For Christmas my mom have me a sailboat to build out of a new kind of building block, UberStix. They are made to be very versatile and interconnect with all kinds of recycled items like straws, bottles, rubber bands, etc. While I find the concept impressive and laudable, I think I would have been really disappointed trying to build this as a child. Expectations play cruel trucks on children and I think getting a toy that comes in a box with a sailboat on the cover sends the message that the child will be able to build the boat given the right attitude, patience, parts, and instructions. Well the UberStix fail in the instructions department because they don't flow tightly and linearly. These ones tell you to tie a bunch of pieces together with the one piece of string provided before telling you to measure and cut thee pieces of string 
from the one piece and create three of the objects depicted in the previous panel. See, you're already confused and you're not even trying to build the damn thing. Enough about that. So if you're a parent and you buy a toy for the kid make sure you're willing to build it yourself because that's what's like
ly to happen. So these toys aren't so much like an 'assembly required' piece of furniture from Ikea which generally has all of the parts and instructions to make one thing that is not meant to be disassembled and are more like a free for all with suggested building ideas. So I wouldn't recommend it for the person more interested in the end and not the means.
So I put this thing together in a few hours on Christmas day before getting fed up with the directions (which is the truth - one of my pet peeves is terrible directions). I just got back to it yesterday and it took me about and hour to get the stays working properly and finish it up according to the directions and now I'm ready to test it.
The thing I'm worried about with this design is how the sail attaches to the mast and boom. I supplemented a few paper clips instead of just thread but I think it's created too
much space and therefore the sail shape will be off and not conform to the shape of the mast and boom. I guess we'll see when the ice thaws.
from the one piece and create three of the objects depicted in the previous panel. See, you're already confused and you're not even trying to build the damn thing. Enough about that. So if you're a parent and you buy a toy for the kid make sure you're willing to build it yourself because that's what's like
ly to happen. So these toys aren't so much like an 'assembly required' piece of furniture from Ikea which generally has all of the parts and instructions to make one thing that is not meant to be disassembled and are more like a free for all with suggested building ideas. So I wouldn't recommend it for the person more interested in the end and not the means.So I put this thing together in a few hours on Christmas day before getting fed up with the directions (which is the truth - one of my pet peeves is terrible directions). I just got back to it yesterday and it took me about and hour to get the stays working properly and finish it up according to the directions and now I'm ready to test it.
The thing I'm worried about with this design is how the sail attaches to the mast and boom. I supplemented a few paper clips instead of just thread but I think it's created too
much space and therefore the sail shape will be off and not conform to the shape of the mast and boom. I guess we'll see when the ice thaws.
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