Guidecraft makes many types of building blocks. Some such as IO Blocks, are different than the simple square, rectangle, and trianglular shaped blocks of your youth.
IO Blocks look like they might have fallen out of a game of Tetris. Unlike traditional blocks that are stacked, they are interconnected into complex shapes, one piece fitting into the next. In that regard they are, perhaps, closer to Lego-style building sets; the pieces are held together by friction. Instead of pegs, each piece has roughly quarter inch extrusions and indentations such that the pieces can be interconnected.
Older children will have fun trying to make discerable objects out of the blocks, while younger kids will enjoy the open ended and fanciful ways the blocks creatively combine, seemingly endlessly.
A free app gives plans of how to build figurative objects, like robots and birds. The set is marked for ages 4 and up, but prechoolers and even early school years builders will appreciate (and be more likely able to follow) the augmented reality instructions that are revealed by the free app shown in the video below.
The phone's camera is used to "see" a cardboard tile. After the user selects a project to build, the app displays it in 3d on the tile, and then shows the parts "exploded", before virtually reassembling them. It is very slick to see the objects displayed in three dimensions, observable from any angle, in augmented reality. This is a novel way to give instructions in the digital age.
The set we tested was $40.63 at the time of writing. Guidecraft makes a variety of sets with these blocks at different price points.
