Makes a great gift for young Engineers/Scientists/Inventors 9+ years of age! Made in Germany by fischertechnik - a company that has been making educational or didactic construction sets since 1965. Box size: 46x32x8cm. Weight: 1.5kg. For a promotional STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and MINT (Mathematics, Information Technology, Natural Sciences, Technology) video... click here (click "CC" for English subtitles).

The TECHNICAL REVOLUTIONS or "Great Inventions" kit (508776) contains over 270 parts including motor/generator, gearbox, 9V "safety" battery holder with reversing switch, lamp, permanent magnet, gears, pulleys, screw driver plus electrical plugs and cable. The motor is used in 6 of the 12 construction models shown in the kit's 40 page full-colour assembly manual. An activity manual also explains what the models do and how they work.

Models include the... Safety Elevator (inventor: Elisha Graves Otis), Electric Motor*, Generator (Ernst Werner Siemens), Helicopter (Henrich Focke), 3 types of windscreen wiper (Mary Anderson), Centrifugal Governor (James Watt), Morse Telegraph (Morse Code was invented by Samual Morse), Cardan Shaft or Universal Joint, Perpetuum Mobile (Leonardo da Vinci), Hair Hygrometer (Horace Benedict de Saussure). *for a video of the motor working... click here

All fischertechnik products have a 2 year international warranty and any parts missing or faulty are replaced free-of-charge (electrical parts may need to be returned) by fischertechnik. Spare parts are also available. We are an authorised distributor in Australia and the international warranty is provided with proof of purchase (our invoice). To see a virtual tour of the fischertechnik factory... click here. Note, fischertechnik is made of such durable nylon that grandparents are now passing fischertechnik kits they had as children, onto their grandkids!

We also provide a CDROM (or optional download on request) with additional documentation in PDF format, videos and other information on fischertechnik products. The Assembly manual and Activity manual in English for this kit is provided as a PDF. The activity manual, in other languages, may be provided on request.

All goods sold in Australia include GST, a tax invoice is provided.

Some "on-the-web" comments...

1. Unsurpassed - fischertechnik in the hands of a curious young mind is basically an empirical self paced course in mechanics that will provide a solid foundation for an intuitive understanding of mechanics, and to some extent even physics, and certainly component and assembly based system thinking. To this day I still remember fondly the countless (happy, fun fun fun) hours I spent making things with my sets (which my dear uncle brought over from Germany). I love LEGOs as much as the next kid )) but this is an entirely different league: an amazing toy series that is (yes) a bit demanding, but incredibly rewarding. The quality is (per memory) excellent, and should last for years. Ausgezeichnet! = Excellent!

2. You can create your own models - This is a second set from fischertechnik that I bought for my son; the first was Eco Tech set. He spends hours with both sets, implementing his own ideas, asking lots of questions about energy, mechanics, and etc. He improved some of the models from the Eco Tech using his knowledge of mechanics and energy and he learned a lot redesigning the models. I highly recommend both sets for the kids who had grown out of lego and enjoy building working models on their own.

3. Fantastic for budding engineers - We bought this product for our son last year for Christmas. I think it is the best building toy we have ever purchased for him. The instructions for each project are detailed and go beyond saying, "Do this and then that." The manual explains the 'why' behind each step and also asks the child questions to get them to think further about each step. I wish it was easier to buy more fischertechnik products in the US. I'd buy the whole line for my boys!

4. I've grown up with fischertechnik (I'm now almost 52 ;-p) and fischertechnik still beats every cheap scrap from China. It's expensive, but keeps for life. (I still have my old fischertechnic boxes and they are already 40 years old !!).

5. This is my third box of fischertechnik I've bought and I am happy with the product, not with the price that is very high. With the two previous boxes (508776 and 500882) I had no problems, but with this new purchase (536622) when I checked the parts content, I found that one piece was missing. Yeah, ONE. I wrote to fischertechnik and they sent it to me in a week. I mean, the "after-sales" worked well.