Magformers Review - Magnetic Kids Toy
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This toy hits all three of my qualifications for a great toy! Magformers are brightly colored magnetic shapes that are affordable, versatile and quiet. These will have any kiddo spending hours engaging in imaginative play. I think we can all remember building something as kids, whether it was using Legos or sand, building castles or rockets ships, I think most people have a memory like this. Magformers are the perfect toy to allow kiddos to make their own memories. Keep reading for our Magformers review and what we love about this toy.
While there are many similar style toys out there, like the very popular Magnatiles, Magformers Magnetic Toys offer a few unique qualities that make them a favorite of mine. First and foremost - price point! Magformers are more affordable than other similar toys on the market. There are many expansion packs to purchase if your child falls in love with Magformers but the basic pack is an affordable starting block.
Magformers are uniquely designed with a hallow shape. The hallow shape makes this toy easier to hold and manipulate by little ones compared to their solid counterparts, and allows for more of a fine motor challenge for older kiddos. As kids grow they can graduate to Super Magformers which allow you to build even bigger and cooler designs. While kids can play with Magformers anywhere the fact that they are magnetic makes these another fantastic toy to play with on vertical surfaces. I use these frequently in the clinic when encouraging littles ones to pull to stand, work on standing balance and for new walkers. When working at home try having your new walker move the Magformers from one the fridge to the dishwasher and back, try placing them slight above your child’s line of sight to encourage reaching over head and weight shifting onto their tip toes to reach them. For more information on how important this type of play is, check out my post on playing on vertical surfaces.
Magformers are great for little ones but are also a much loved toys with the older kiddos I work with. If your kid loves to build Super Magformers are larger and allow for bigger and better castles and towers! If your child loves to build, Magformers have multiple expansion packs that include tires to build cars or trucks and instruction booklets to build a variety of animals. These instruction booklets are great because they give step by step directions in words and pictures for how to assemble the tiles. For older kids this is a great exercise in following step-by-step directions, visual perceptual skills and hand eye coordination. Whatever your kiddo is into - they have a set. Deep sea adventures, creepy crawly bugs, forest pals, dinosaurs, robots, carnival rides, and more.
The one down side to these magnets is that they are rounded on all edges. While this is a bonus for little ones it does make it slightly harder to make upright structures for older kiddos and I have seen a few children become very frustrated by this.
FAVORITES: I have two favorite expansion sets! For little ones, 3 +, I love the zoo animal set. They are adorable and the littles love them! For older kiddos my favorite is the Skytrack. This set is a bit more of an investment, but I promise if your kiddo likes to build they will love it! You can use the magnets along with different shapes and sizes of plastic track pieces to build any number of tracks and send the airplane flying! I am (only slightly) embarrassed to admit that I have just as much, if not more, fun with this one than the kids do!
