I find the act of building a set and putting it on a shelf to gather dust a bit sad, but big piles of similar shaped blocks are also a bit uninspiring. So I wa

I find the act of building a set and putting it on a shelf to gather dust a bit sad, but big piles of similar shaped blocks are also a bit uninspiring. So I was pleasantly surprised to find the BricQ Motion sets aimed at classroom use. They come with lessons plans and videos to give some direction, but even without them it's a great self-contained box with very carefully selected pieces to encourage learning about physics and a pile of more "silly" pieces to add character. There's a good selection of wheels, springs, weighted blocks, "ropes" and Technics style pieces. They come in a segmented tray and are colour coded to make finding particular blocks and experiment with related blocks easier. I think they're the best of both - experiment, solve a challenge, learn something, build nonsense and then break it all up and put it away neatly ready to do it again. Big hit compared to sets.