumps up and down with excitement. Now he can't wait to show everybody who comes over how smart he is because he can do these puzzles. I just can't say enough about it, even my older children are playing with it.

This is a challenging game for kids and adults alike. All our neighbors came to try it, we had a room full of people playing with it and very few were able to solve any puzzles. It was frustrating for children under 10, couldn't solve a single puzzle without first reading the solution.

This is a great little game! However, it is NOT just for kids. My forty-something husband has worked the puzzles more than our kids (6,11,13.) I love that is comes with the nylon storage bag. No worries about a torn box! FYI, I have seen similar games that are designed to play with others and in teams. This one is designed as single player.

I ordered this ThinFun Shape and Shape a month ago for $10. It's right before Christmas when I saw the deal and I was thinking hmm ... it'd been raining for the whole month, better get this for some fun indoors. Hey, it turned out to be really fun! Not only me but did my friends love it. It's not very hard though. Sometimes there are more than one solutions to a puzzle. Each puzzle took me around 2~5 minute to finish. The more you think of it, the more fun you got out of it, and the faster you'll get it done. I was so surprised that even my parents love playing it and it ended up as a Christmas gift to my dad :D.

The box is 13cm x 13cm x 3cm. All 14 puzzle pieces and the box are made of plastic. Each puzzle piece is hollow and light-weight. I actually prefer to heavier material because I used to link more weight to higher value, like gold :). Each of the 60 card has a puzzle on one side and the solution the other side. Puzzles are numbered but not ranked by difficulty level. Honestly speaking, it is not even possible to rank it due to dramatic difference between each individual mind.

It's simple but complicated when you guess wrong, plain but splendid as the result shows up, old but new every time you play. It's true that you can even make it out of a cardboard with scissors yourself. However, when you spend money on something you tend to be more serious about using it and also feel more responsible for its outcome - you are right, I'm thinking about my tuitions right now, lol. This toy has a great educational value. It makes you think and think harder, helps to let you try more possibilities (before giving up), helps you to be subtle, flexible, and more importantly, humble. Overall, it is a fantastic toy, and its value is far beyond a toy.

I can't get enough of the fun games from Thinkfun. We've yet to buy a dud. Shape by shape is a 2-dimensional puzzle game, similar to tangrams. Some pieces are red, some are yellow and you make a design to match one from a deck of picture cards. It's a red design against a yellow background. The shapes repeat themselves so while there are 14 pieces there are only 7 different shapes. That helps the player see patterns in solving each puzzle. At first, players might need the picture clues on the back of each card. Two clues are given; first the layout of JUST the red tiles are given. Hopefully once those are in place the player can figure out how to place the yellow. But if not, the second picture clue gives the layout of the yellow tiles. When my middle child, then age 7 first played, she strictly just followed the clues, trying to match the tiles to the pictures. Not so challenging to an adult perhaps but perfect for her at that time. After playing a while though you'll start to get the hang of the game, be able to tell right away if two pieces can't possibly go next to each other, and so on.

My only gripe about this game is it's storage design. The cards store inside the game frame; a good idea but "played with" cards tend to "fluff up" a bit and tend to make the sliding drawer get stuck.

You just have to love an engaging activity that involves a small handful of simple shapes. The only complaint I have is that these puzzles are hard - really hard.