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> I highly recommend this kind of simple toy for young children.

As a parent I very much agree. And for grown-up children too.

On my desk I have a small tin containing small wooden blocks and planks, arches, etc. I get lots of play value from them - when my thinking is blocked, or if I just want to fool around and not think at all. I'm in my mid fifties.

And over at my climbing club's off-grid climbing hut we have a big box of over-sized, home made jenga blocks. Pretty-much everyone plays with them: not only jenga, but also just building structures or giant domino runs or whatever.

We all need to play sometimes.

Encountered these miniature wood marble runs in Switzerland. Still on my “wish list.” Sounds like you may enjoy them, too.

https://cuboro.ch/en/

Very cool. I live in the US though. How can I order it?

Looks like their site links to a good number of US stores that sell them, many mom/pop. While there may not be a store close enough to you, perhaps there's one that would ship to you.

https://a.co/d/24vvgsO

Support mom/pop/local shops when possible.

https://cuboro.ch/en/where-to-buy/

I wonder if these are as good as the Cuboro or not. I'm guessing there are big quality differences.

Sticking to the magnetile theme of the OP, my kids and I have spent the most time and most occasions playing with the mangetile marble run kits. It works so well.

Thank you.

That gets you into the marble run world... which is segment of YouTube... and there are some very impressive setups.

https://youtu.be/qGsD19P16rs

As an aside, there's an app out there is an app for the iPad called "Cuboro Riddles" which is a "how do you make the marble go from here to there using the blocks." Given that there are multiple ways that a block can channel a marble, this is a tricky one.

... and then if you get this over into the lego domain (not as "just something to fiddle with..." it gets you into the GBC. There is a standard for how one connects to another described at https://www.greatballcontraption.com/wiki/standard ... and then at lego conventions people hook them all up. https://youtu.be/avyh-36jEqA

I'm in awe of the video you shared of the set up.

Those look super cool, but I'm also not sure I'd be ready to throw down $340 for the 50 piece starter set.

I bought the magnatile-knockoff-version essentially and while not as pure montessori as the wooden blocks, they're 1/10th the price and my 4-year-old is _loving_ this kit: https://amzn.to/3MVXRXg

Wood's expensive these days. It's probably costing close to a ton just for the nice beech they're made of.

Beech is the cheapest of the common European hardwoods. Even through a distributor it’s only about 1400-1700 € per cubic meter in 5cm / 2” planks. For context, the cheapest construction lumber is about 300-800, oak 2500, american walnut 4000.

Have you tried buying cheap crappy sheathing ply recently?

It’s not great compared to 10 years ago, but the last 3 years it’s been pretty stable. About 11-15 euros incl VAT per square meter at retail prices for the cheapest 3-ply 9mm and 5-ply 12mm softwood ply, brazilian import.

I dabble in furniture, which means I’m looking at baltic birch plywood, at about 40 euros per square meter of 15mm 11-ply sheets. At that pricepoint I might as well buy actual hardwood lumber.

If you are okay with plastic, Gravitrax is similar, cheaper, and fun. My son and I like to build marble runs together.

These are beautiful

As an adult, I bought on impulse a set of wooden dominos intended for domino runs. It included a few other props. It was on clearance for almost nothing because the box was damaged.

With friends and family on occasion (individuals ranging in age from 27-70) , multiple hours have passed setting up and playing with this domino set.

I really believe that play is vitally important at all ages.

Wooden blocks were great.

At one point way back then, my dad made something in the workshop that improved them tremendously: Wooden boards.

These were small, thin, very flat boards of oak -- about 3/16" thick and 3/4" wide. Their lengths varied in 2" increments, and the length of each board was written on it.

With boards added in, the blocks got a lot more interesting. Fastening was still limited to gravity, but things like cantilevers started happening.

Same. We had a kids’ play table (low to the ground and rectangular) that we’d prop up with a few blocks under one end to give it a slight incline. We’d spend hours covering the surface with blocks in different positions to simulate a pinball table.

Then we’d take a large marble and use two long triangular blocks as flippers to “play” on it.

Tilting was NOT advised.

100% agree. Box of blocks cannot be beat. My sister and I used the hell out of ours: we built towers, cantilevers, mazes, Rube Goldberg devices, houses for rodents, vehicles, elaborate locks, catapults, you name it. They're still in the same condition as day 1, ready for our children.

Bonus: You can roll a lot more down those long rubber racetracks than just cars.

Bonus 2: Why did these go away? https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/chubs-baby-wipes-stac...

I had such blocks as well. For a recent take on this, I can recommend Kapla, typically come in a large (a couple 100s) box of skinny rectangular cuboids. I had fun doing, ahem, preliminary testing, before gifting them to my niece.

I got set for my son after noticing he loves stacking Jenga blocks and generic Kapla gets 10x more usage than Lego.

Can it be that the moment Lego moved from mostly bricks to custom single use shapes for every kit the joy of combining them died? My kids build car, Dino, Harry Potter set once and then gather dust. Bridges, castles, towers and roads from Kapla get rebuild every day.

When I was young there were fewer types of shapes but a lot of new sets contained a lot of such specialized shapes. I rather played with the lego i found in the attic.

My kid builds the specialized sets, and also makes houses and other structures out of basic brick pieces. But he rarely combines the two like I remember doing.

I remember having an airplane and an airport. I built them once, played with them for a while, and then broke them down to add to the pool of bricks which I built into other things.

I have a love of wooden blocks.

I’ve seen some sets that are blocks with random flat surfaces but still balanced.

However, I notice that many antique block sets seem far superior to newer sets.

(I’m sure someone must make an amazing new set, I see some suggestions in the comments).

Having made some wooden block sets from scratch, what I am always amazed about with a good set is balance / size of pieces, coupled with variety and quantity. The balance being a vitally important part that seems to be overlooked in “bad” sets.

I also played wooden blocks for hours as a kid but I've tried getting them for my kids and they're not interested. And I suspect it's because the product is worse than the set we had from the 80s.

Allow me to introduce my favourite toy from my childhood that I have been lucky enough to be able to buy for my son recently: https://www.reddit.com/r/auckland/comments/eymcks/do_you_kno...

It’s called the Humdinger set. Made by an eccentric guy in NZ with no online presence beyond resultantly keeping an email address.

Stumbled across him randomly at a market when we visited last and had to triple take - “is this THE Humdinger” type thing. My mum confirmed it was the real deal, so we bought it on the spot.

Son loves it. Connectable wooden stuff ftw

Interesting that you mention it. Now I recall we also had wooden blocks, they were rectangular. I played with them a lot to build simple things. Kind of before I transitioned into LEGO. But those wooden blocks really were great - simple, durable and one could do quite a lot with them. I think I also built houses for my cat back then. Quite amazing how wood is so dominating - price-wise nothing beats it. And LEGO is now so expensive that I wouldn't buy it due to that outrageous prices alone.