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Fort Magic Construction Building set Review

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Disclosure: I was not compensated for this review. I received the product below. All opinions are my own.

Over the past few years I have been offered several opportunities to review different brands of kids “fort” kits and to be honest I never thought it would be something I was interested in so I always politely turned them down. My kids did just fine at using blankets and chairs to build their forts! (even though it was always quite the ordeal to have to tear down and put away!) But when Fort Magic offered me the opportunity to review their product I agreed after checking into their brand a little more. The retail price runs just under $200 but I noticed that they had 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon which made me look a little closer! After spending almost a month using this set already it’s an amazing product and certainly worth the price! Not to mention there is virtually no limit on what you can do with this set! PLUS they do offer a 30 day money back guarantee if you aren’t satisfied. Warning – after viewing our photos you may find yourself wanting a Fort Magic set!

fort magic teepee for kids

Personally, I fell in love with this life-sized teepee that we built! (yes – you can build MORE than just the traditional “forts”!) It was almost too tall for my living room! I KNEW this would be awesome not only for our school Thanksgiving plays with the students but also for fun at home. The Fort Magic set comes with little plastic “clips” so that you can attach any fabric, blanket, bed sheets, etc to your creation so it’s really versatile for whatever you have on hand to use. I decided to run to our local thrift store to buy fabric for our teepee since it was so big!

cherokee teepee symbols

The kids & I came home and began to research some Cherokee symbols since we have Cherokee in our family and used fabric markers to draw Native American symbols onto our teepee. It was a pretty awesome family project!  Ok – enough about our totally AWESOME teepee – let me tell you what Fort Magic actually is and how it works!

fort magic Collage

Fort Magic is a construction set that includes 165 straight and curved “sticks” of various sizes, 87 connector pieces in different sizes, and 130 fabric “clips” for a total of 382 total pieces. It also includes a very high quality durable bag to store all of your pieces inside of. All of the pieces are just top notch quality and very sturdy! These pieces are not something that will break easily. The Fort Magic set also came with a beautiful laminated book of designs to create which were very simple to follow. Of course you can build anything with this set – not just the designs included in the book!! However I absolutely LOVED the book because it is virtually indestructible and has a very wide variety of things to build such as an airplane, the teepee, submarine, car, house, maze, mansion, alien, rocketship, etc.

building fort Collage

My boys – ages 6 and 4, were SO pysched to get started building! My 6 year old had no problem building this set with his daddy. In fact you’ll see later below that my 6 year old actually came up with his own creations completely built by himself! One thing to note – before beginning your construction you will need a LOT of room!! Our living room isn’t that large and some of these sets took up a huge chunk of it! Here is a quick shot of some of the designs and what it looks like inside of the included book for ideas:

Fort Magic 6Forts Frames

This car was the first thing that my youngest asked us to build! It has a steering wheel that actually turns and all 4 wheels on the bottom turn too! My kids “rode” it through the house!! You can imagine the possibilities of how to use this set for plays and parties! The great thing about the included fabric clips is that you can very very easily attach any type of fabric or blanket into your creation.  You can use old sheets you already have or buy coordinated fabric for your creation! Or like we did for our teepee you can paint something onto your fabric for a more intricate design!

Here is our alien that we built from the design book! Below you can see a screenshot of the alien in the book as well as the rocketships you can build with it:

Fort Magic Space Cruisers Final

And this maze box was 100% created by my 6 year old son. Needless to say I was pretty surprised and impressed when I found him building this!! He even set all of the blankets up himself!

fort magic mansion for kids

This mansion was our first creation and it is a HUGE one! We actually had to rearrange furniture in our small living room to get this set to fit! In fact it’s so large that in the “room” you see of the mansion on the left all of the adults could stand up straight inside of there! This monster took a LOT of blankets to cover!! 🙂 One day we’ll buy enough fabric to create something coordinated for this – it’s SO cool!

inside the fort mansion Collage

Here’s just another few photos of the mansion covered with about as many blankets as I could find at the time! We left this up for a whole week and only took it down so that I could create some more designs for this review. The kids absolutely went nuts over it!

Since the kids liked hiding under things so much we then built this tent for them to watch TV and read books under! It was surprisingly roomy and had plenty of room in there for at least 4-5 kids.

And of course to go with our teepee we needed a horse!! My 6 year old helped me to create this and it was a fantastic project for his motor skills because he sat with me for hours and tied on black yarn for the horse mane and tail!

fort magic native american teepee

As you can see in my photos the Fort Magic set does not come with fabric but you can use blankets and sheets at home, or of course buy fabric to match. I’ve been told that later this year we might be seeing some pre-made fabric swatches for sale so keep an eye out for that! Overall this set is AWESOME and you’ll definitely get your money’s worth out of it. This is one of those things that will last through your kid’s entire childhood and beyond if you care for it appropriately. You are really bound only by your own imagination. You can create your own lemonade stand, puppet theatre, train station, igloo, and anything else that you can dream up! You can read other people’s reviews and see pictures of their creations here. And here’s the link to buy your own Fort Magic set!

Here are a few other creative ideas to use this set for:

photography props / backgrounds
school skits and plays (trees, buildings, walls, etc)
hanging mobiles from
outdoor play and activities
photo ops

GIVEAWAY

I am SO excited that Fort Magic has offered a construction set to give away for one of my readers!! This giveaway is open to US AND Canada only. Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below which will end on April 2, 2014 at midnight. Winner will have 48 hours to claim prize before a new winner is chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Shared by Crystal @ Surviving a Teacher's Salary

Comments

  1. Maria Malaveci says

    My kids would absolutely love these, any of them really but the Mansion really stands out! Love it!

  5. Vanessa says

    I have to say that the submarine and the car are my two favourites. This would be awesome to use as a part of a science uit about structures!

  10. Jamie says

    My Son and Daughter are really into building forts now…It would be fun to build the yellow submarine since we are HUGE Beatles fans!

  12. Karey says

    My kids would love the submarine! I would love to see what they would build with their own imaginations!

  15. Carmen says

    My favorite style is the tepee! But any of them would work great in my classroom for a reading area and could even change it up to match a theme.

  17. Katie Haymore says

    I am IN LOVE with the pirate ship!!! My firsties would LOVE it too! I am in awe of all the cool creations!

    • Katie Haymore says

      And can you imagine reading a story and creating a “building” or “transportation” related to the story for the kiddos to enjoy. WOW!

  24. Becky says

    I would love this for my two young boys then could put it to use in my kindergarten classroom!!!!!!

  32. Lauren says

    I love that the forts include the whole family. I love the castle, but they are all incredible.

  34. Jancie says

    I love the versatility of the product. I would love to dream up new and exciting things to make with my step-daughter.

  37. StephanieB says

    My 7 year old twins LOVE to make forts in the living room. FortMagic would be fantastic for them, since they could make it into whatever they want. Very cool!

  39. sara Esqueda says

    I love that it’s like a giant lifesize set of K’nex! My girls would love this, though they are reaching the age of only asking for electronis and video games. This product looks amazing!

  40. Monica Alters says

    I like the spaceship one. We love talking and learning about the planets. It’s be perfect for us.

  44. Sheldon Jordan says

    I like the Teepee; I think it would be a fun way to encourage reading during the Daily 5.

  46. Joan Montague says

    I really love the imagination for the children. There needs to be more of this type of play.

  56. Tonia Highers says

    Love the fact that it has clips for material to hold them on! Definitely improves the fort making 😉

  57. chenoa Sowa says

    Love them all but if I am choosing my absolute favorite…the airplane is my favorite.

  62. Miriam Prantner says

    I love how versatile this product is. I really like that there are curved pieces.

  64. Carrie says

    I love that it comes with so many pieces and designs to spark my kids own imagination! Would love to win this. Thanks.

  65. Ashley says

    The race car has to be my favorite although I think my son would be mad that he can’t actually race in it.

  68. Laura Jacobson says

    Oh I love how you did the TeePee! So cute!!! I visited Fort Magic and really love all the different designs you can make! I learned that they also have patterns on there site! Carter would love to build the Submarine first!

  70. Jeanna says

    I learned a lot from reading all of the customer reviews & looking at all of the photos! They had such wonderful ideas!

  75. Laurie P says

    Love the Mansion, the space cruisers, the canoe, the rocketship…..I could go on! Love’em all!

  76. Mary Beth Galloway says

    Like the fabric clips and curved pieces. Different than other types of fort sets I have seen. My four boys would love this.

  77. Pam says

    One of my fave designs is the rocket. (although my students would want to make everything!)

  80. sheri anderson says

    My grandson would love any of the Forts, and would have a blast, sure hoping to win!! Thanks!!

  81. Pat Mack says

    Wow! girls, boys and anyone can have fun with so many options to build. Absolutely great for imaginations to flow.I love the space designs but my kids would love the teepee.

  85. Melinda Weston says

    Castles and dreams and far away things,
    Puppets and pets and never to forget
    Travels, scenes, monsters and others not so tragic
    Is where imagination takes you with Fort Magic!

  86. Hannah says

    There are so many wonderful designs but I think my son would enjoy the spaceship the most!!

  88. Andrea says

    How cool! Never heard of it before visiting your site. Love the many options. Here’s hoping this single mom can build all the coolness especially the Pirates ship.

  90. Rochel S says

    My son would love the rocket ship and alien. And the castle. Actually he would love them all!

  91. Sharon W. says

    My son would love the pirate ship! I would love to set this up as a reading area in my classroom too!

  92. Erin says

    I LOVE the car. My son and daughter both love to build. We currently have a set of building materials that are straws but it is not sturdy enough for all of my 4 year old son’s projects. I would love something sturdier that we could build as a family and then they could both actually play in.

  94. Josephine says

    What a great item this is. i would love to use this in the classroom to help liven up history. How much fun would it be to create George Washington’s boat and cross the Delaware River?! To make tee pees and try to negotiate with Indians for land and furs. We could live history and not just read about it. The canoe paddle and horse would create so much excitement. I am very excited about these ideas.

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