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Toymaker Spotlight: Mellisa and Doug

September 29th 2009 in General

Toymaker Spotlight: Mellisa and Doug One of our favorite Toymakers is Melissa and Doug. We carry a ton of their toys. Actually I think we carry several tons! They have some of the coolest wooden toys and puzzles; the toys you remember as a kid, those all-time, classic toys. They really believe in the toys that they make and produce, and they are a great group of people to work with. Original Source


3 comments to...
“Toymaker Spotlight: Mellisa and Doug”
Posted by dearylou

While Melissa and Doug have a wide range of puzzles that are fun and educational, I am bothered by the fact that they market their puzzles as being made of real wood. In most cases this is misleading because the actual pieces of the puzzle in most cases are made of what seems to be some wood composite that is glued together with who knows what substances. This can be especially bothersome with younger children that may mouth the pieces. In some cases the puzzle pieces are only partially painted (to save money?) leaving the underlying composite revealed and in my experience also shedding.

Being a mom that prides herself on making safety and quality a top priority when purchasing toys for my child, I was especially disappointed with this product. It is a poor quality cheaply constructed toy. The blocks themselves are some king of composite which is covered with 6 different stickers that can be pealed off. The only part of the puzzle that is wood as far as I could tell is the wooden crate that houses the blocks.

As for the educational value of this toy, while it is a challenging puzzle with engaging pictures, it is a very difficult puzzle for toddlers to do on their own. We bought this for our 2 1/2 year old and while I admit that he enjoyed watching us put the puzzle together, the difficulty level is far to high for 2 year olds (and possibly for 3 year olds too). Since their are 16 blocks with 6 sides each with a different picture, their is a very wide range of possibilities and it can be very confusing and frustrating for a younger child and probably an older child as well. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that the completed pictures are shown in a very small format on the back of the the wooden crate that houses the blocks. So you need to either remember each picture perfectly or look at 6hese small pictures in order to put the puzzle together.

I recently returned this puzzle and have purchased a wood block puzzle by Selecta. This is a high quality product made in Germany of all natural wood. They have 4 and 6 piece block puzzles making the difficulty level more appropriate for younger children.

Posted by Ram Raman

We gave this to our kids for Christmas, both my 2 and a half year old and my one year old love to play with it. They shapes stack in many ways, great fine motor skills. We also use it for shape and color recognition for my older child…. Love the more classic toys, rather than the junk that is in many stores thes4 days.



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