Learning Resources Gears! Gears! Gears! Gizmos Building Set, 83 Pieces

Mix one 82-piece box of Gears! Gears! Gears! Gizmos with a handful of children and what do you get? A tableful of swirling, whirling, twisting, turning, cross-your-eyeballs thingamajigs! The Gizmos advanced set includes some unusual connectors, including a couple of comical 8-inch springs, some angled joints, and a working propeller--along with a generous helping of the basic stuff. With three sizes of meshing, stackable gears, and simple snap-together bases that can be arranged scores of ways, kids have the freedom to create all kinds of gyrating gadgets. Even with the outlandish decals and Day-Glo shades, Gears manages to teach budding builders an astonishing amount about how machines work. --Julie Ubben