Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Wow, what a great set of Legos. We used these with our Jr. FIRST Lego League team (consisting of 3rd and 4th graders) to give the kids something hands-on to do at every meeting. 16 great projects, 14 of which have moving parts to teach the kids about Simple Machines with, and many of which allow some teamwork/competition with the final item. All the projects can be built between 10-40 minutes each with minimal help from parents. The most complex ones were challenging for the 4th graders to build. Great illustrations and step-by-step instructions. The parts are thoughtfully colored so, for example, when you are stacking bricks together you can tell where the 1x8 brick goes (which is red) compared to the 1x6 brick (which is black). The coloring also allows quick checking by parents to diagnose assembly problems when something doesn't work. There is a lot of background/support information, such as how to pull small, sticky parts apart, how to thread the rubber bands easily, a Lego geometry tutorial, troubleshooting steps for each project, etc. While nice to have, I couldn't get the kids to read any of it -- all they wanted to do was build. The "includes every brick, gear & axle" should be taken with a small grain of salt. While it is true that every Lego piece you need is included, the Tennessee Time-Killer requires a piece of dental floss (or similar thin string), and the Zipline Runners require a string to run on. Minor, but I think should be mentioned. Complaints/improvements: 1) larger storage area to put the pieces back in when done would be nice as they were packed in pretty good; 2) extra rubber bands, as we broke a number when the kids wound things up too tight (e.g., racing the Supercharged Speedsters).