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Review on ๐Ÿ”ง Clixo Wheel Creator: Boost Creativity with Educator-Approved Design by Jeff Callier

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Science Teacher & Dad - Impressed by the Concept - Out of the Block Thinking

I rarely write reviews but I will take a moment to share them as I believe most people don't would understand what it is without seeing or touching it. It's like Lego but in 3D. Ok I understand. Lego 3D. but not like this. It's a Lego-like product that makes you think differently in 3D because they bend unlike Lego and as a science teacher I really like it. I bought these after seeing a small group of Clixos with a traveling family. I was struck by how little detail was required to create relatively large creations. For example, with 20 Clixos pieces you can create something that might require more than 200 Lego pieces. This part was great, but what I like most is how it looks like atoms. Atoms are basically empty space occupying a three-dimensional realm. Clikso does that. This is the basis for building 3D structures but with Lego-like simplicity. I looked at the Clixo part first and found it very easy. A piece of plastic with magnets. However, after playing around with them, I found that the parts with angular stiffness fit snugly together. It's hard to explain, but imagine a clock ticking second by second. There are 60 different "clicks" on the watch's second hand, and the Clixo is the same except it has 24 clicks instead of 60. You set her to a certain angle and she wants to stay there. As a science teacher, this has some interesting implications. If I want to create a 3D model of a specific molecule, there are specific angles where the atoms are located. I have not seen any other toy or set of molecules that can recreate and hold precise angles like this product. Another thing is that magnets act as positive and negative charges (like in ions) and can show that there is attraction in some configurations and repulsion in other configurations. Clixo has made this easy by color coding the connections so that blue and red are connected but red and red are not. Technically and chemically I like this product but probably most people won't buy it. How do kids like them? I have middle and high school aged children. They both grew up with Lego so I took that and just set it up for them. They both liked building structures like blocks, but then found that if they thought more in three dimensions, they could build large objects relatively easily with far fewer parts. It's too early to say what they will build, but I've already challenged them to a family competition to see who can build the best structure with 1/4 of the pieces provided. There are enough pieces in this set that even 1/4 pieces (shared between two kids, mom and dad) can make impressive creations. Why should you consider buying it? A couple of reasons. If you want to be able to create large 3D objects but package them into small ones, I don't know of a better one. what the building blocks require. However, I'm sure a 3-4 year old would be able to put the pieces together constructively. (I'm actually not sure what age they're recommended for.) They seem a bit pricey compared to traditional building blocks like Lego. Legos are made of plastic and they are made up of hinged magnets that snap together. You get more Lego pieces for the price, but you probably won't be able to build something as big as this set can. I have a wish for Clixo to release an atomic molecule kit. I think this is the right platform to show how atoms can bond together through bending and shaping 3D structures, but I suspect that's probably more of a niche market than what they're aiming for with this 3D construction set for all age groups. .

Pros
  • Hands Free
Cons
  • No