by Sam Eccleston
One of the dominant trends at Toy Fair 2010 is "active brain" toys — toys that help kids think more creatively and more quickly to solve problems. This year, manufacturers are creating educational construction toys that let kids of all ages build their creativity while they design fun-filled buildings and shapes.
Fisher-Price's Trio lets preschoolers construct a wide variety of imagination-sparking structures, ranging from castles to cargo loaders to creatures. Colorful blocks and barrel shapes fit together easily according to included instructions, so kids have the satisfaction of completing a task with pure brain power. Small, costumed action figures let kids act out scenes with their new buildings, leading to months and years of ongoing play. The modular pieces can be infinitely recombined, freeing kids imaginations.
Lego has kept most of their offerings under wraps so far during the show. The venerable building-block brand has only invited a select few behind the opaque doors of their main booth on the fair's floor. But the full-size "Toy Story" constructions outside, along with a few tantalizing figures and shapes, hint at all the fun educational construction toys in store for the next year. And the Lego Licensing display offered a Lego edition of the video game mega-hit Guitar Hero, Lego-branded sneakers and clothes, and even that old standby, the lunchbox. After 61 years on the scene, Lego is still clicking with kids.
Of course, building isn't just kid stuff. Uberstix, an independent company, uses a system of eight simple hubs and sticks that let older kids and adults build complex structures in gorgeous, sophisticated colors and shapes. Unlike most educational construction toys, the shapes allow builders to incorporate outside materials like Popsicle sticks, water bottles, even other construction toys. The company's fair booth was covered with amazing reconstructions of New York skyscrapers, with an elaborate, sci-fi train system running around the miniature Empire State Building.
The fun, brain-building benefits of educational construction toys don't have to stay on the dining room table, either. Crazy Forts use a system of spherical, multidimensional hubs and sticks to construct large, elaborate structures. After kids build a person-sized frame, they can throw bedsheets and blankets over them to build the ultimate playhouse. It's a great way to apply the lessons of construction on a larger scale — or even take it outside.
And that's just the beginning of the great building toys on the market this year. Magformers combine unique triangular shapes with snap-tight magnetic construction that puts giant, towering structures in kids' reach. Engino's system incorporates long, rectangular blocks with different sized wheels and hubs that let kids build rolling, sliding, shifting cars, animals and more.
In the end, educational construction toys across the spectrum open up brand new possibilities for any structure they want. With that possibility, it lets kids build their own doors to imagination and learning over and over again.
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