Starter Tote

I think I've mentioned that I like cards. Several times. More than that, probably.

I have a nice collection of European playing cards. German-suited decks with suits of acorns, leaves, hearts, and bells. Spanish-suited decks, Italian-suited decks, even French-suited decks. I like the various different suit systems. I like the ancient designs. I like cards.

I like doing Block Play from design cards. One design at a time - no fancy-work with sticky notes to cover up adjacent alternatives. Wedgits come through for me with fine decks of construction designs.

The Wedgits Starter Set Design Cards have gradually become one of my turn-to items - when I am doing therapeutic Block Play, I often need to start simple and just keep building, one design after another. This deck does that well.

So when the Wedgits folk came out with their new Starter Tote with a building board and a new design deck, I was intrigued. But not enough to buy an entire Starter Tote, full of parts duplicating those I already have, just to get a look at the deck. Cash flow. Budgets. Stuff like that.

I may have been wrong.

The Wedgits folks sent me a sample deck, and it is great. Perhaps not quite as coherent as the original Starter Set Design Deck, but with more variety of construction techniques, and allowing one to build exactly as shown on a Building Board held in ones lap.

The new deck arrived shortly after I arrived home from cataract surgery yesterday, and was just the thing for "convalescing" - even if we're not talking about bed rest.

Reading is difficult - probably more so today with the patch off than yesterday - so loafing on the couch building my way through a relatively simple card deck was just great. I built all the designs with only minor complaints, and consider this a deck to come back to.

Not a lot of designs demanded the building board, but a few did, and two even show the Building Board in mid-structure. One might wish for more, but at least the ground has been broken and creative builders encouraged.

Yes, most regular flat-surface designs can be built on a Building Board, but many require some sort of modification - only those based on a "medium yellow" or " giant red" Wedgit can be built as-shown. With a green Wedgit, one must omit it, and consider that segment of the board to be that Wedgit. With "large blue" or "jumbo green," one must usually add another underneath to fit the board spacing. Those with multiple bases depend not only on that factor, but on the spacing - the advantage is that if the spacing fits the board, they may be much easier to build. In practice, this isn't as daunting as it might sound, especially if you have a few extra Wedgits. But sometimes it just isn't the therapeutic activity I need.

Time to get to the point!

The bottom line is that this set may finally qualify for the "Starter" designation I formerly felt more rightly belonged to the Junior Set. I like it.

If you need enough of the parts, or simply could be happy getting them, it could be a very nice addition to a collection. If you like cards as much as I do, it might be worth making the effort to come up with the justification for buying more parts you don't really need.

A great gift for any Wedgit "starter" and many advanced Wedgitites. Do make sure to get the current Starter Tote though, with the new "Starter Tote Design Cards," not the older one with the older " Starter Set Design Cards" - you can buy the latter separately if you want them, which you very well might.

Good set, good Block Play.