Crazy Action Contraptions product reviews

I have a son who likes building things and with this little kit you can build almost anything you like, as it says there are 16 kits you can build from following the instructions in the book (such as the Top Spinner which was the first one built ) but with a bit of engineering skill (which I unfortunately have none of what so ever) many more interesting contraptions could conceivably be built. Combine this kit and book with your general lego blocks and the possibilities are limitless.

What I like about this is it can encourage your littlies (or yourself) to think outside the box and see what else can be made with the supplied equipment.

This is the sort of thing that can keep the budding your engineer in your family quiet for ages.

These 16 contraptions are Lego models that can do all kinds of stunts. They look cool, have funny names and I enjoyed building them from the start. The bad thing about them is that I got really confused with the troubleshooting and thought that the contraptions were not meant to work. I really liked the annoy-o-matic because it's funny when mum and dad try not to listen to the sound it makes, but warning: be prepared to be grounded for a month or two! Another good thing is that it offers great education on Lego constuction and can do a lot to strengthen the mind.

Awesome! What more needs to be said?

Oh, OK... I guess a bit more detail would be good... Let's see... it has over a hundred lego bits that come with it, so unlike some other Lego books I have seen and bought over the years, you won't need to rely on having a huge barrel of the stuff at home to make use of this book.

The assortment of Lego pieces in here is great, with plates, blocks, tech blocks, rubber bands, cogs, wheels, axles... you name it! If you *do* happen to have a stash of block at home, you can easy swap colours, build duplicate models for competition races etc, or add special 'extras' to your models... like bumper bars, or extra noise-makers.

It's great for kids of all ages, and skill levels, as the instructions are indeed easy to follow... but as with all construction books, be sure to look *very* carefully at the diagrams to ensure you are putting the pieces in the right spots. 1 or 2 nubs out of place, and you could find yourself un-building the models nearly completely to fix a simple glitch.

I was really impressed at how clear and concise the instructions actually were. My 9yr old son breezed through the whole book, even designing a few improvements using only the blocks in the pack. He noticed that in the rubber-band speedster how the positioning of a couple of plates rubbed against the band, slowing the car down. However by moving one plate forward a single knob, and adding a couple of small 1x2 bricks to lift the 'spoiler' off the axle bearing, the car could get top speed on smooth floors, and was able to move above snail-pace even on carpet!

The only toy out of the whole lot he is forever banned from making again is the Annoy-o-matic rattle. Once was one more than enough. It works SO well, I'm tempted to surgically remove that page from the book.

Overall, my favourite would have to be the battle-top spinner. Despite the abuse caused to innocent cogs by impact with another spinner, it's a lot of fun trying to aim them and get them doing a 'dance of defeat'... a real challenge both of us enjoyed. Inexpensive in the extreme, especially when you look at the shelf-price of regular Lego packs, this is a wonderful way to introduce a novice to the joys of Lego, and a great way to expand your kit, for the die-hard fans.