TOMY Gearation Building Toy

My toddler (28 months old) loves gears. We bought this set to supplement our refrigerator set ( TOMY Gearation Refrigerator Magnets Building Toy ) with more gears. This set exceeded our expectations. Like the other set, the plastic gears and decals are colorful and fun. This set includes eleven gears, including two sound-making gears (a "clicker" and a "ringer", with a tiny bell).We liked that the gears' teeth are smaller than some of the other play gear sets, giving this one less of a "little kid toy" look. Our toddler, like most, is drawn to things that aren't toys first and foremost. The magnets are strong enough to keep the gears where they need to be, but even a small child can still easily nudge one across the metal surface to mesh the gears.All is not perfect, though. The gear with the rotating arm sometimes touches other gears instead of gliding over them, making the gears stick and stop rotating. The gear that has a sold-colored cutout top with the teeth that spins over a fixed base with a colorful sticker has a similar problem. It's a mid-sized gear and the principle is good, but the execution is lacking. The cover wobbles sometimes, making the gears stop spinning and the motor click painfully. (Poor motor.) Then the kid (or you) has to figure out which gear is causing the problem, interrupting play. Or enhancing problem-solving, if you want to think about it that way.The powered backer board is a good idea, but with the batteries, it's very large and heavy for even a tall two-year-old. It's in the closet until he's bigger, but by then I doubt he'll be playing with this toy anymore, unless Tomy comes out with new gear expansion sets. If you're buying this for an older child, I think you'll get more use out of the board than we have.Bottom line: If your kid likes the Gearation refrigerator set, you MUST HAVE this set, too, so you'll have a respectable number of gears for play. Be aware that each of the four non-powered gears in the refrigerator set is duplicated in this set, though they have different decals.

I'm a bit torn on this one. I would have thought my kids (4 and 2) would have loved this, and they still play with it occasionally, but it definitely just does not have the staying power of some of the best toys we have.I personally love it, think it's cool as everything, but it's not for me :)One thing I AM surprised at is the durability. My 2 year old will just yank the control button back and forth forcefully from reverse to fwd, and the thing still works. I kind of cringe, thinking of a fwd/reverse gear and how bad that would be, but it appears the designers knew kids would do this.Could just be a thing with my kids (both girls) interests at their particular stages, but definitely not one of their favorites.We bought in the hopes of this being a good "airplane trip" toy, but 1. it's too big (there is a smaller version I think) and 2. not enough long term interest holding potential (at least for my kids).I think this is a big YMMV toy. If your kids like building, and legos and blocks and such, they would probably love this. If they are more the reading, music, pretend type, maybe not so much.Quality, construction and concept are all great imo, but I have to give three stars based on my kids reaction. I would actually like to give it 3.5 because I think it's better than just average.

it stopped working for absolutely no reason. My son rarely played with it. I thought he would love it, but he just didn't care for some of the sounds that it makes. So it sat in his closet. One day I brought it out to re-introduce it to him and see if I can get him to play with it. I noticed it doesn't work. My first thought was the battery is out. I replaced the batteries and tried again and nothing! It is dead!! I haven't trashed it yet, because I am hoping that it can be fixed, but we are moving soon and it will most likely end up in the trash pile. I am disappointed that this toy did not work out for us.

Gave this to my (then) 2 year old. First without batteries in it, and she loved it, playing with the moving pieces by themselves was fun for her. Then we added the batteries and got it moving. She loved it! Now, another review said their 3 year old was bored after a few days. I don't know of many toys that a 3 year will play with for days on end. What you do is the popular technique called "hide it for 2 weeks then bring it out again when you need an hour to yourself".There is NO other toy like this one. Nothing out there that does what this does. Now, my 1 year old and now 5 year old play with it still. Talk about durable! My year old is sitting on at as I type this. I think she hopes she will spin like the gears. :-)Children love to connect the pieces and watch each one do their unique thing, flip flop, ding a bell, clickety sounds, spin around, move side to side etc. The best thing... it takes up little space and there are no small parts to worry about. I love playing with it and I'm in my 30's.

My son got this toy at 18 months, and it kept his interest for nearly 6 months. I added on the amusement park after 3 months, and he figured out directions, speed, on and off, how to set gears against each other so they would start spinning, and he even learnt to look at the back of each gear to see whether it could go into the middle part on the motor cog. The toy and he were practically inseparable for weeks, and its been known to have stayed on for the whole day at a time...Cons: its noisy especially at the slow setting, and my son liked it on, so even if we switched it off, he would walk over and switch it on even if he was not playing with it right then. Get rechargeable batteries!The pieces turn up all over the place!Its started making a grating noise at some point, louder even than the usual whine. The noise went away mysteriously after a couple of days. It quit working after 6 months. So the 4 stars on durability. Not too bad given the price and tough usage it had been put through.

Great toy for young children especially for kids of almost any age with autism or for use with sensory therapies. Recommended by our speech therapist for a Christmas gift to our son

Very nice, I liked it very much.

Excellent toy, provides long periods of play by child!

Super

I bought this toy as a Christmas gift for two young boys (ages 7 and 9). They loved it and played with it all evening. The individual pieces and controls are easy to handle.My only issue is the price and I hope AMAZON can do something positive about this. The toy retails for under $30 on the Amazon.com site. I really cannot understand why there is such a large price difference between the Canadian site and the US site. I bought the toy from Amazon.ca because I could not find it anywhere else in Canada - but it does not leave me feeling warm and fuzzy about Amazon.

My son adores this toy. I just wish it ran a little quieter. Also the bell gear and clicking gear are annoying.