BRIO Reviews

This is the best shape sorter out there. The "shapes" are 3-D, so they can be inserted in many different directions, not just 2 directions like the usual toy of this kind. This means that even 1 year olds can really work out the problem on their own. The door and key are equally fascinating, as others have noted: open the door, close the door, take out shape, put in shape, etc for long periods of time. One of the best and most fun toys my son owns, AND its educational in an open-ended way, unlike all of these electronic "learning" toys.

I bought this toy for my son when he was 9 months old and at 1 year he still loves to play with it. He plays with it in a lot of ways -- he likes to clap the blocks and balls together, walk around holding them, roll the yellow balls around and chase them, put the blocks in and out of the little door. This is even before he got to the point where now he tries to sort the shapes. I think part of the reason he likes it so much is that the blocks (the square, the ball, and the pyramid) are brightly colored, and just the right size for his hands. The toy seems very thoughtfully designed and well made.

My daughter got this for her 1st birthday and almost 3 months later she still plays with it like it is new toy. She got the hang of it right away. The shapes are very easy for her to put in the box. It is also her secret safe where she puts other toys too. =)

but this one stinks i got my nephew this thing for his birthday and he hated the thing it as so boring for him that he cried his whole bath time! don't get this thing

My son was given this toy for Christmas. He loves to sit and play with it. It has many different parts that make different sounds. The whistle has two different ends with two different sounds. One end is more difficult to make noise with, but he loves to hear his mom or dad blow the whistle. The belly of the one man band is a drum. My son loves to bang on things and this drum makes just the right amount of noise so that he loves it but I don't get a headache.

The new SkyTrain series from Brio is a great idea that will add new possibilities to an existing track layout. This set should be the starting point if you wish to add SkyTrain to your collection. It contains five low and five high supports to carry the 10 included track pieces as well as two passenger wagons to drive around the track. It also contains a couple of trees for your Brio landscape.

As always, it is a good idea to get some of the other SkyTrain accessories if you want more playability value from the set. For our SkyTrain set we have purchased 20 additional supports and the load/unload crane. The many supports make it fun to create advanced layouts running above and integrating with our traditional Brio layout.

We are now looking forward to the battery-driven SkyTrain engine that Brio has announced for late-2003/early-2004.

If you have bought the Brio SkyTrain 33925 set, then this support expansion set is a very nice addition to get more playability into your SkyTrain designs. It contains two low and two high supports. The supports are very robust and will not break unless you really try to destroy them.

We have bought five of these extra support sets for our SkyTrain so now we got a very enjoyable SkyTrain setup to integrate into our traditional Brio railway layouts.

Recommended...

I have a 3 year old and a 4 year old that love this toy. I would recomend it for anyone that has children under 10 years old.

Just got word that this gift was an instant success with my nieces. Although, keep in mind that this is not a toy for infants. 1 year and older is the norm.

I bought this for my daughter because anything made by brio is great. All of their toys have been a hit at our house and this toy is no exception. My daughter loves the three little characters. I believe that they are a bear, dog, and a pig. Kaylie carries them everywhere. They even come apart so you can use them like a sieve in the tub. I didn't even know the mast was a whistle until I saw my daughter using it one day. She has a great time blowing it. The thing I really like about this toy is that all of the pieces come apart so you can really get the water out of the toy after the bath is done. I have had to get rid of some toys that retained water because I was afraid of mildew and germs. This is another well made fun toy by an excellent company.

I bought this for my daughter when she was 10 months old - it was highly recommended in a magazine. She is over 2 years old and still plays with it. The yellow top lifts off so you have a red bowl with holes to pour water. She still likes putting the little men in and out of the holes. The sail has a whistle, and she learned how to blow on this when 10 months old. This was her first whistle and she could hold it easily herself. She loves assembling and disassembling the toy. It is small so it travels well and is very durable. When my son was born, we learned that it was the first bathtime toy he would always reach for - perhaps due to the bright colors. This was well worth the price. I don't know about it's educational value, but I used it to help teach my daughter her colors. I suppose it also helped teach her the concept of in/out and helps wih manual dexterity.

My two year old boy has never shown much interest in toys, but lately he has been dragging stuff around, so I thought a pull toy will be suitable. He just turned three and I got him the pull dog for his birthday. In anticipation to the short cord, I bought a pair of shoe laces and used one to extend the cord. It works fine. He absolutely loves it and plays with it all day long. The dog is smaller than I expected, but well designed to suit its purpose. It lands on its "feet" almost all the time no matter how many obstacles it has to pass; it rolls on any surface, including carpet. Its head shakes and its tails wags as promised, but its bark is less than desirable. It is so loud! It is a cracking sound that doesn't resemble barking and can definitely drive any adult crazy. All said, it is the first toy my boy has ever shown interest, and I certainly don't regret buying it. I am going to put tape on its belly to muffle the sound, though.

The string is way too short to pull this toy, but my twins both enjoyed pushing it around on the ground (rather like a car or truck), at least until they started walking.

Max has been a favorite toy at our house since we brought him home over six years ago. Our kids had a half a dozen or so pull toys but only Max kept their interest. Yes, the string is ridiculously short. However, I easily found a replacement and my kids were off and running with Max at their heels. Even now when our youngest two are almost four, Max is still popular. I think it's just that he's a dog that they can walk all by themselves. We highly recommend this toy!

We have over 300 pieces of both Brio and Learning Curve tracks, and I cannot tell the difference in sturdiness. The only tell-tale difference is that Brio has no carve marks in the tracks, but it doesn't make it any different. My son is almost 7 and has been playing with his wooden train set for 4 years. We started with a figure 8 and although I've sunk a small fortune in this stuff over the last 4 years, I wouldn't have it any other way. His attention span was minimal with anything at age 2, and this was one of the few things he actually began to show interest in. We have one of these T tracks but we always end up not having enough switching pieces when we set up the train tracks. I found the most useful pieces are the switching pieces like this T track, the small curves and the small straight tracks. I have had to become an engineer over the last few years in order to teach my son how to set up the tracks. We have had lots of fun over the years, and I think when he outgrows it, I'm going to be the one to cry!

Well, I don't really know about durability since we haven't had it very long, but it's great to be able to make more complex track designs! We only ordered one of these (to go with some of our generic compatible track) and I think we will probably get another one. As far as educational value goes, it is great to have my toddler spend time looking at this track as a big puzzle over watching TV! She is only 25 months and does not lay out the track correctly yet, but she is very interested in it. I am really happy with our train set and now this piece. Not to mention it is something fun for me to do with her - and I don't get bored with it!

I appreciate the previous reviews, however, we were very unsatisfied with this engine. It takes just one AAA battery, which unfortunately does not give it very much power. It was unable to pull even one car up our viaduct bridge. Also, we got it for our 2 year old. Because you cannot free wheel (meaning that you can only play with it when the battery makes it move- your child is not able to move the train himself), my son was always jamming the gears. We ended up going to the store and purchasing the Thomas engines- much more durable and they run on AA batteries for more power.

I would like to say, however, that Brio products are the best. All of our tracks and accessories are Brio, and the company will take any of their products back with no questions asked (which is what we did).

This is a great addition to the train sets!
It works well and is very simple and fun. If you are like me and look for toys that are fun, easy to play with and have more than one button to push, train toys are the ones to get. I want toys that inspire creativity and exploration. Train toys are it.

This little toy adds a new dimension to train fun! My son (2 1/2) is able to make the train go and stop and has a ball controlling where the train goes. Like the previous poster I have to say that I have noticed him showing an increased interest in how to work the levers and pulley's and things that go with the train in order to control the train. A great piece.

I added this engine and track segment to my set and increased my kids' enjoyment thoroughly. By adding this engine (which at first I hesitated because of the cost), I've noticed that my kids tend to "work" the tracks more in order to get the engine to where they want it to go. That is, they'll make sure the switches are in place and the bridge in is in the proper position to make sure the train continues on without interruption.

The engine is powered by a single AAA battery and is capable of pulling 4, maybe 5 cars when the battery is fresh. As you continue running the engine and the battery wears down, you'll notice the engine having a harder time pulling the same number of cars, particularly going up hills; you'll have to remove a car or two to keep the engine moving around the track.

The track segment is quite ingenious. The red lever raises and retracts a small plate which tells the engine to stop and go. When the plate is raised, it presses a small button on the bottom of the engine which effectively cuts the battery. Although this could certainly be controlled by the toggle switch on top of the engine cab, the red lever on the side of the track is more fun and can be set before the engine arrives.