From Collecting to Constructing: Shopkins Kinstructions

Shopkins have invaded our home this year thanks to a multitude of unboxing videos on YouTube Kids. Just like baseball cards of years gone by, the excitement and suspense of discovering what’s inside the package has kids hooked—especially my daughter.

I never imagined she’d be excited to open a box and squeal upon finding a mini, glittery stapler inside, but here we are.

The tiny toys are adorable, but each time we open a new package, I ask, “But what are you going to do with them?”

“Keep them in my collection!” is the invariable answer. On the shelf the toys go.

This month Moose Toys and C3 Construction released brick sets to answer that question in a more hands-on way. The new Shopkins Kinstructions are build-it-yourself kits that make perfect playsets for the collectible figures.

The Kinstructions sets proved to be too difficult for my six-year-old—and challenging even for this mom—but once assembled, the hassle was worth seeing the Shopkins figures off the shelf and into my daughter’s hands.

Each set comes with buildable Shopkins figures that can’t be found anywhere else. My daughter, a diehard-collector-in-training, was at first dismayed that the sets didn’t come with the Season 3 figures currently in stores. However, the fun of mixing and matching the figures soon outweighed her disappointment, and she was creating and naming her own Shopkins in no time.

The Kinstructions sets, which contain bricks that are compatible with most other brands (including LEGO), come in different sizes and styles. We pieced together the Fruit & Veg Stand, Checkout Counter, and the Shopville Town Center.

I should begin by admitting that I rarely put LEGO sets together, so I’m not the most experienced builder. However, when armed with instructions, I don’t typically have trouble sussing out which piece goes where.

The smaller sets, the fruit stand and the checkout counter, were fast and easy to put together. (My daughter made some major headway on both before I took over.) Then we tackled the Shopville Town Center.

This large set contains 410 bricks and takes a couple of hours to put together. By the second page of the instructions, I was surprised to find myself stumped on a step, and so frustrated that I had to take a break. But a couple of YouTube videos and a lot of shrugging later, I figured it out and continued to build the Town Center. Once assembled, the Shopville Town Center is a high-quality, detailed set complete with decals and decorations.

All three building sets have proven to be durable, cute, detailed, and very pink playsets that couldn’t be better suited to playing with the Shopkins figures.

Combining the figures, building, and playsets into these construction sets make Kinstructions an obvious choice for fans of Shopkins. My six-year-old’s Shopkins are now off the shelf and happy in their new home that we put together ourselves. (And when I completed that Town Center, I felt like I had just accomplished something major myself!)

GeekMom received promotional items for review purposes.

Top image © Moose Toys / C3 Construction