Open-ended Car Creating with Plus-Plus GO!

Baseplates and wheels make these new Plus-Plus GO! sets an ideal way to enjoy some open-ended vehicle creating.

We were kindly gifted these Plus-Plus GO! sets for purpose of review - Crazy Cart, Hot Rod, Fire Fighter, and the Street Racing Super Set . This post contains affiliate links. All opinions and images are our own and completely genuine.

Plus-Plus have been in our toy room for years, with both my 3 year old and 7 year old enjoying many hours of creative play with the simple ++ shaped pieces. My toddler loves using the Plus-Plus Big for sorting and fine motor activities, and they both enjoy free play with the regular size pieces as well. We were offered the chance to test out the latest addition to the range, Plus-Plus GO! and here's how we got on.

As soon as my 7 year old saw the boxes he exclaimed 'there's wheels!!!'. He loves building toys in general and his go-to creations are always vehicles of some kind. He couldn't wait to see what was inside the boxes. Each set comes with a selection of pieces, the necessary baseplates, wheels, and of course an instruction manual.

Big bro has never been one to follow the instruction manual so he got straight to work experimenting with how to engineer a car using the Plus-Plus, baseplate and wheels. It was great to see him confidently exploring how the pieces connected to the baseplate, and how the wheels would effectively function.

Before he started to build the body of the car he wanted to focus on getting those wheels turning. This took a few attempts but he stuck with it and found a way to make them work. I really like that he was able to experiment with the pieces independently to make them work. Sure we could have just followed the instructions but I think one of the most powerful ways to learn from STEM based products is to allow some trial and error to take place.

After testing out the wheel-based mechanics, it was time to build the body of the car. Again, he wanted to freestyle this and I think he did a pretty awesome job!

The Plus-Plus pieces are made of quality materials. They are strong and durable, but allow for some flexibility when building. Definitely not easily broken, and perfect for small hands to manipulate. Once he was happy with the body of the car, he attached the four wheels.

He was so incredibly proud of himself when he finished his first solo build! Building with the Plus-Plus is a little tricker than building with something like LEGO bricks. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because I think challenge is good at this age, but it is worth pointing out that patience and perseverance are needed to engineer more complex vehicles. As you build there is movement in the pieces, so a delicate touch certainly helps. Having said that, my son liked the fact that you could move parts more freely to get the design exactly how he wanted it.

While big bro was making his own build, his Dad was hard at work putting together the fire truck. This one was definitely a more complex build, but it sure was impressive once done. The recommended age for the GO! sets is 7-12 years old which I think is a great age range. There does need to be a basic awareness of engineering to make sure you can attach the body and wheels, but the instructions are comprehensive and the high quality of the pieces make it achievable by kids.

We teamed up to start building the police car and it was great to see big bro being able to follow the instructions. There was lots of conversation about the different parts of the build, as well as basic numeracy links. It was nice that we could work together in small stages to make the car.

As time went on and big bro got more confident with how to make solid structures, he went back and made improvements to his original build. It was easy for him to remove and replace sections of his car without the whole thing collapsing.

It's also worth pointing out that while all these complex cars were being built, my 3 year old was having a blast building 'tire cakes'!! I think this is one of the reasons I have always liked Plus-Plus, the pieces are easy to fit together so my younger and older kids can both build with them. She was so proud of her tire cake shop!

Overall these sets were a big hit with both my kids. You get a generous amount of wheels, baseplates and pieces which means that the creativity can flow freely when building without the instructions. There is also a great selection of colors to build with. I completely agree with Plus-Plus' age recommendation of 7-12 years old because these aren't a simple click and play build, but that's not a negative. I think it's great for older kids to have a more challenging material to work with which requires engineering skills and problem solving. The moving ladder parts on the fire truck are awesome, along with the fact that the wheels actually work. If your child loves building vehicles then you can't go wrong with these!