Small Man is the King of the Balancing Jungle Animals.
If you’ve been reading our blog for a while now, you’ll know all about these, as we’ve been playing with them since 2005. In all that time, we’ve only had one broken piece out of the six sets we own, and Pete fixed that pretty quickly with a little wood glue.
Most of the pieces are a bit dinged and chipped now, and some of the edges a bit rounded which makes balancing a bit trickier, but they still work quite well. And right now, they’re proving to be the perfect lockdown distraction. This week, we’ve had the Balazoo game on our table (it actually lives in the dining room). Please don’t ask me how the elephant’s trunk is balancing in the lion’s mouth. After 15 years, I still haven’t figured out why it works…
Here’s a video of Small Man in action yesterday…
And here’s his finished construction…
. . . . .
The sets are all manufactured in New Zealand. I checked with Adrien who owns Tarata, and they’re back in operation now that their stage 4 restrictions have been lifted.
We have the Balazoo game, plus a set each of the elephants, dinosaurs, kiwis, apes and jungle animals. The last one is our favourite, but in the past, Small Man would build huge structures using all the pieces…
Each set is cut from a single block of wood and can be balanced in a myriad of gravity-defying ways…
The dinosaurs are especially cool, as they can hang off tables…
Only Pete the engineer can manage the kiwis well…the curved surfaces make them trickier to balance…
We had all the sets out yesterday so I that could write this post, and I built a four-pack-stack. As you can see, the pieces are in surprisingly good shape given their age and the number of times they’ve crashed onto the floor and table. The giraffe’s hind leg has been glued back on…
If you’re looking for a lockdown distraction, visit Tarata’s online shop. I don’t have any affiliation with them, but they’re a great company to deal with and their products are superb and endlessly entertaining. Adrien tells me they’re shipping internationally again now that their restrictions have been lifted! ♥
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Those are lots of fun! Some of the creations seem to deft gravity. A great way to pass the time.
I ordered two sets a few years ago for Christmas and they are still in use. I was thinking of ordering more, once they can ship internationally again.
Never saw these before………what fun!
oh do they ship to the states! these are so cool
I believe they normally do, but best to drop Adrien an email to check what’s happening at the moment. If they do ship, I think the US$ exchange rate is in your favour at the moment!
Theresa, please see Adrien’s reply below!
These would do my head in!
Hi, Adrien from Tarata here. Great pics! Yes, we’re up and running again after the lockdown in NZ. We can ship to almost anywhere including New Zealand, Australia, USA, UK, Europe and Asia. http://www.tarata.com
These are absolutely beautiful. I wish I had a small person to buy them for – then I can play too! (Actually, I wouldn’t want to share 😂)
These are really beautiful – I would love to see a festive set as it would make for a great decoration
LOVE!
Oh my gosh these look like tons of fun! I would love to have a set or sets rather. They kind of remind me of the barrel of monkeys game we had when I was a kid… Thanks for the tip!