Fort Building Kit for Kids 4-8 - 100 Pieces Plus 5 Light Set - DIY STEM Fort Making Set for Indoor & Outdoor Play - Large Creative Construction Set for Boys & Girls (Red, 200 pcs)

I got a recall notice for this shortly after receiving it so they sat in the box unused until I was going to get a chance to return them. Then, I got a notice the recall was by mistake and was only for the model that came with flashlights. Frustrating.I've done two builds now. The first was the igloo shape from the box and directions. The second we got a bit more creative with some tunnels.My toddler loves this! It makes building a structural fort fast and sturdy.Orienting the balls is a bit of a challenge. I can't imagine a young kid having the patience to build something large. The markings for top/bottom of very light and many times I find I've got to rotate it to change alignment of some of the side holes for the build.I did have the clip end of one pole pull out. If it happens more I might be taking this down to 4 stars.Granted I was in a hurry, but getting everything back in the box was a challenge.

This is a neat idea for a fort building kit. I got this for my 12-year-old because he is obsessed with building forts in his room. He got very frustrated with it and told me it was not strong enough to build a fort with. I followed one of the designs on the box and built the fort pictured. It was not at all straightforward to get the round balls to line up in such a way that you could place the poles at the angles you needed to. It is not a ball with symmetrical holes at the same angles. You have to turn and try and adjust the balls until you get it aligned where you need it. If you don’t get the holes aligned correctly and try to snap the poles in, they will not snap in tightly and the fort will collapse. I understand why my son was frustrated with the building process. That being said, I was able to build the fort pictured and it is fairly sturdy. It was able to hold the three blankets I threw over it to use as a cover. This item does also comes with two battery powered lights that you can place inside the fort, but they have been issued a recall because the battery compartment is not secured with a screw. This is not an issue for our house since all of the people are old enough to not remove a battery and injest it. If you are buying this for a smaller child, you might want to make sure that this recall item has been corrected before buying. Also, my item was only one box with a total of 100 pieces and the one being advertised now is 200 pieces. When my older children were younger, I asked my dad to cut PVC pipe to 1, 2, 4, and 6 foot lengths for my children to use in fort building and bought a bunch of PVC pipe fittings to use as adapters. Honestly, I think that that was much sturdier than this is. It allowed my children, creativity, and flexibility in building structures. The only downside was storage. You could honestly do this with one and 2 foot pieces and just buy a bunch of straight fittings to use to make the pieces longer if needed.

My 4 year olds did like building with these, but needed some help with clicking the pieces all the way into place. There are a lot of structures you can build with just 1 of these sets, and even more with 2 sets. I love the large size and durability of the pieces , they feel really sturdy and big enough to avoid getting lost. I also love the click in place method, however they were not able to hold together if I tried to improvise while building and stretch a pole between misaligned spots.! Following the instruction is important , because it matters which way balls are installed. I got lazy and didn't look for the proper way to align before connecting, and the whole for collapsed from uneven building. It would help if they made the upper and lower hole of the ball a little easier to locate! Still great set though for stem at home

This building kit keeps kids engaged and they build endlessly. We have two sets and we want more! They are brightly colored and the plastic is strong. Younger children may need help learning how to snap the pole into the ball to construct. Children that are four and five have been building with it independently. It's a favorite classroom activity and many of the students have expressed a desire to own this toy to build with at home. We love this kit and the basic engineering concepts that it can teach the students.