Category Archives: Games

Q-BA-MAZE construction toy + giveaway!

Age 5-7, Age 7-10, Ages 10-13, Fun stuff for parents, Games

Qf009q50towerWe received several Q-BA-MAZE kits to review back in December and
the feedback from parents and kids alike has been aMAZing!

When Sebastian gets out his Q-BA-MAZE construction toy I know I won’t see him for a while.   Like most  children, Sebastian loves to build things then take them apart.  If he could he would try it on my car.  When I received Q-BA-MAZE to review, I knew right away that this is a toy to play with when Madelyn (almost 2) is not around.  With small marbles and pieces that stack, the combination is a sure disaster. She would have Sebastian’s project scattered on the floor in no time.

Q-BA-MAZE is unlike any toy I’ve ever seen. Not only is this a construction toy but it is also a marble maze.  Structures can be designed and built using the included architecture plans, your child’s imagination, or from architecture plans found on the Q-BA-MAZE website. 
The fun isn’t over when you’ve used all of the construction pieces.  When you are finished building a structure, drop the included marbles in and see where they come out!   What I love about this toy is that there are so many design possibilities and little inventors can spend hours making their own buildings, bridges, or other structures and then watch the marbles roll down and out!  The structure above is one of the simpler designs. Visit the website to see the design possibilities for each set.

Q-BA-MAZE packs come with 20 or 50 very durable pieces and include several marbles.  We have three 50 piece Q-BA-MAZES to giveaway and will do so in March.  Sign up for our newsletter using the "Get our newsletter" form to the right to be notified when we run the giveaway contest.

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Q-BA-MAZE construction toy

Tieramid Circle Set: $25.99+

Age 3-5, Age 5-7, Age 7-10, Games, Wooden Toys

TieramidI love wooden toys.  They are timeless and bring back memories of the wooden blocks I played with for years. It’s so great to see my kids playing with wooden blocks.

Tieramid blocks are non-toxic, colorful, circular nesting blocks.  Tieramid blocks are great for young children learning colors and the concept of inside and outside, and small and large.  The blocks fit together flat to make designs or be stacked to build a colorful towers.

The large set comes with 52 design/pattern cards to get your child started designing and building.  Sebastian builds ‘mountains’, funny characters, and comes up with really cool patters and Madelyn loves to destroy whatever he’s built.

You will be impressed with the things your child can make with Tieramid blocks like birds, flowers, and silly faces and your child will be so proud of him/herself for creating such beautiful pieces of art! 

Tieramid will bring out the artist in your kids, without the mess of paints and markers.

Click here to learn more about or buy Tieramid blocks.

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Spider-Man and TMNT card games: $6.99+

Age 5-7, Games

BriarpatchgamesBriarpatch’s Spider-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle card games are great games to give your kids when you need them to be occupied for a few minutes without getting sucked into a serious game like Monopoly.

The card games are fairly simple and are great for 2-4 players ages 6+. 

The Spider-Man 3 Battle Within card game is a little more complex but still good for ages 6+.  The point is to capture as many villains as you can
with help from your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man! With the flip of
a card, you can capture one and all or liberate your opponents’ bad
guys!
 
Help Spider-Man battle a
host of vengeful enemies as he confronts his past, dueling with revenge
and evil! Capture as many villains as you can before Venom, the Sandman
and others destroy Spider-Man. Includes game mat, 50 collectible cards
and rules.

Briarpatch card games can be purchased at the Briarpatch website or at Amazon.

LONPOS Pyramid and Rectangle Games

Ages 10-13, Games, Travel

LonposLONPOS is a brainteaser game that at first challenged my patience and concentration skills but after a few games, I was concentrating like a pro and forgot that I have ever lost my patience. 
All of our testers played at least 5 LONPOS games at one sitting. Once a player starts the game, they don’t want to stop.

How do you play?
To play LONPOS’ 2D games, you take out the 12 game pieces, all of which are different colors, from the box and put them on the tray. Then, from the
booklet, locate a problem that you would
like to try to solve and place
the pieces on the game board in accordance with the illustration. Once
you have done that, the challenge is to fit the remaining pieces into
the spaces remaining.  At first I thought that the games would be simple so I jumped to level 5. Oops, I was wrong! I decided it was best to start at level one where only one piece is missing and I got that level done in no time. 

The LONPOS 101 and the LONPOS 303 Pyramid and Rectangle games are
pocket/ purse sized making them perfect travel games or for working on
while waiting in a doctor’ s office, etc. and each of these LONPOS models has 360,984 2-dimensional rectangles and 2,582 3-Dimensional
pyramids that can be completed. This game is like the Energizer Bunny.. it keeps going and going and going and going.  Play as many or as few games and levels as you like.

Get your older children away from the TV and video games and have them stimulate their minds with LONPOS.

Great for ages 8+ including older adults,  LONPOS makes a wonderful gift for any occasion.

LONPOS is available for $16.99 here.

Cranium Bloom: Let’s Play Count & Cook Game

Age 3-5, Age 5-7, Educational Toys, Games

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Cranium® Bloom™
 is a new line of games, books, puzzles, and toys for preschoolers ages 3+ and they are so much fun!

We tried out the Cranium® Bloom™ Let’s Go to the Zoo Seek & Find puzzle and the Cranium®
Bloom™ Let’s Play Count & Cook game. 
Here is our review of the Count & Cook game.

Kids inherently have a negative attention span which is why I love the Cranium®
Bloom™ games.  The Cranium®
Bloom™ Let’s Play Count & Cook game takes about 10 minutes to play and they are fun filled and educational.  In the box you will find a sturdy game board, 20 ingredient tokens, 4 chef movers, recipe book, and die. 

First your child will choose one of the 6 chef movers to play with.  Then she will put it on her favorite ingredient token all of which are on the board when the game starts.  Mom picks a recipe from the book and places it where everyone can reach it. Then all of the players work together to make the same recipe.   Players roll the die on their turn and move the number of spaces shown on the die. If she lands on an ingredient needed for the recipe, she adds the token to the recipe.  Kids can have fun when they land on a star by choosing any ingredient they want to add to the recipe.  The player who adds the last ingredient is top chef and opens a secret window in the recipe book for a surprise.

>Get a closer look at Cranium®
Bloom™ products below:   

Other ways we had fun with the game was by choosing a few ingredient tokens, handing them out to the kids and having them find the ingredient in our kitchen.  Some ingredients are simple while others require a bit of searching.  If you are brave enough, you can even have your child help you make one of the recipes.. for real!

Cranium®
Bloom™ Let’s Play Count & Cook game is available at Amazon.com for $12.99 and is appropriate for ages 3+.