Review: CornPack PlayMais

Approx. price: £4.99–£16.99

Age range: 4+

ToyTalk Awards Winner: Construction Toys

Website: www.playmais.com

by David Smith
PlayMais is an innovative construction system from CornPack. Manufactured in Germany, it uses small building blocks that, at first sight, look a little like polystyrene packaging. In fact, the pieces are made from corn starch and water, coloured with food colouring.

The result is brightly coloured building blocks that are environmentally friendly (they will biodegrade) and extremely easy to stick together. Just dab a piece of PlayMais onto a damp cloth and it will stick to another piece almost instantly, creating a surprisingly strong bond.

This is so easy that even children at the very bottom of the target age range can get stuck in right away. Our four-year-old tester got the hang of things immediately and was soon building basic models.

PlayMais comes in starter or ‘Extra’ packs. The Extra packs are themed, with various options available including Jungle, Pirates, Farm and Circus. However, the themes are just a suggestion (the boxes of these packs include construction guides and lots of pictures to copy from) and the packs can be used for any sort of play.

In fact, there’s nothing in the boxes except PlayMais and a few pre-cut pieces of cardboard to act as a structure to build your scenery on – very refreshing in a world of seemingly endless packaging and instructions! This also means you are getting maximum value for money. You really feel that they have crammed as many pieces into the box as possible.

Looking at the pictures will inspire children to attempt some really ambitious models. The PlayMais pieces can be cut, trimmed and shaped to make, for instance, the spots on a giraffe or a pirate’s eye-patch.

Grown-ups or older children will need to help with this, but our four-year-old was quite capable of sticking the pieces on to make a creditable giraffe.

Finished models are perfect for play or display – the bonds are strong and there is no problem with pieces detaching all over the place.

In fact, this is a remarkable construction system. It instantly attracts children and is absorbing enough to hold their interest for extended periods of time. The open-ended play element is strong and promises repeated visits to the very generous stock of pieces.

With educational and developmental benefits as well, PlayMais is further proof that all the best ideas are simple.

Durability: 4/5
Longevity: 5/5
Value: 5/5
Score: 95%
Conclusion: A very clever construction toy that is amazingly easy to use even for younger children.