Construction and Blocks Reviews

This is a set of blocks - that's all. The only way it is a workbench is if an adult puts it together & plays with it ever so gently. Many times I have assembled the workbench to look just like the picture, but after 2 minutes of playing with it, my 2-yr old son has smashed it to pieces, either on purpose or because it just fall apart when he attempts to use the tools. Having said that, generally Megabloks are great fun. We have several sets of blocks, the Talking Timmy car set (which is really cute), and several of the accessory people that go with the blocks. My kids love constructing towers and knocking them down, and even a 2-yr old can easily build a tower with these. My 3-yr old daughter builds chairs for her dolls to sit on, houses, fences, towns, etc. - so the blocks are great for imaginative play. If you want the blocks and the play tools, then get this set, but DO NOT expect it to be usable as workbench. This Christmas we are getting our son a "real" workbench, not one made out of blocks that are designed to be knocked down!

This toy is okay but it takes all of the blocks to build the workbench and falls over very easily. This toy is only good for the storage container it comes in. I bought it at two different stores and every time it was missing pieces. I tried to contact megabloks.com and did not get a response from them. Needless to say I returned them and got my money back. Spend your money on additional blocks and use the floor.

There are those toys that get taken apart and never get played with again. This one is in my basement and hasn't been touched for about 9 months.

Could have been really great, except the screwdriver is terribly difficult to use, which means my 4-year-old son can't really work on it by himself.

Both my boys 6 and 4 love this toy. This is a toy that teaches. They love to build different things. This is along the lines with lincoln logs and tinker toys...only you can get cool vehicles.

This item came to my 4 year old who is quite developed in terms of hand manipulation. The screws and tools however, did not screw easily. He understood the directions but could not get the parts together. Not even I could use the screws and tools.

He became very frustrated and it was no fun at all.

I bought this toy because my daughter is really into sorting shapes right now. She has several shape sorters that work really well. This one, however, is not well designed. First of all, the lid cannot be fastened to stay down. When your child needs to turn it over to put in the different shapes they all fall out. Secondly, once you have a couple of shapes in the box they block the way for the others to go in. I have always loved Melissa and Doug toys up to this point but I would love to get my money back for this one.

I bought this for my son and how the lid is made it does not stay on so that you may turn it to put the different shapes in. Also, when putting shapes in, it gets so full that other shapes will not fit in with out a fight. I would highly recommend tupperware's shape sorter before I would ever buy this one.

My 22 month old daughter plays with this toy, but there are 2 major sources of frustration.

1) The lid doesn't stay on well - whenever you try to put a shape into the side with the lid, the lid flips over. An older child could probably figure out that you have to hold the lid (or just drop the shape neatly into the hole without touching the lid) - but a younger toddler just isn't going to get that. It is very frustrating. Other people have pointed it out as well - perhaps the designers will respond in version 2. It's needlessly frustrating.

2) Some of the shapes are very similar /complicated - it is frustrating for a young toddler. BUT!!!! my daughter is slightly younger than the recommended age, and, it is a learning toy - it isn't supposed to be immediately easy. Just know that for younger toddlers, you should play with them and help them select the right hole.

A bit of guided play is called for while they are learning and it will increase fun/decrease frustration. My daughter has learned some of the shapes on her own, and is getting 'closer' on some of the others, but I frequently play with her and talk to her about the shapes and help her find where they go.

All in all, it is a good toy. We have several Melissa & Doug toys, and have been pleased with them all. They are safe, high quality, and nice looking. And you can never have too many small, brightly colored pieces of wood underfoot. :)

Sometimes I wonder if toy designers are more concerned with how a toy appeals in the store than whether kids like it or not. My son received this as a gift at 9 months. He played with the ark for about a day and has not bothered with it much since. The blocks, which looked pretty interesting to me, were not any better. The corners are rounded so they don't stack well and are always falling down. The fish block looks neat but it is much heavier than the other blocks and throws off the balance of the ark. I put it away thinking that he might be more interested in it when he was older, but he is now 18 months and still not interested. The ark constantly falls over because the base is so narrow, which defeats the whole purpose of the rocking feature. I was pretty disappointed in the whole thing, blocks and all.

This toy does absolutely nothing! And as far as the "engaging mirror" on the top of the ark, anytime my son tries to look in it, he gets poked in the eye w/the purple bird thing on the top. The attachment thing on the top truly is a hazard in my opinion & the only good thing about this toy was the blocks. We will probably end up just getting rid of the ark & keeping the blocks. (the fish one really IS cool though)

Although the fisher price blocks in this series (and associated toys) have been a major hit with our 12 month old son, this toy has been the biggest disappointment in the series. As other reviewers have states, it tips over easily, is difficult to balance, and is just plain boring! Our son has never given it a moment of his time. In our opinion, this combination set is only worth it for the fish-in-water block, which is the most interesting one in the whole series and can't be bought in any other set! I would skip this set, and try one of the other ones (the truck set has been a hit in our household).

I thought I was getting something kids could play with. The box this thing came in is about 5" x 7", with two bags of flimsy parts so small you could never assemble it, let alone play with it.