Customer Reviews

Magna-tiles 100 Piece Pack

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My rating of the product speaks for itself so rather than add to the positive comments and simply repeat what others wrote, I'll mention some things that I haven't seen pointed out in the other reviews, at least not in the more recent ones:

1) This is the opaque set (you can't see through them) but translucent Magna-Tiles (that you can see through) are also sold. If you've already bought one set, you may want get the same kind when you buy another. I do know for a fact that a 100-piece translucent set is sold -- because that's what we have.

2) As you'd expect, the larger sets are a better value; you can get about three times as many pieces with this set for only twice the price of the 32-piece set, and the more pieces you have, the more options you have for building stuff. More is definitely better in this case, but my kids had a blast with them even when all we had was a 32-piece set.

3) The 100-piece set contains the following:

4 large squares (floor / ceiling pieces)
11 right triangles (half-squares)
50 small squares
20 equilateral (the same length on all sides) triangles
15 isosceles triangles (one "short" and two "long" sides)

When I first saw these I thought they were a bit pricey because they're essentially just pieces of plastic with magnets inside. In hindsight, though, I realize that was a bit like thinking that a great book is nothing more than a lot of paper with some ink on it.

I rarely write reviews but this toy really rates the effort. The tiles are appealing to a vast range of age groups and are absolutely indestructable. We've had ours for years and they've taken a beating - the magnets have never come loose, the plastic hasn't so much as dinged or cracked. (I wish I could say the same about my millwork, which was met with a magnatile-tossing tempest one exuberant afternoon.) They are the ONLY magnetic toy I trusted my daughter to play with when she was a baby.

We have added to our collection each year and the kids never, ever get tired of them. The possibilities are almost limitless - you can do tesselations or 3-D construction. And since they're so easy to store, these will be one of the few toys we keep around after the kids grow up --to have when we entertain people with young children.

My two children go crazy for their magnatiles. They started building very simple parquets of tiles, but soon began to understand how to build cubes and roofs. My son now blows me away on a regular basis with very complex 3d solids made of squares and triangles.

Most of the toys my kids like, including Legos, have such a narratice structure built in (Bionicle, Princess), that it is a huge relief to see both of my kids (3 and 4, girl and boy) really get into a purely abstract playtoy.

This is a must have toy.

I had never seen this before - I just saw them on amazon a couple weeks ago and decided to purchase them. I received them yesterday and since then my daughter (3 and a half), who is just getting into building stuff, has not stopped playing with it!!! Wonderful toy - very open ended for them to use their creativity and imagination, at whatever level they are. They are also very easy to store. If she keeps playing with these the way she is, I may have to buy more for her to build more sophisticated structures. I have a younger son (9 months) who is also very interested in them, and since these are big, I can let him do that.
My only complaint is that I do not understand why these have to be so expensive. If they were cheaper I would be buying these for every kid I know!!

If you only buy one toy - this would be it. I am about to buy my second set of 100. My son is two and loves this toy.

A friend recommended the Magna-Tiles to me for my 4yr old son Kurt. They were meant to be his present for the holidays, but he saw the Amazon box arrive, and so got them early. That was a week ago and he hasn't stopped playing with them since. Neither have I, they're addictive!

It's fun to watch how the kids evolve from (first 1/2 hour) just creating piles of tiles and sticking the faces together, to discovering the edges stick and building roads/train-tracks, to thinking in 3 dimensions and building structures.

My friends' 5 yr old built a geodesic dome with all of the triangle pieces, really.

Much better than Lego, because they are more abstract & flexible to build almost ANYTHING. The only thing keeping them from the full five stars is just that they are SOOO expensive. If they we're 1/2 the price I'd buy 3 more sets, and then we could build some really cool structures!

Lastly, our family travels a lot in our RV and this toy is perfect for that. It cleans up in about 30 seconds, all the pieces stick together so you don't lose any "bits", and they collapse down to a very small pile so they take up almost no room.

I DEFINITELY recommend this toy if you can justify the expense.

This product gets a lot of playtime. I bought magna tiles for my 4 year old son, but he can never play alone. My 8 year old daughter and my seven year old nephew can't seem to stay away. I bought a 100 piece set and I had to order more magna tiles a week after Christmas. They are very
durable as my son is very rough, I think they will last a very long time.
One night after my son was asleep, I caught my 17 year old daughter sitting on the floor playing with the magna tles. Expensive, but worth the money because they actually play with them a lot.

For 5 years now, I have bought a set of magnatiles at least once per year. My three children ages 8 through 13, continue to play with this almost on a daily basis. It is the only toy that is a favorite--day in and day out. It is an open-ended activity that builds creativity. It is pricey but durable and worth every penny.

I am the owner of Napa Valley Nanny in Napa CA, and have a professional babysitting service, where I have watched dozens of different children ages infant to adolescent. Visitors come through and stay in hotels, and I bring my big duffel bag of toys/crafts. Let me tell you, the $100 I spent on Magna-tiles was the best investment I made. 95% of kids between 2.5 and 9 years old LOVED this set. They build gates around castles, garages for their cars, homes for animals, and different complex shapes that turn into UFO's or other 3-D shapes. The one or two children who did not like them were the impatient type who couldn't stand them falling. It takes a while to get the gist of how they stick better. It's all in the way you arrange them. I was impressed by a couple of 2.5 year olds who were able to do simple tall towers!
This is recommended for any child who has the patience and creativity of giving it TIME, and enjoys the challenge. Children who want everything "here and now and done" will not like it.
I think I may have unduly influenced many a child begging their parents to buy them sets when they returned to their own states. No doubt there's a few in Georgia, New York and Connecticut that have made some purchases. ;0)

The Magna Tiles were purchased as a birthday gift for a niece and are a lot bigger than they appear in the pictures (it would be helpful, if they could include some unrelated object, with which everyone is familiar, in their photographs of the magna-tiles. An object that people can relate to, which will help a person who is considering purchasing them, by giving them a sense of human scale, or, a feeling for the relative size of the toy). At first, I thought that they would be very small and was hesitant to make a purchase of the toy. However, once the gift was opened, the children loved them and began immediately creating "houses" for their stuffed animals and other structures/towers and designs. You definitely want to have plenty of pieces for the children to work with to prevent disagreements, if possible. Let me put it this way.... they played with the toy and ignored the box that it came in. I call that a successful toy/gift purchase.