Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin’ Monkeys Building Set Review

We’ve been playing with a fun new STEM toy from Learning Resources, so here is our the Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin’ Monkeys Building Set Review. 

Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin' Monkeys Building Set

These tactile gears will get your children monkeying around for hours!
Little monkeys won’t be able to keep their hands off this 136-piece jungle themed building set.
Crank-operated set features monkeys that twist and turn, palm trees and enough colourful gears to create a lively gears jungle.

Ages 4-8, RRP £41

Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin’ Monkeys Building Set Review

This set really appealed to me when I saw it because it’s quite unlike anything that the kids have and encourages problem solving and critical thinking.

On opening the box up, we found lots of brightly coloured pieces and, phew, an instruction booklet!

Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin' Monkeys Building Set contents

Little Man was a bit overawed by it all, so he was quite content playing with the six monkeys and a couple of trees whilst I set about putting it all together.

Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin' Monkeys Building Set assembling

The booklet included suggests an initial build for you, with step by step instructions.

I’d say it took me around 10 to 15 minutes to do this, as it takes a bit of getting used to initially.

The pieces are a little stiff as they’re brand new, but they are now getting easier with use so are OK for the kids to now use on their own.

When it was all complete, Little Man was really excited by it and was amazed by how moving one cog, they all moved.

Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin' Monkeys Building Set complete

When Boo got home from school, they were both entranced with playing with it. Little Man loves play sets and figures, so he used this as a setting for acting out his stories, which though always lovely to hear, he has plenty of toys that he can do that with and I wanted this one to work a little differently.

After the initial interest, Boo wandered off as she’d discovered what it could do and that was enough for her.  

So I took it all apart.

Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin' Monkeys Building Set play

Then it became interesting for Boo. Initially she said she couldn’t build anything as it would be too difficult, but she decided to try it and then I couldn’t keep her away from it!

For her, the interest is definitely in the construction and seeing how it all comes together, and because she was building it, Little Man joined in, offering his opinions on what she was doing, what she could do differently and moving the monkeys all over the place.

This is what I like about this toy.

It gets my two working things out together, creating different layouts, chatting about what they were doing and fully engaging them whilst they play.

They are both utterly absorbed whilst they are building and are so proud and keen to show off their creations to me once they’re happy with them.

They are aged 4 and 7, and I’d say this set is great for that age range.

What do you think of this Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin’ Monkeys Building Set review? Something for your little ones?

You might also be interested in our Playmags review and Electronic Dictionary Bookmark review

Disclosure: We received this set FOC for the purposes of this post

 

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21 thoughts on “Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin’ Monkeys Building Set Review”

  1. What an interesting set – I’ve never seen anything quite like this before but I can imagine that it would be fascinating for children to see how turning one cog makes the others turn. Definitely a good way to help with problem solving and construction skills. #TriedTested

  2. This looks great to me. I like the fact that you can try and make different things from it and it gives you an initial build to create. #TriedTested

  3. Ben is a really fan of all things construction so I’m sure he’d love spending some time figuring this out and putting it all together!
    Thanks for sharing your review on #TriedTested this week x

  4. Pingback: Christmas Gift Guide: Testing Team Top Picks | Learning Resources UK

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