flexo - Foil Pack Collection product reviews

I did get some of the other kits to review and I was really impressed with the kits so I went online and had a look at what else is available. My youngest asked for me to buy some for him to do as his older brother got to do the kit we got to review. He asked for one of the ocean life series but when he opened it, he struggled with it so he threw it aside (after his brother told him that he was doing it wrong) and almost gave up but I suggested he try the starfish from the foil pack.

He very excitedly ripped the pack open and managed to build the starfish without any incident. He had a huge smile on his face (hardly ever happens when he is building stuff as he feels he is not good enough because his brother is so much more creative) and then he asked if he was allowed to decorate it. I'm glad that each set comes with its own multi tool so that both boys can build and work on their own projects and not have to share tools as boys struggle to share and wait for their turns.

I see that there are more to collect so I guess it is just as well that I created an account when I did this order as I see a lot more orders in my future. I hope to find some of the easier sets for my youngest to carry on building up his confidence.

My children were rapt upon opening the KIWIreviews box and finding a few Flexos porducts, as was I - as I was eager to try these things that looked like flexible lego, but cooler! Looking at the foil pack collection I was very pleased to see that there was going to be enough for each of the three children to have one - awesome idea Flexo doing mini kits like this!!

We opted to do these first - as I thought these would be a great way to ease into the Flexo creating - and with each child having their own, there would be no fights trying to make it together. We opened up the main bag, I opened the tools, gave each child one and then each of the kids chose a kit - they did have a little trouble deciding, as to be honest all of them looked pretty cool, especially the glow in the dark ones! I love that although the kits had instructions to make them, you did not have to follow them and could have made something else that was equally as cool.

Each of the kids set about making their own, with Master 5.5 having a wee bit of trouble at first and finding the tendon things a bit tricky. He did need a little help and to be shown, but then he was fine.
Meanwhile Miss 7 made the bracelet and Miss 10 made the spaceball - leaving me the key rings to make - only at the last minute to have Miss 10 make them too!! After each had finished we decided to change them a little and add the domes - they honestly looked very cool.

I absolutely will be buying more of these, and have already started searching for interesting ones for Miss 10's birthday - this is a girl who usually wants art stuff, but she is adamant this year she wants Flexos! Thankyou for a great, and DIFFERENT type of toy - and the genius of he Foil pack Collection - love to see others come out!

These style of toys are my favourite for children as it helps with brain development in early ages because it allows them to use their own creativity and gets them thinking about what they are doing. This set comes in a handy resealable bag so you can stash all the bits and pieces in there if you don't have a storage container. The worst thing about these type of toys is their size as they are so small and easy to lose or join the dust in the vacuum so typical when my children play with these small toys we lay down a mat for them to play on so they are secluded to keeping them in one area making clean up a lot easier.

We opened up the resealable bag and took out the separate packet of the multi-tools first knowing they would be needed and helpful for creating the rest of the packeted toys. It contained four of the multi-tools that are handy for pushing the pieces together in their collars and dismantling pieces when needed which is helpful especially for someone who has bulky fingers like myself. Having four of the tools was great as each of my children were able to take part and work together.

The first toy the kids decided to build was the starfish as it looked the most interesting of the bunch. The pack came with a bunch of orange triangular pieces and the small elastic joining pieces that act as the tendons of the builds and is what gives the toys their flex which is the most interesting part of these toys as having the ability to move them about and flex them when playing gives them lifelike movement. It was quick and the kids enjoyed building the starfish and wanted to move on to the next toy while the youngest boy just wanted to play with the completed starfish.

I built the key rings which were really straight forward and only consisted of a few pieces which when completed resembled the standard lego blocks. My eldest son claimed the key rings once they were complete to add to his key sets.

My eldest daughter made the spaceball at the same time my youngest daughter made the bracelet which both are glow in the dark as these were the items they decided we're going to be theirs. Again these were very easy to build and the kids had no trouble making them by themselves. We tried them out in the closet to test the glow in the dark and after holding the toys under a light for a little bit them placing them in the closet we found that the glow is very bright and holds well. Once my children had finished the building they decided to get creative and using the flexo dome set we also received they started fitting the different colour domes to personalize your toys and had a blast swapping the pieces around.

These sets are perfect as there was a packet that suited each of my children and they were very enjoyable and easy to build. The kids love them and there was no fighting as they worked together well to create these toys. I can see these having great potential in the creativity of what you can build and look forward to more of these in the future.

I had not heard about Flexo before it came up for review with KIWIreviews. It turns out my husband and girls all had, and they were discussing going out and buying it so when I received some in my KIWIreviews there were squeals of joy mainly from my husband. He was over the moon and could not wait to rip into it and start doing it. All three of them asked could they open this packet and being the meanie that I am said no were heading out the door shortly. The next day I had work and the three of them pleaded with me could they open it and start playing with it, to which I agreed. That afternoon when I got home I had the two girls squealing and showing me there creations and even my husband had a big smile on his face saying how much fun it was.

He said he was happy that they had started with this pack as it had little packets inside and was a great introduction to Flexo. My girls loved the fact that it was glow in the dark and they both wanted to take me downstairs and hop in there wardrobe to show me that it works. My youngest had made one of the keyring's and wanted me to keep it as an early Christmas Present and all three were begging me to open the Turtle and start making it.

My youngest was then telling me about the tools that you have and how you need to press down the black connector and honestly I kind of stopped listening after a busy day at work but I did focus on her face and how her eyes glowed and her smile was real as she told me all the stories about playing with this. To get a reaction out of my daughter like this I knew it was special. Even my husband had a twinkle in his eye and I love that.

The starfish is extremely cute as are the bracelets. It is a very neat little pack that does create a lot of fun.
For the price it is well worth it and all three have been asking for more Flexo as they loved the way it joins up. All packs come with instructions on how to make them and each pack has its own packet so you don't need to make all at once. It does not take long to work out how to use everything and the tool is the key to it all.

A very fun activity for the whole family and one that my family will continue with for some time to come. Its not the sort of thing you can make your own things as you do need to follow the instructions and I don't think you would want to break and redo at any stage. I personally think it is great especially the reaction out of the three of them. There are various packs that you can get which results in making your own items but I think this is the pack you need to start with as teaches you little tricks. Highly recommend.

This pack comes in a nice, resealable bag, which is handy if you don't manage to complete them all, or want to store them in without loosing any parts (we did end up with one of the small kits open, so being in here meant we wouldn't have to go digging around for them). One pack has a few multi-tools in it, which makes me think the aim of this was for multiple people to do at once, for just one person it is a tad overdose. Each little kit comes with instructions and don't take up much space, so if you wanted to throw one in your bag it won't fill it up.

The glow in the dark spaceball has nice and simple instructions to follow, only six steps. My youngest was able to construct the initial two steps on her own, with me simply telling her what went where. When it came to beginning to make the sphere, it got harder and was a little too fiddly for me to help her, so she left it to me. In the end we were left with a small ball that was surprisingly sturdy... We threw it about, stood on it (and due to the tendons, it flattened well and didn't hurt the feet much at all) and even ground it about on the floor and in our hands and it didn't loose it's shape or come apart. The tendons glow in the dark, which will be fun to use in other creations.

Opening the startish and seeing the instructions, this looks nice and simple and only comprised of three different pieces. I did initially loose the tendons as they are small and clear but happily my youngest spotted them for me. This one can get a little fiddly at times due to it using only the smallest tendons, so it wasn't suited to my youngest as she found it too difficult. The starfish got bent, twisted, pulled at and thrown around, with no ill affect to the tendons.

When it came to the keychain, this was the easiest one of the four to put together, only four stages and they are each incredibly simple to do. It comes with a couple of extra tendons, a nice little surprise as none of the others did. I love that the design is nice and simple but for someone like me, ultimately boring and not something I would use on my keyring. However, once you know how to do it, you can turn anything you make into a keychain, which is exactly what I did with the starfish, will be a great little distraction for my youngest.

The bracelet was a little tricky for my youngest, to begin with, getting the two pieces to stay in place so that you could loop them together, so I gave her a little hand with it. She thought that the end product was nice but that there should have been one more white link in the pattern to make it look better. We did end up with one extra tendon, so we decided to grab two more circles in order to complete the pattern. The bracelet fit perfectly for my teeny seven year old and just made it onto my nine year old, with the extra link it could just make it on to my wrist, at a push.

This was a nice little pack, gave plenty to do and the glow in the dark element really gave it a boost for the kids.

I am always on the lookout for fun, educational, and entertaining products for my children, I dislike them having too much screen time! When I read about Flexo on the KIWIreviews website, I was keen to see if this product could capture my children's attention and allow them to express their creativity. I requested the Flexo Foil Pack Collection, as I thought there would be something for my two older children to share.

When I first got the resealable packet out of our review box, my attention was instantly drawn by the contrast between the orange, black and white colours over the packet. The Flexo brand name is eye-catching and would certainly stand out on any shop shelves. The packaging says that Flexo is flexible brick play which you can twist, bend, bounce, wrap, and of course, flex. I was intrigued by the concept that these bricks connect together with tendons. A major selling point for me is that Flexo is a New Zealand brand, I prefer to buy Kiwi made if possible. We have containers full of other brand bricks at home, and I was surprised to see that Flexo is compatible with most major branded bricks.

Firstly we opened the packet with the multi-tools, there were four inside of different colours, very handy as the kids each had their own colour to stop the arguing. This tool is remarkably handy as it not only helps to separate the bricks (saving the fingernails), it helps to make sure the tendons are securely in place.

The next packet was the cute looking starfish, which contained 32 pieces. This was our first time using Flexo so it took a while to get used to the tendons, however once my daughter had done a few bricks she was getting faster with each brick. This was lots of fun for my daughter and she was surprised that her starfish was able to bend without breaking. We have since had it floating in a "rock pool" (bucket of water.) This was a fun introduction to Flexo and we immediately started on the next project.

Next up was the pair of keyrings, the kit contained all the pieces needed for two different keyrings. My 5 year old son got to do this kit because it seemed reasonably straight forward, the end product was fantastic, and has now been decorated with Flexo domes, this would be an ideal starter kit for beginners.

My daughter was over the moon to see there was a Glow-in-the-Dark Bracelet kit, she eagerly ripped the top of the packet open, then proceeded to sort the tendons and bricks out. The instructional diagrams were easy enough for her to follow, and in no time, a beautiful bracelet had been made. The bracelet was then tested to see if it glowed by going in a cupboard - it worked! The pink and white bricks look good together, and my daughter has now added more colour with domes.

Finally we had one last packet to build, this was the Glow-in-the-Dark Space Ball, this appealed to my son. At first when we started to put the tendons in the bricks he was confused as to how it would become 'ball shape' rather than stay flat. Once all the pieces were ready we joined them up into the ball shape, then locked into place with some bricks. This particular product was a popular choice to play with for quite some time, it has now been decorated with blue and green domes.

Overall I am remarkably impressed by Flexo, I think I probably had as much fun playing and creating as the children did. I would recommend Flexo for anyone with children roughly aged 5 years up. The numerous options to show your imagination and creativity are limitless, I look forward to expanding our collection in the future, and eagerly await to see what this wonderful company can come up with next!

This was the third and final set that I received in my review parcel and my children were practically pros with Flexo by the time they got around to working on it.

The large outer bag is resealable and large enough to store all bricks and instructions in. Inside the large bag are 5 smaller packets, 1 contains tools and the other 4 contain mini Flexo sets: Keyrings, a bracelet, starfish and a ball. I really liked how each bag was separate inside the resealable bag which made it perfect for only working on one of the sets at a time and not losing pieces from another set before you were ready to build it. In hindsight, this collection would have been the best place to start when the kids were first learning it rather than doing it at the end. My daughter especially seemed to race through and completed 3 packets quite easily leaving the last one for my son to work on.

My daughter said her favourite thing about this collection was the glow in the dark bracelet and she was super excited to make it just to check it out glowing after. My son really enjoyed the starfish which he said went really well with his Crab from the Ocean Life Kit.

These mini sets came with just the right number of pieces for the included instructions. I loved the included instructions, this made it so much easier for the kids to work on without needing my help with the computer to find and print instructions. I think all sets like this should have easy to find and follow instructions and this collection definitely ticked that box.

My ten year old son was super excited when he seen this and could not wait to get them open and start making the stuff inside. He opened the bag up and wanted to make the glow in and dark bracelet first, he followed the instructions which he said were easy and good and made the bracelet up. He gave it to me as said it did not fit over his hand and said I have small wrists. He was really happy with the end result. Next he wanted to make the star fish. He loved making the star fish and kept saying how cool these were.

He ended up sitting quietly for a good hour playing with the different stuff he had made and putting them together. He said they were so cool and loved that they were made in New Zealand. He said these are cool for New Zealand made aye mum. He really enjoyed himself and said he was happy he got these to try and review. Which was super cool to see the excitement on his face.

Overall a great experience with the Flexo foil kits which includes the Starfish, Glow-in-the-Dark Space ball, Glow-in-the-Dark Bracelet, Key chain and Multitools. Great value for money and would be great present for when your kid is going to a birthday party and your unsure what to buy the kid, I am sure the mum would love that her child sits down and plays nicely giving her quiet time if they are anything like my son was with the foil kits. Also super cool that some glow in the dark, kids love glow in the dark anything. My bracelet my son made me will be glowing away on my bed side table, a cool little reminder of my son when I look at it.

This was a very exciting new toy for my 6 year old and I to receive he is a huge fan of making things like this and this particular set was very exciting as it had lots of little packets for a variety of projects to complete. Inside the larger blind bag you get 4 different projects to complete a glow in the dark spaceball, glow in the dark bracelet, a starfish, keychains and the very handy multitool kit. As this was our first set to open we weren't sure at first what exactly the multitools were but soon found out they were very useful for building with the Flexo bricks so it is great having more than one to use.

The sets are very cool with mini projects which were a great way to introduce ourselves with the style of build, as they are small, easier projects I would recommend starting off with something like this as we could get quite quick results and work out how the bits fit together without it being at the beginning of a larger scale build. My son particularly liked the glow in the dark sets as having that extra factor that he could take them to bed and they would glow in his room added to the excitement. We loved these mini builds and I certainly feel like they are great activities to get children using their imaginations and thinking through instructions.

The amazing thing about these flexo bricks is that using the flexible tendons to join the bricks together allows the creations to bend and flex and move in ways conventional building bricks don't. After constructing the glow in the dark spaceball my son decided he wanted to test if the ball would actually roll picking it up and throwing it across the room. Of course with my experience of bricks like Lego my initial thought was it would break into pieces but the way you seal the tendons between the bricks means it stays together and yes the ball did have a reasonable roll functionality.

There is something special about a bag with lots of small goodies in it. Both the children were intrigued as to what might be in there because the bag was opaque. When we went to open it, we discovered that it had a ziplock top, so we were careful not to cut through it. Inside there were five little packets, one with a set of extra multitools in various colours, and four others, each of which contained the parts to make a single toy. In some ways it might have been better if we had opened this toy before the two other kits we had already received, but as the children were now quite expert at building with the parts they had the satisfaction of seeing their toys take shape really quickly.

Miss Six homed in on the bracelet kit. It was simple enough for her to do on her own, and she took immense pleasure in completing it. After putting it on her wrist, she declared that she was going to wear it for the rest of the day - and she did! She had found it challenging to curve the tendons so as to make a circle effect, but once she had managed the first one it was all plain sailing for her. The multitool was indispensable for this - it would have been difficult otherwise to get the ends to sit properly in their grooves. After sunset, she was still wearing it as she wanted to see it glow in the dark!

Meanwhile, Mr Nine tackled the key ring first. He found that really easy and had completed it in a few minutes. He was impressed that the ring was included in the kit, but thought this particular pack was probably more suited to a younger child. Next he made the starfish. This was more of a challenge and he said he enjoyed it more. The completed starfish was put next to the keyring, and finally he tackled the ball. This was much more his style; it offered a higher level of difficulty more suited to an older child. He did say that the tendons were stiffer than those provided with the Builder Set or the Crab, and wondered if it was because a different material had been used to make them glow in the dark.

Apart from the welcome multitool spares, this pack has less appeal that the others they have tried. This is possibly because they are aimed at younger children. Miss Six certainly had no complaints; she was delighted to be able to complete a project without any assistance at all other than that provided by the accompanying information sheet. And in a household where there are several small children they would be a useful gift to ensure each child has his or her own to make. There again, as Mr Nine said, you don't have to make the suggested item - you can use your imagination and make something completely different!

As soon as my daughters saw the Flexo Bricks they hassled me non stop until I relented and let them open the pack. I hadn't had chance to examine the contents before they got in to the packs with was a rookie error!

My 8 year old daughter came to me with the bracelet pack which we opened and it contained flexible 'tendons' which were in a gel pack stuck together, some 2 x 2 pieces and some triangle bits. She had no idea how to separate the tendons and as I pulled one apart I thought there must be a simpler way. I found that if you stretched the pack, the tendons did start to separate which made it easier to pull them apart. The real fun came when we tried to put the tendons into the gaps in the bricks and my 8 year old couldn't do it. I was silently cursing thinking this was going to be a mission and struggled to put the tendons in place with my fingers, wondering how on earth anybody could put these in easily! I did develop a technique of pushing them in place although some tendons kept trying to escape. We finally finished the bracelet as per the instructions which were easy and comprehensive to follow.

I then looked at the other packs (there are 5 in total) and realized my rookie error as one of the packs contained a pack of Multitools!! These claim to be 'the perfect companion when building with Flexo which you'll find invaluable!' Once my daughter used the multitool she was off and mum was only needed when she couldn't get some of the tendons out. She successfully made the 'Glow in the Dark Spaceball' by herself and showed me how it glowed in her wardrobe. My 10 year old made the starfish and I had 15 minutes of peace and quiet!!

The Foil Pack Collection is a great introduction to Flexo and a great present for any child that loves using building blocks. There are enough bits that you can combine and make other creations and you can use your existing building block collection with them which is great. The foil packs come in a large resealable bag which means they can be contained and used when out and about.