Zolo Zolotopia

I first purchased the original Zolo A Go-Go set about 15 years ago......and just handed it down to our 6 year old last year. It was purchased from a museum gift shop to help my art students do observational drawings of organic shapes. Even my high school students enjoyed playing with it as they set the shapes up to draw from. This Zolotopia game set was purchased on Amazon as a 2015 Birthday gift for our daughter. With the original Zolo A Go-Go + this Zolotopia game building set combined, she has enjoyed hours of creative play.What I love about this newer set is the addition of foam and metallic shapes which definitely expand the creative potential. While I highly recommend either set, having both sets does not duplicate pieces and allows far more building opportunities. From whimsical doggies, to whales, insects and abstract sculptures, the Zolotopia toys encourage problem solving (where to place the pieces to get the designs to balance the best) and creative play as children design fully from their imagination rather than a prescript-ed project like most of today's Lego sets. We like Lego's too, yet our daughter has played with Zolotopia for more hours in the last year than Lego's.Thus far our set has been employed for sculptural fun, so I can't comment on the game playing aspect. I see the game as just an added bonus to all the sculpture/ building parts. The toys are pricey (look for options without high Prime shipping surcharges if you're not in a hurry), yet they so unique and the hard plastic parts are incredibly durable. While the newer foam and metallic pieces could be damaged more easily, the plastic parts in set that I've had for over 14 years are still in excellent condition with no cracking, no fading, and only minimal scratches from play.The colored sticks that need to be pushed in to create "legs, necks, etc", are not difficult to get in the holes, yet take a little finagling to keep in place. Due to the nature of playing with sticks and the dexterity skills required I'd recommend the Zolo toys for age 5+ (or your favorite grown-up who likes to play or de-stress creatively). Bottom line, this is one of my favorite toys of all time.

Zolo is so creative and everything you build looks like a work of art. In fact, in our house my kids created 5 stand alone creatures from this pack and named them all. They decorate our kitchen and family room. The sticks require a little push and twist to get a snug junction and thereby may be a bit difficult for the youngest kids (under 4). They are so bright and can be taken apart are rebuilt endlessly.

Great toy for creative play!Grandchildren played for long periods of time creating fantasy figures.

cool set

Quality is worse than I thought.

I bought this after seeing it on-line. It looked so colorful and wacky I thought my daughter, who is pretty creative for six, would love it. She has barely played with it since Christmas (it is July). The biggest problem is that the pieces do not stay in the holes created for them and the entire structure endlessly falls apart, even with an adult working the pieces. It has been interesting trying to make something that doesn't fall apart but that gets old pretty fast. The game itself was odd as there were no discernible rules or scoring. To top it off, the spinner did not work so we never have used this as a game, just an extension the the zolo-building set we also bought at the same time. I work with special needs kids in schools so I am well-versed in the play value of toys. I think I like the idea of this but the execution leaves much to be desired. Would I buy it again? Nope.

I bought this for my 5yo this year. It is so much fun for adults to play along with him. Great for family parties where you have a wide age range -- good conversation piece also. Love the game board they included.