Review on STEM Building Kit For Kids Ages 5-12: Ultimate Forts Builder Gift Set For Boys & Girls! by Alexander Roberson

tl:dr - the balls are unnecessarily dense and poorly machined, the tubes have a raw edge that can (and did) cause injury. Connections are sometimes too tight, sometimes too sloppy. Building isn't super intuitive and takes some thinking (not a bad thing!)I got two 85 piece sets on sale over Black Friday and we opened them on Christmas Eve. My four kids love to build and love blanket forts, so this was going to be a hit unless it was totally nonfunctional. They had a (mostly) great time, but overall I am not happy with this design.Here are my concerns: first, the balls are solid and very heavy. All the balls from the two sets together make for a really heavy bag! My 4yo is prone to throwing when angry, and also improvising weaponry so I am very concerned he could do some real damage with these. Each ball is slightly smaller than a baseball, as hard as a golf ball, and maybe two are as heavy as a can of soda. Idk I'm going off of memory right now, might be a bit lighter than that, but they are surprisingly hefty.Second, the ends of the tubes are not blunted in any way. When pulling them apart yesterday my 9yo was pulling up hard on a tube that wouldn't come out easily. When it came loose the end of the tube went in his mouth and cut the back of his throat! Granted, he knows now not to do that again, but I'd much prefer tubes with a silicon tip that would also maybe improve the inconsistency in how the tubes fit in the holes.I noticed the edges of some holes looked bulged inside, like the holes were drilled while the plastic had not set. The balls are made of a rough, cloudy plastic that almost looks like fiberglass, but it's much more dense. It might be unpolished ABS, I'm not sure. I do wish more manufacturers were transparent about the types of plastic they use. I'd really love if they were made out of a recyclable plastic, but that might not be strong enough.Overall, I plan to return these sets and keep looking for something thats safer, lighter, and fits together more consistently. Too many connections were too tight or too loose, so the structure was always coming apart.Also, as you can see in my first image, the first thing my kids wanted to do was make a "house shape", which means they bent the tubes to get them to meet above one side rather than in the middle like a pyramid. We had to change our thinking to match the limitations of the toy, which actually isn't a bad skill to learn imo, but it would have been nice to have more holes for greater flexibility. One of MY first impulses was to cut some of the tubes shorter so you could actually cross brace short squares with longer pieces, or have shorter pieces all meet in the center of a longer cube. I see now there are sets with two lengths out there, as well as those with hollow, angular connectors and clips on the tubes, etc.As another reviewer mentioned, I may just fall back on the Lakeshore Learning set, although their tubes are all one length as well, since they are such a solid brand and I am confident the design will be well thought out and the materials safe and high quality.