Construction and Blocks Reviews

This is a tremendous pirate ship. Playmobil is by far the best maker of toy ships. What is so great is that it looks so good and realistic while still being a toy. Disregard other reviews that say "my kids destroyed it". I taught my son, 6 at the time, to take care of his things, and after years of use it still endures. My daughters love it also. The winch, the cabin, the hold and all the other details are awesome. Clearly a classic. I have BestLock, Disney Treasure Planet, Fisher Price and other brands of Pirate ships and this is clearly the best. We even attached the Playmobil motor and sailed it around the pool. It goes so well with the other Playmobil themed toys. I wish they would come out with an even bigger ship, but this is clearly the best available and it looks so good on the bonus room shelf when not in use! As for assembly, you wouldn't expect something this great to assemble in 5 minutes, but it is soooo cool with the rigging and sails. It's the kind of toy you can display. It works great with Playmobil or Papo figures. Clearly one of the best toys in "our" collection.

I debated buying this ship for my son's 8th birthday (thought maybe it would be too 'young') and decided to get it after my 10.5-year-old daughter insisted that her brother would love it.

Always trust a child's instinct. My son received it today for his birthday and it kept both of the kids busy for HOURS. They didn't want to go to bed because they were still playing with the ship. Also, my 10.5-year-old daughter did most of the set up. She was able to follow the instructions without a hitch; I know younger children would not have the attention span and fine motor skills to do all of the constructing.

This is my son's first Playmobil set and it is a winner. He's already perusing the catalog to see what other pirate sets he wants!

THIS TOY IS CLASSIC! I FIRST GOT THIS SHIP WHEN I WAS 9. I'M 28 NOW, AND WOULD HAVE JUST AS MUCH FUN WITH IT NOW AS I DID THEN!! I PLAN ON BUILDING AND ENTIRE PIRATE KINGDOM VERY SOON. PLAYMOBILE IS TOPS IN MY BOOK. I WOULDNT REALLY RECOMMEND IT FOR KIDS, THOUGH, THEY MIGHT GET A CANNON BALL JAMMED UP THEIR NOSE OR SUMPTHIN'!!

I have been playing with Playmobil since before I can remember. I can not remember not having playmobil around the house. Now that I am older I have small displays around the house. I feel that in the past few years Playmobil has come around. They are making sets that I wished I had when I was a child. I now own every piece of airport that they make. I even own the new RC Tour Bus that just came out. I love the air port. I feel that it is one of the best sets sence the Circus. People say that it takes a long time to assemble. I know for fact that it does not. My 5 year old can have it entirley built in 15 min. This is including the Gate Extensions. It is sturdy and well built. It provides hours of play. I even catch my self playing with it when my son is not around. The set is realistic and has plenty of room for imagination. The only regreat I have about this set is that they took the World Trade center out of the city sky line. Towere made this toy much more of a memorial to 9-11 than with out. I reconmend this toy to any way in the age limit, even to those of you who think that playing with toys is childish. It will bring out qualiteys that you did not know you had.

My 31/2 year old son loves this toy. He also got the playmobile plane and ground crew and plays with all three. My biggest complaints are 1) it took about 5 hours to put together and 2) when my son plays with the elevator and doors, etc. they tend to pop off and I am forever putting it back together. Other than that, he loves to incorporate his new cars into the "game" and pretends that people are driving to the airport. Great game for the imagination!

My parents bought this, along with the jet liner, for my 5 1/2 year old son for Christmas this year because he had saw it on TV and that was all he repeatedly asked for. He loves it. It is a well built quality toy. I read all the reviews before letting them purchase it and was prepared for a lengthly assembly process. I was surprised at how many pieces were to be assembled for the air terminal, but my husband had it together in about 1 1/2 hours. My recommendation for assembly is to lay out all the pieces so they are easy to locate and that will save some time. The detailed pieces are extraordinary. My son loves pretending people are coming and going to different places and having to send their luggage through the baggage area. He plays with it on a daily basis. He loves so much he has taken it to different grandparents' houses over the holidays, but it is not a piece that travels well. Relocating as often as he would like has proven not to be a good idea. Some of the pieces like the ramps into the terminal and the tower pieces come off easily when trying to transport to Grandma's house, so we have decided to leave this toy at home (much to his regret). I would not recommend this toy to kids under 5 or to kids that who tend to be destructive players. For kids who have an active imagination and love to pretend I think it's a winner. I plan to buy more Playmobil toys for my son.

My son received this for his 1st Birthday...he liked the blocks more than the Hippo. It doesn't pick up the blocks on the wood floor. My 4 yr old tried it on the carpet...and he was only able to get it to pick up 1 block. It is OK, but after seeing it's lack of performance...I wouldn't buy it. The Wagon in this series is much more fun.

We just bought this for our son who will turn 9 months in just two days. He has been cruising the furniture for a few weeks already and as soon as I brought this out, he was taking his first steps forward (w/the help of the hippo) within five minutes. It was so cute to see him take those first awkward steps forward! :-> Also, I have to agree w/what another reviewer said about Fisher-Price making the best quality toys. In my younger days, I worked for a couple years in a toy store and the one thing I vowed after working there is that I would always buy Fisher-Price toys for my kids because the quality is so much better. We almost never got returns on Fisher-Price toys, but some of the return rates on other brands are as high as 75%! And, all the recall notices we would get for other brands are also scary! Really scary because most of the parents who buy those toys never realize there was a recall. Not saying that Fisher-Price is perfect, but they certainly are at another level when it comes to safety and quality. Now that we have a son, almost all his toys are Fisher-Price or LeapFrog and we have not had any problems w/those brands.

My son received this for his first birthday and loves it. My three year old also loves it and they fight over this a lot. It is very sturdy to push for beginner walkers and also fun to ride on. The only negative to this toy is that it doesn't pick up blocks very well on hard surfaces. It is best used on carpet for that reason but it is still fun without picking up the blocks.

My children used an older version of this type of marble game and went bonkers over it. The toy we used was a friends. My wife bought Galt's version and I am ready to toss it into the garbage can. I just hope the retailer will accept a return. The problem is that Galt's materials engineers cut back on the connector strength and the pieces do not stick together well. All it takes to knock this toy down is a minor bump. My kids were totally frustrated and so was I. This was not an issue with the toy my friend had.

Galt, you saved a few pennies on plastic on each set you built but you created a useless toy. Two thumbs down!!!!!!

I really like this toy, but would highly suggest getting maybe 2 sets. There are only 30 pieces, and the set it pretty small. Otherwise great toy.

I'm not certain that the product I own is the exact one advertised because my parents bought me the toy when I was four or five and that was well before the 90's. Anyhow, the set I had was quite similar, or at least the same concept. I have to admit, no toy thrilled me quite the way my marble run did. I spent hours building unique structures for rolling my marbles down. I'm not exactly sure what the appeal was, but it was very neat to build something yourself, drop the marble in at the top and then watch and listen to it roll all the way down. I guess it's appealing in the same way that those wacky gumball machines at malls are. Anyhow, it was a great toy, entertained me for hours, and seems to be timeless. Significantly more educational than watching television or playing video games and far more satisfying.

We bought this for our one year old son, he is now three. He plays with it all the time. Very durable, it looks like we just bought it. He puts everything in it and pushes it around. I highly reccommend this toy well worth the money spent.

We recieved this as a 1st birthday gift for our son, who is still going throught the teething/chewing on everything stage. I must say after he played with the little man that is in the truck I was horrified to see his mouth full of yellow paint. It seems the hard hat on the little man is painted and not colored plastic. And it all peels off if it is put in the mouth. My son does love the toy and plays with it all the time, just not the man that goes with it!

We got this for our son for Christmas last year (he just turned 1). He plays with this everyday! He loves running around and pushing the truck everywhere and especially loves dumping all of the pieces out! The only complaint I have is the latch for the dump bucket. It's hard for him to get it unlatched himself so he can dump the blocks, and that really upsets him. Other than that it's a great toy!!!!!

I bought these for my daughter when she was 3. Now 5, she and her 2 year old brother play with them. They are no where near as good as my bristle blocks from childhood (still at Grandma's). These just don't stay together well at all. The people that swivel and the wheels looked like they'd add great dimension and improve a classic toy, but with the reduction in block quality (ie, they don't stick together!), I have to say these are a so-so toy, at best.

My kids really like their bristle blocks. I like the bright colors and the different sizes. My 3 year old just likes to put the pieces together--it doesn't matter if it is anything or not. It is just interesting to him that they stick to each other at this point. I built a car for him--from that point on, he has been able to visualize different things--cars, buildings, yards, etc. and put them together. I think that these, blocks, gears, legos, lincoln logs, etc. are all very important to a child's development. These are lots of fun for a reasonable price.

My grown sons played with Bristle Blocks when they were children. Now my 3yr old grandson loves them as well. We gave him a small set for Christmas when he was two and he has been playing wiht them ever since. This year he gets the biggest set Imaginarium makes. I feel his imagination is fed with every space ship or airplane he creates.
And his Dad & Uncle get a big charge out of them as well, for them its a blast from the past. We love them!

I think the blocks are cute and my 20 month old is enjoying building with them, but I was very disappointed that there were only 50 blocks in the set. Why call them "ABC/123 Blocks". The title is very misleading. He is enjoying the small size, as they fit well in his little hands. But I have to order more so we have enough to REALLY build with them. As far as being educational, I don't think blocks, or any other such toy, are necessarily geared for education. I think they stimulate the mind in a creative direction, and help with fine motor coordination, and color recognition. Bottom line - he's having fun with them, and that's great!

What a great little block set! My son, now a year old, received these as a holiday gift, and absolutely adores them. They are much smaller than the originals, but fit in his little hands better, and are easy for him to pick up and carry.

It doesn't bother me that the block letters don't match the subsequent pictures displayed on each cube; I like the freestyle approach. I also don't plan for him to play with these for the rest of his life; I figure by the time he's really learning his letters and sounds he'll have moved on to more challenging toys. So my current expectation for these little blocks is being met.

He loves to stack them (and knock them back down again), clang them together, skip them across the hardwood floors, suck on them (haven't noticed any problem with the wood or paint either), and fill pots and pans with them. He loves to put them in the clear case as well, and to dump them back out again.

Overall, for the ten bucks this is a great basic toy that my son has gotten a lot of mileage from already. I have noticed a big improvement in his gross and fine motor skills already, as he's already stacking them six high and sometimes able to pick up two at a time.

I'd recommend this toy to anyone with a child a year or so and older. I think the 2 year minimum age is a bit old, actually, and have encountered no safety problems whatsoever in giving them to my 1 year old.

Although these blocks are durable and have the traditional die-cut letters, I am very disappointed in the oversight of what I perceive to be an elementary necessity. The problem with this blocks is that although they have letters and pictures on each block, is that the pictures do not correspond to the letter on the block. I think that it is important for use for years to come to not only have a basic fun and building value, but to be able to foster language development when the time comes. I have a problem with the letter "P" block having a picture of a bee on it, how am I supposed to explain that when the question arises? If you are only going to be using these blocks for a young child and not keep them to teach them as they age, then they serve that purpose, but if you are like me and want them for longevity, then pass on this set.

I bought this table for my 3 year old to play legos with and none of the legos stay attached to the table....wouldn't buy it again - i have a greeen lego plate that works much better and was a heck of a lot cheaper. A durable table but haven't gotten much use out of it except to store stuff on top of.

My son loves to play with his trains and cars on top of the table. It was easy to put together. If you are using for legos it's not easy to access under the board tops. When he wants his legos we have to pull them all out first then put the lego top on. It would be better to have storage underneath.

Just bought the table for my 4 y.o. son and I love it. The size is great, not as bulky as the bigger ones. On the board with the city streets I glued down the brio tracks just like they do at toysrus. When assembling it I also glued all the joints for extra reinforcement. For [$$$], I think it's a great buy--and after after 4 children, at this point, I can tell a good toy when I see one.
Thanks, "Mother of 4 from Boston"

I purchased this toy based on the excellent reviews it had here at Amazon, it looked also like a fun toy with educational value. I am very disappointed. For starters, my son finds it very frustrating that the front pieces for eyes, face & hat can only go on in one order. He also has trouble pulling the pieces apart once they are together, and he is very dextrous for his age. Also disappointing is the lack of container to store all the pieces in. Without this, the blocks are loose in my son's toybox and we can never find all the pieces. The packaging could easily be redesigned to hold the pieces. All in all, it is not a toy he can sit and play with without assistance, as I had thought it might be. When he does play with it he enjoys it for about 15 minutes and moves on to something else. We could have done without this toy under our Christmas tree.

We got this for our son for his second birthday. He loved it but we had problems right away that it didn't recognize when it was the dump truck or fire engine like it was suppose to and would just go off for no reason. Of course we had an awful time trying to sneak it away from our son. We went to the store to get another and the one they had didn't work either. Buy at your own risk.

My son got Timmy for his 2nd birtday and has not stopped taking it apart and putting it together. This was a great gift for him.

The largest is not six inches long, it's only three inches. Some blocks were splintered and looked banged up. I returned immediatly, not safe for children of any age.

the best toy for toddlers, my godson spends hours playing with them! very durable and engaging.
in fact i used to have a set as a child and they had the same effect.

I got this toy recently because I felt it was important that my daughter begin to play with blocks. she has nesting blocks, but gets frustrated when the blocks fall into the "nest" and dont stack up. This toy is fun for her, she seems to enjoy playing with the smaller blocks, and her mommy seems to enjoy building more than she does! however, im happy with my purchase because I know this is a good investment, the blocks are durable, they will last me for future children, and im sure my daughter will love them when she sees how much i love them!! A worthwhile purchase.