What construction sets are there for 5 yo - BRIO ??

[IcandothisactuallyIcan]

We have had some Brio wooden build sets, but what else is there ? Meccano junior ? What do your DC like ?

[Kittykatmacbill]

Lego? Hornby trainset? My seven year old has never completed a mechano set.

[Bikingbear]

Not meccano jr, its useless impossible to get it to tighten and then other bits slacken are. Most frustrating toy ever.

Lego in this house although I'd maybe consider K'nex

[Kanaloa]

I don’t know if these are the type of thing you’re looking for but my DC have this set of sort of flat magnets, all different shapes. The set came with cards showing you how to put them together and make different things. They’re really cool.

[frankie246]

My 6 year old loves magformers.

[flower11]

My 8 year old and 5 year old both love building things with magformers. Most played with toy from last Christmas.

[Fivemoreminutes1]

My DC love playing with Gears Gears Gears at school and I managed to get the Moving Monkeys set in the sale last year. It’s pretty pricey otherwise.
They spend a lot of time constructing and reconstructing marble runs and we’ve got some Plus Plus that gets a lot of use too.
Kid Knex is great, but at 5 they might be a bit too old for it.

[Jamhandprints]

Mine loved Kid Knex and Clicks at that age.

[RubaiyatOfAnyone]

Grateful to hear the meccano junior is no good, as i was eyeing this up for 5yo dd and it is £££. Is there any good construction that uses a screwdriver? (What she’s really keen on).

[Ohdoleavemealone]

Magnatiles or knex

[micc]

My 4 year old loves magnatiles, brio, duplo (I know she is probably old enough for Lego but we have a baby and I hate little bits!!) and she just has some plain wooden blocks that I occasionally add to so she can make bigger structures:)

[micc]

What about Jenga? My DD loves Jenga and she just plays with the blocks on their own all the time

[Powerof4]

Magnatiles and magformers are excellent. Also, I've just bought some wooden tree slices/branch blocks for building all kinds of imaginative worlds (I hope!)

[Bikingbear]

@RubaiyatOfAnyone

Grateful to hear the meccano junior is no good, as i was eyeing this up for 5yo dd and it is £££. Is there any good construction that uses a screwdriver? (What she’s really keen on).

I can't think of any, but maybe look for a craft kit, "build your own..."

But definitely dodge the meccano jr, I didn't even charity shop it, seriously I couldn't let anybody else waste money on it.

[livingthegoodlife]

Magformers are great - you need some big sets to get enough to entertain an older child. My kids all love it and it's very open ended play.

Definitely not mechano. Too difficult.

[ritzbiscuits]

I got Gravitrax for my 6yo's birthday, it's like a marble run but much better.

[IcandothisactuallyIcan]

Magformers are great yes, we have just a basic set and been used a lot .. but I think the sets look a bit young now. DS has some entry level Lego, but I might go for the Gravitrax @ritzbiscuits if it won't be too hard as it says 8 + ? We don't have a marble run, as I've avoided as we have a 10
Month old baby too, but maybe there's a little less risk with this ? I just need to keep it on the table with the Lego little bits 😬

[PoppingCandies]

Kapla is great for this age group. I think we got ours on Ebay.

[SherryPalmer]

I find gravitrax is quite tricky for my 7 year old and he doesn’t like to play with it by himself (whereas he’s capable of building 8-12 Lego). He will play with it if I help him set up the runs but he much prefers our traditional marble run.

By far the most played with toys in our house between about 4 and 9 years old are Lego and magnatiles.

[Bikingbear]

I'd similar issues with DS1 and little one. I kept lego and marble run in his room.

If your thinking about marble runs check out Quadrilla and Haba.

[ritzbiscuits]

My son has had no issue building with Gravitrax himself, but he is really into building. The only thing I’d say is that it comes with very small steel balls, so not ideal with a baby around.

Otherwise, at 5, he was into Lego but preferred to do his own thing rather than follow the sets. I bought him a pack of 5 bases from Smyths last year (non Lego branded) with some Lego ideas books and that was a big hit.

[Fivemoreminutes1]

@RubaiyatOfAnyone
The wooden Brio Builder sets that OP mentioned have spanners and pliers. Think they’ve got a hammer but not too sure about screwdriver.
This set does have a screwdriver but might be too basic for your 5yo www.elc.co.uk/construction-toys/building-blocks/Build-It-Deluxe-Set/p/540602

[Bamaluz]

I recommend that Build It set, I think it would be fine for a five year old.

[GrouchyKiwi]

My three (4, 6 8) love magnatiles.

[InTheLongGrass]

Lots of the above in this house.
We also like Zoob.

[Equimum]

We didn’t get on at all with Meccano Junior.

Our boys (5 & 7) currently live Lego and Kapla Blocks. K’nex is also very popular. They come out less at the moment, but from 4 to 6, DS1 played with Magformers every day.