I wanted to give our 3 year old daughter an early start on Legos but didn't want to make the short term investment on Duplo. The minimum age for any set of regular sized Legos seems to be 4+ so I knew I was starting her early. This review may help others who are thinking about getting their little ones started. All kids are different of course but here is one dad's experience.
We do our best to find a balance between "cute little girl" and "don't gender stereotype!" My initial thought was starting with a kit like this will grab her attention with the big pink box (it did!) but still introduce her to I construction toys. As soon as she upwrapped this Christmas present she wanted it opened. We went down to our little kid sized table and opened it up. The box is only about half filled, maybe a little less. I assume this is to allow for expansion of the set. I have no problem with this but be aware. The top snaps onto the box base firmly and would probably keep most toddlers from opening it. That is a good thing. The contents were sealed in 3-4 bags that daddy had to open but once the parts were dumped onto the table we were ready to go!
Having some experience with Mega Bloks my daughter was quickly able to grasp the idea of how these things worked. She immediately started to join blocks together. At three I had no expectation that she would start building cars and houses but she had a great time just linking the blocks together into various shapes. Warning here! Some of the pieces are very small. If your little one still likes to put things into his or her mouth you will need to be very careful here. Even at 3 year old I will not allow her to play with these unattended. This is definitely a Daddy and Me project at this age! The colors of the blocks are bright and eye catching. You can tell this set was designed with girls in mind and the colors had a strong leaning toward pinks and purples but there was plenty of variety overall.
After allowing her to play with random connections for awhile I started building some of the recommended items for her. I should note that this box comes with a nice starter book that included step by step instructions for building a variety of little projects e.g. car, house. It also shows photos to give you additional ideas for building. My three year old was too young to really use this book but she could view the photos and point out what she liked. The first thing I did was to build the included mini figure. This was an immediate hit as my daughter love to play with "little people". This kit also included a mini horse which was another immediate hit! While she played with those two items I started to build little items to add to her pretend word. The kit included enough bricks to add a small house a car and some plants to her little world. Yes the kit included some specialty items like a door, windows and wheels. All told we spent a almost two hours playing with this kit. As a parent of a three year old knows this is a pretty amazing amount of time to keep her attention at one place!
Final thoughts: We loved this! Even for a child under the recommended age Legos can obviously be great fun. They are a great way to spend quality time with your child. I will be making a habit of this and will slowly add additional Legos to her collection. I'm sure this box was designed by Lego to be a stepping stone into the world of the Lego Friends collection and that's ok. As she gets older I will allow her to pick what she wants. I'm sure daddy will pick up a few items of his own along the way. Can you say Lego Friends meet Lord of the Rings? You bet! :)
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Reviews with images
Pricey but a big hit.
Frankly I think all Lego's are over priced. My daughter is almost 7 and has outgrown her mega blocks. Since she is a horse lover, I bought her this set even though I think it's over priced (I paid about $26. at Target). She loves it! The container is a nice size and will hold a lot more Legos which is nice since I'm sure she will be getting more in the future. I am adding a photo also.
