Deus Ex Machina

The Magna Tiles 100 Piece Set. Is It Suitable For Your Kids?

Posted on January 31, 2017  in Toys

If you have young children, then as a parent, you probably are always looking for the best toy for your child. The best toys are both educational and engaging, and also are highly durable, and very easy to clean. However, none of that will really matter if your child hates the toy. in this article, we will be exploring whether or not Magna Tiles are a good toy for your child or not.

What are Magna Tiles?

Basically, Magna Tiles are magnetized pieces of plastic that are made out of high-grade ABS plastic. The company Valtech which produces the tiles claims they are also free of BPA. These tiles are recommended for children who are a least 3 years old, due to a potential choking hazard. Since the pieces are very large, I’m not sure how that would even be possible. Magna Tiles are available in a wide range of shapes, which are designed to allow you to build even the most intricate structures that an electrician or other building professional would be proud of. The edges on all of the various shapes are basically magnetized, and the edges all firmly cling to one another until you pull them apart by hand.

History Of The Tiles

According to the company’s website, it appears that the concept for Magna Tiles was inspired by Pythagoras of Samos, a mathematician who lived from 560 to 480 BC. Pythagoras is best known for his right triangle theorem, and he thought if we better understood numerical and mathematical relationships, then we could understand the world better.

Why are they so popular?

The reason why Magna Tiles have become such a popular product is due to them being able to keep the minds of children occupied for many hours. Children are able to come up with very interesting and unique buildings and shapes. What Pythagoras thought appears to be quite true. Children appear to learn a great deal about shapes along with their relationships. In turn, this primes children’s brains to later understand complex physics and mathematics. Many people have reported that Magna Tiles are the only toy that their children play with every day without getting tired of them. So they are definitely educational and engaging.

What do Magna Tile sets contain?

Several different types of Magna Tiles are available. They mainly differ in the number of pieces contained in the set and their colors. There are two types of colors. There are clear color tiles that are semi-transparent and solid colors that are opaque. The different sized sets mainly come in 100, 48, or 32 pieces, with a nice balance of various shapes. Small squares are included in the various shapes, which many of them being big squares, with a few being Equilateral Triangles, right triangles, and Isosceles triangles.

What do people who have used them have to say?

Most online reviews recommend choosing the 100-piece set since it provides you with enough pieces to be able to build a good-sized structure. It is also easy to clean them up since they stick to each other. Most of the reviews by far are very positive. However, some of these customer reviews do contain some noteworthy and interesting comments.

One person noted that his 4-year-old son tends to get frustrated when he attempts to pick the structure up that he has built, but they end up collapsing. However, other people see this is as one of its benefits. There are also some complaints from people that say they are too expensive. Then there are other uses who praise how durable they are even when they are played with by destructive children.

Another person stated that the structures that can be built are limited in terms of their size because of the weak magnetism. They appear to be limited to structures of about 150 pieces. Then there are others who state that they purchased 200 pieces of various colors (transparent and opaque), and their children were able to make multiple structures at the same time. So there doesn’t appear to be much negative about these tiles.

Where to purchase them

Currently, it appears that the lowest price on the 100-piece sets is on Amazon since that is the direct storefront used by Valtech (creator of the Magna Tiles).

Conclusion

All families with children should have Magna Tiles. Almost everyone that has purchased them say this. They appear to be an excellent investment and there is a good chance that your children will love them. The biggest benefit appears to be that children learn quickly how the various geometric shapes fit together. Also, they are taught problem-solving skills, basic math, spacial relationships, and logic while building creatively at the same time.