Regular readers may remember our recent thumbs down to the Green Toys Tool Set, which offered a lot of tools but not many uses for them. One reader commented to ask if we had experience with a kids' tool set we do like, and that got us looking. Before long we'd come around to a brand we've had frequent success with over the past year, Plan Toys - they make high-quality wooden toys from spent rubber trees and non-toxic paints, and their stuff often feels modern and classic in the way it seems only a German toy company can pull off. Anyway, they make a Construction Set in 30 or 60 pieces ($35 and $55, respectively), and they agreed to send us the 60-piece set for review; both it and the 30-piece set come with a screwdriver, but you have to get the 60-piece set to get a wrench. There are no hammer and nails (I'll pass on the saw until Leighann makes everyone Velcroed lumber) but this is close enough for us.

The set is lovely, if you can't tell from product photo, and I'm pretty sure that image doesn't show all of the pieces - sixty pieces is a lot to work with. More importantly, all of the pieces are well-machined and fit together smoothly, which is saying something when you're making nuts, bolts, and matching counter-threads in rubber wood. The screwdriver is a nice bit of functional design in itself; the shaft's diameter is the proper width for a small hand, so it's just a straight stick with a flat head for screwing.

Sixty pieces is a lot, and you can really build with this thing. Not sure it meets that call for a tool set, but we really like it. Z is still figuring out how some of the parts work, and tends to treat them more as blocks than construction toys. She's not yet five, and my guess would be this would be perfect for her at about six, and quite appropriate for your average five-year-old boy, as they tend to dive a bit more quickly into building toys where kids like Z (often, but not always girls) get easily absorbed in pretend play instead.

A hint to parents (of boys or girls) when introducing a toy like this: Don't look to instructions to help you make anything in particular, even if they are there in the box. Just engage your kids in the process of building. Z had been playing with this set for all of five minutes when she screwed a plank to a cube and started crowing in amazement that she had built a helicopter. And sure enough, that rotor spun!

This video shows us using the screwdriver and wrench and Z "making a building" by stacking stuff. It's also the first time Z has picked up our Flip video camera to use it herself.



You can pick up the Plan Toys Construction Set on Amazon.com.