Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
meccano set, 6 Feb 2009
A Kid's Review
Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars
I am 10years old,I received this as a christmas present and it is the best present I got. I have made lots of diffferent models ans I still have lots more to make. Its great fun and I will enjoy it for a long time.
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5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
disapointed, 2 Jan 2009
Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars Educational:2.0 out of 5 stars
Bought this set for my son as a christmas present. The first design we made was a 4 wheeled type mobile crane. Spent quiet some time building this item and towards the end of the build found that something was missing. Managed to overcome this but when we had finished building it we found that there was a grinding noise coming from the motor. After further investigation into this noise i noticed that the first conection between motor and first gear did not quiest meet. It would run correctly for a short while then the gear would move away from the motor and as they where no longer meeting corectly it would start grinding. Tried everything to try and solve this problem but with no luck. So we decided that we would decided to dismantle it and build something. The 2nd design we decided to build was somthing that resembled a passanger lift. Again after a few hours building this design. This time we had know problems with grinding of gears. But after a short while the two elastic bands on the pullys stratched. I believed that this was becaused of the wait. when the lift reached the top of the string.the elastic band fell off and it droppped to the floor. Its a shame because as a child i had many meccano sets without any problems. So i thought this set would be great for my son to learn mechanic/engineering and basically learn how things work. The quality of this product was not the same as older models. I would recomend that you do not buy this product. Maybe buy knex set or lego technics set.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Only improvement possible is to make an even larger set available, 9 Nov 2009
Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars
This beats the pants off any other construction set on the market, including Knex and especially any form of Lego. My 12-year old son loves it, and can spend hours of non-computer time on it, which has to be a significant improvement in quality of life! My only real disappointments are firstly that you can't get anything like the size kits that were available when I was a kid - the number 10 was evey budding engineer's dream - and secondly, closely related, you can't buy the conversion/expansion kits that you could then. This isn't the same as just buying a second set, it gave you precisely the parts that you needed to convert your existing set into the next larger set, which was not just quantity but also more complex components. Having said that, I only ever got to a number 7 kit back then, and I would say that this particular set probably matches that.
Unlike even the most technical of the lego sets, this really emulates engineering in the real world. I am a Chartered Engineer, largely due to having had Mecanno as a kid. My instinctive understanding of how engineering structures and machines work came from the lessons I learnt producing models with this stuff. I have also checked with numerous other colleagues of a similar age-group and a little younger (I'm 56)who have particularly strong, inherent engineering skills and find that, almost without exception, they had Meccano as a kid. Lego does not do this - it achieves instant gratification from being able to emulate real world items in a non-real world manner - in other words it just cheats. Perhaps there's a link to more modern attitudes in this?
Contrary to what one other reviewer said, the kit is no worse than it was in those days - as then, the models built require patience, persistence, and careful adjustment in order to work correctly. The precise positioning of components, and suitable tightening of fixings can be quite crucial to successful operation. This mirrors the real world, and was no different with the meccano I had as a kid. Indeed, some of the modern developments in the kit (more flexible plates, inclusion of modern technology, etc.) have improved it, or at least kept it up to date with the real world. Without a doubt, construction can sometimes become frustrating, particularly when components have to be fixed in positions of very limited access - if we could somehow combine the skilled dexterity of an adult with the small fingers of a child, we would have the magic formula for success - however, persistence and patience is more than rewarded by the sense of achievement on completion.
The more or less absence of electronics from this or any other kit is possibly one criticism, however, I can see that this would be difficult to fit with the Meccano concept - the black box that has no visible sign of how it achieves what it does is in direct conflict with the transparence of engineering principles shown by Meccano in its original and current forms, but it would be a more accurate mirror of current engineering.
Highly recommended.
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