Vintage Toys -Toy Reviews -Toy Discount

Reviews

I loved tinker toys when I was a kid. Unfortunately, the quality of this toy is awful. All of the holes in the hub pieces are oversize, so the sticks won't stay in them. Everything just falls apart, which is very frustrating for the kids. I know from my childhood experience that the fit of the pieces can vary due to humidity - loose in the winter and tight in the summer. But all of the parts are just ridiculously loose - I have to wrap the ends of the sticks with aluminum foil to make them stay in the hubs. We've purchased 2 (Tinkertoy Classic Jumbo) sets in a year, and had the same experience with both. This is a wonderful, educational toy. If only Hasbro could make it correctly. I recommend buying vintage sets on ebay.

You can't go wrong with a set of Tinkertoys for children old enough not to be in danger of choking on small objects. This set was for the fourth generation of my family, a gift for my two grandsons, to play with Tinkertoys. They never go out of favor . . . and they never need batteries and have no annoying sound effects!

Purchased two of these tinker toy sets for granddaughters. They are as I remember them, wood with nice mix of pieces. The only down side is the pictures of projects are small and that makes it difficult for a young child to follow, even I had problems. But that aside, product is good, delivery prompt, price was very good with free shipping

I bought this tinker toy set as a giggle, memory Christmas gift for my grandson in the army who is stationed in Afghanistan. The guys loved it -his NCO took the set away from him and started building right away. when they have a little free time they amuse themselves building with it. The guys like dominoes, cards and other types of games to forget the tension for a while.. My grandson - and all the other grands (10)- always played with these at our home years ago. June C

Just awful. I threw it out! It was purchased for my four year old grand daughter. I sat down to build with her as I remembered Tinkertoy and loved it so much from my childhood.The holes in the circular shapes were all irregular in size and it was frustrating finding the rods that would fit in. I should have sent it back for a refund. This is nothing like the original tinkertoy in quality or construction. I rated it as one star because it would not accept a perfect zero. Phyllis

Reviews

I bought these to supplement a smaller set that did not have enough parts for elaborate constructions. This set certainly does. There are enough pieces that my two kids don't even fight over them and they almost never have to take apart what they have just built to have enough pieces to make something else. The pieces that are supposed to glow in the dark don't glow well but since they are never played with in the dark it is not a problem...

Although there are a few plastic hinged pieces now, this is still pretty much the same classic toy. The kids seem to have as much fun making specific things as they do just putting pieces together and making nothing in particular. Probably the toy played with most since Christmas.

We thought that we were getting glow-in-the-dark Tinkertoys. These aren't. Only the flags glow in the dark. We were very disappointed.

The product is great! I enjoyed these very much as a kid, and now my grandson is as well. My only negative response would be that I feel the product is terribly over priced. People who are not familiar with "tinker toys" (I have found there are a lot), won't pay that amount. I would hate to see these no longer available for kids to learn great building, and construction skills.

I bought this set for my grandchildren and they love it. But I was hoping to get a set that was like the one I had when I way a boy. Although this set has some different parts it lacks at least one of the parts of the old sets. The biggest problem with this set so far is that size of the holes in the round wheels and connectors seem to be of inconsistent size and the sticks will not stay in some of them. Also, there is no instruction book or plans for things to build in this set so the kids have no guidance on what to build. Overall this set is pretty good and someone who never played with the old sets will be satisfied.

Reviews

I thank Amazon.com for the excellent service. PLEASE remove any negative feedback for the service afforded me by the seller. The item was scheduled for delivery Jan. 2. Unfortunately, the receiving room of my husband's office, to which it was to be shipped, was closed Jan. 2, the day after New Year's. I was asked for feedback on Jan. 3, but could only write that I could not comment because I'd not yet received the item. This reflected negatively on the seller, and was in no way her problem. Please correct this. I look forward to hearing from you about this. Thank you. Frances S. Vandervoort Chicago

When I was a young child back in the 1950's one of my very favorite pastimes was playing with my Tinkertoy Construction Set. I would wile away the hours all by myself building all manner of bizarre creations that never really amounted to much. The monstrosities that I constructed certainly did not resemble the magnificent creations some kids could come up with. But I really did not care. I guess I simply did not have the aptitude for such things. For me my Tinker Toys were pure and simple fun. And I can assure you that my parents greatly appreciated a toy that would keep me occupied for hours at a time. When I look around today I see all of the sophisticated electronic gadgets that 5 and 6 years olds have avaliable to them. I honestly doubt that they are going to give these children the pure joy that this simple wooden construction set gave me and my friends so many decades ago. In fact, Tinker Toys have been around for nearly a century now. It is a formula tried and true. So if you are the parent of a young child do yourself and your child a favor and consider the simple gift of a Tinkertoy Construction Set. I suspect that when the batteries have died and you child has become bored with his or her electronic toys they just might go back to their Tinker Toys. Isn't that usually the way?? Very highly recommended!

I suggested to my sister that she purchase TinkerToys for my son for his 4th birthday. My son can sit there for a long long time and play with them. We havent had any problem with breakage (and my son is ROUGH with his toys. Some of the pieces fit together tightly but after a while, they loosened up.

This is a fun and educational toy. Helps to develop small motor skills. Adults love it too. Too bad that more pieces don't come in a set. It is quite expensive.

I reckon in this day and age, Tinkertoys are bought more to satisfy the purchaser's nostalgia than to give today's kids something to get excited about. Too few pieces cut short kids imaginative building sessions. (To be fair, Lego is guilty of this too.) Loose fitting connections inevitably lead to creations that fall apart and cannot really be played with. How fun is that? And stick ends that break far too easily mean your child may be able to build that "working elevator" that uses all the sticks only once! I guess you could buy a second set to get replacement parts and spares, but I don't see the point.

Reviews

I have to agree with some of the previous reviewers: Some of the designs are incorrect and violate the laws of physics such as the "duck" and the "dragster." Wood rods are not flexible and do not bend without breaking. You have to be innovative and change things so that they resemble the drawings in the book. The diagram's rods are colored randomly. They should be consistent and have a legend in the book specifying the length of each rod color. This is not a step by step building manual like the vintage tinkertoys used to have. You can tell that the author never tried assembling these designs to make sure that they work. He just assumed that because they are licensed by Hasbro they have to work, wrong! Most of the drawings in the book are just conceptual artistic designs. You have to improvise a lot to make the pieces fit without breaking them. I also agree that the book should have been spiral bound to make it easier to look at the pages. In summary, if you like to build things this book will give you some ideas or maybe you don't need it. If you need a step by step instruction manual, skip it.

The manual provides easy to follow graphic instructions on how to assemble Tinkertoy projects. The manual is a needed addition to the instructions given in the Tinkertoy box that are sparse at best.

The book is a great go with for the Tinker Toys---- My 4 year old and 5 year old Grandsons both enjoy the toy and looking at the book --- they haven't quite got the hang of building from the book but it lets them see what can be built --- the Tinker Toys were a great idea for them -- the older simpler toys lets them use their imaginations ---

As I stated in a previous review, we have loved our Tinker Toys, but even with all that fun we lacked focus and clear ideas for building. This book has certainly taken care of that. It has been a wonderful addition to our collection of creative books and has definately instigated more creativity with our Tinker Toys. A great purchase to get the creative juices of your kids flowing.

Most of these illustrations are wrong, you are better off with your imagination. Dont waste your money on the book or the tinker toys that wont stay together. They are not made in the USA like they used to be, but then what is ????