Zoob-ibilities

For Christmas 2018, my son received the box of Too Many Robots! (Boys Stuff), which is a build your own robot cardboard collection, supposedly allowing a child to make a combination of fifty different robots. What a terrible product, of very bad quality, with the pieces never staying together like advertised. This robot set caused my son a lot of anguish and frustration, and so we contacted Amazon, where the product was ordered from, and told them that pieces were breaking and that it was not worth purchasing. Amazon has a fantastic return policy and said that we can keep the product and get a gift voucher refund, as well as Euro 5 to apologise for the rough time that my son had had. They then suggested that we try Zoob Builderz, as it was a robot building set and they thought that my son would enjoy it.

We decided to go with Amazon’s suggestion and got the Zoob Builderz 35 pieces set, which included the pieces to build a robot. My son was thrilled and has spent hours upon hours with this wonderful invention.

Zoob is a movable 3D modelling system, with pieces that snap, click and pop together to form joints that rotate, axles that spin, limbs that extend, and lots more. It comes with very easy to follow yet challenging building guides, with many different characters and creations that the kids can copy. I would very highly recommend this product.

Alex Brands, the company that produces Zoob, has been around since 1986 and seems like an incredibly creative company. 

From their website (https://www.alexbrands.com/about-us/):

The Alex Brands® family of brands is comprised of some of the most iconic, recognizable and award winning toys in the industry today. With a commitment to helping children become more active and develop their imagination and creativity, Alex Brands offers toys, games for children of all ages.

The Alex Brands family consists of:

• Alex Toys;
• Poof Products;
• Slinky;
• Ideal Products;
• Backyard Safari;
• Zoob;
• Shrinky Dinks;
• Scientific Explorer.

We will look into the other brands that are a part of this company and update you as we discover more about them. Let me know if you have any favourites from the above list, that we can try out too.

 

Update February 2019:

My son’s Zoob started cracking and breaking, so I sent an email to Alex Brands to inform them of this. They replied the same day, which was very impressive:

“I would first like to apologize to you and especially your son for the Zoobpieces breaking. I would be happy to send out a replacement to him. Please provide me with your address so I can have the replacement sent.”

I did the above and they took over a month, but Alex Brands did send “a replacement”. It was actually a huge tub with 220 pieces (the original set we bought only had 35 pieces!). My son was thrilled and we were happy with the way that Alex Brands dealt with the situation.

Update May 2020:

The new set that my son received has stayed intact with none of the pieces breaking, but… my daughter received Zoob for her birthday, the 60 piece Sparkle Set, which looks gorgeous but slowly, over a very short period of time, almost all the pieces have cracked and broken! 

I have tried to contact Alex Brands about this but:

• my emails return “not delivered” as the address can no longer be found; 
• the Contact Us button on their Facebook page leads to a site page that says that the site cannot be reached; 
• and the same happens if I try to go into the official Alex Brands website, the site cannot be reached.

I shall keep trying and will report my findings, but it would appear that Alex Brands are not functioning at the moment. My only advise is that it seems like some of their sets are in good condition but others crack and break very easily… Luck of the draw situation!