Gear Building Workshop — 85 Pieces That Turn Together

85 pieces — coloured gears, connectors, screws and screwdrivers — that build a machine which really turns. Get the gears meshed correctly and turning one makes the whole set move together; get it wrong and nothing happens, which is the clearest feedback a building toy can give.

How you play

1. Build the base first so there is something to mount gears on.
2. Fit the gears so their teeth mesh with one another.
3. Fasten them down with the coloured screws and screwdrivers.
4. Turn one gear by hand and watch whether the rest follow.
5. If a gear does not move, look at where the chain breaks and fix that joint.

What it builds

• How gears drive one another — the first real mechanics
• Debugging: finding the one joint that stopped the whole machine
• Hand strength and precision from screwdriver work
• Patience across a build with a great many possible arrangements

Three ways to play it

• Build the longest chain of gears you can and turn it from one end
• Change a gear for a different size and see how the speed changes
• Take the machine apart and rebuild it from memory

The details

• Ages: 3–5 years
• Pieces: 85