Melissa & Doug Alphabet Train Floor Puzzle

Typical of this manufacturer, the graphics are high quality and the cardboard is thick and durable.

The cuts on the puzzle are divided so that one piece is one train car. (Other puzzles by other manufacturers can be put together without ever knowing or dealing with the alphabet.) The only way to construct this puzzle is to know the proper order of the English alphabet and attach them in that manner. Each piece contains both the upper and lower case letter and an illustration to go along with that letter.

My son began playing with this when he was three and did not yet know the letters by sight. He did know the alphabet song. I found the way to play this with the least frustration and the most educational value is for me to play alongside him. I let him piece them together until he asks for help (before he is angry). We sing the alphabet song together to find the next letter in the alphabet. If he doesn't know it by sight he asks for help and I give phonetic clues such as "G makes a sound like "gg", what do you see that starts off like that sound" at which point he finds the goldfish. One complaint though is that the goldfish is sometimes mistaken for just a fish and the F. I wish something more blatantly "g" was chosen for that one. We progress in this manner until it is done. I feel this has helped him learn the letters by their sight.

The appeal for my son was that this is a train related toy. Learning the alphabet was a byproduct that he was not aware was actually my key motive in buying this.

I also appreciate both upper and lower case letters being shown as sometimes alphabet toys and activities use just one or the other.

If you like this type of learning activity I'd also suggest the numbers puzzle by this same manufacturer to help learn the numbers by sight.

I have 2 boys with autism ages 5 and 3 1/2.We are currently working through a program called Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to help educate them and try to pull them out of their autism.This program consists of different activities such as letter matching, counting, self-help skills, fine motor, puzzles, etc.When I saw this puzzle, I thought that it would do a lot for my children: recognizing letters, sequencing, and problem solving through puzzles.

My 3-year-old has been able to recognize his letters, upper and lower case, since he was 2, but he did not know the alphabet song or how to put them in order.He loves puzzles, and this puzzle was able to teach him those things.He now can put the letters in order without missing a beat.We pile them up and mix them up, and he is always looking for the next correct letter.He is so proud of himself when he finds it, and brings it to me to show me.Then, he will tell me what the picture is on the piece that he brings me. He loves it, and I love the fact that this puzzle is educational in such a way that even children with disabilities can easily learn from it.

The pieces are very hard and durable, and stand up to the test of very rugged play.My boys can be pretty destructive, and this puzzle looks new.

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This has got to be one of the best puzzles or tools to teach the alphabet.My little one just received this for his birthday and has put it together all by himself already (he's 3)!It teaches great motor dexterity as well as the alphabet and 26 animals.He loves to make all their sounds as he goes along.It stretches clear across the kitchen floor and it's a bunch of fun for the cat too!My son is getting a big jump on the alphabet with this puzzle and it's just a great investment.Here's a little hint though.Don't wait until the last minute to get it for Christmas.I tried last year and it was sold out for 2 months! Get it now and don't be disappointed!

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This is the best puzzle!My son learned his ABC's at 27 months by playing this puzzle.It's a fun way to educate your little loved one!

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My 4 year old still likes to put this puzzle together even though he has been able to do it for awhile now. We have had it several years and it is still in excellent shape. Fun, educational and very well made.

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ECR4Kids Ultra-Soft Baby Changer

The first table pad we bought for our newborn started to tear in just a couple of weeks of use. So glad I splurged on this and was surprised to find no reviews. At 9 months of age, our baby is now super squirmy -always trying to spinand this changer feels safer as it deeper and heavier than the one we had before. Its soft vinyl and it doesn't need a cover, which I wouldn't be able to use anyway given how often I have to wipe something up. I like how easy it is to wipe clean.

I have owned several diaper changing pads. This one is by far the most durable. I have had it in my home daycare for 2 years and not a tear or rip. The only bad I would say about it is it came with an attached handle so u can carry it anywhere...well it tore the first day but I wasn't gonna use that anyway. it stays in the same place all the time

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Curious George Centerpiece

Got this for granddaughter in Japan!She loved all the Curious George decorations.All the kids had a lot of fun.

This table decoration works great as long as there is no wind around.For an indoor item, it is 5 stars.Cheap, serves its purpose, and you can reuse if you would like.

When outdoors with any slight breeze, be ready to have to tape this thing down.

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VTech Brilliant Creations Color Touch Tablet - White

My 5 y.o. son wanted an iPad for Christmas (!), but we got him this instead and it's perfect for him.Just robust enough to resist drops, interactive enough to keep him engaged, varied enough to avoid boredom after a month of consistent use, lots of levels of activity, from the creative to the educational.I was afraid he would balk at the low-tech graphics, but he's fine with them.All around a good purchase for the price.

it's a good product, but not for a 4 year old, it's a bit confusing,All is not lost though, it's a perfect gift for my niece.

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I bought the VTech Brilliant Creations Color Touch Tablet as a Christmas present for my son and he loves it! I like how colorful and easy it is for him to use. He is four and now he can play and learn with this when I am doing homework.

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The graphics may not be amazing, but my four-year-old enjoys playing with it. He likes that it has colored graphics. We even have the "Learn & Go Tablet" and the "ABC Text & Go". For toys under $30, you cannot expect too much. So, for the price and the enjoyment my son gets out of all three, I would recommend any one of them. However, again, the "Color Touch Tablet" with colored graphics is more visually pleasing. If you want something more high graphics, you may as well buy an android tablet for less than $100 and buy game apps for it. Otherwise, it's lovely.

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My granddaugter received this for Christmas, her mom says she hardly puts it down now.This was a great buy!!

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Moxie Girlz Laptop

I bought this for my daughter for Christmas I played with it for a few minutes and it is cute and I think she will enjoy it..This toy is nice, but not spectacular.

Bought this for my niece last year for her birthday, but unfortuately it was not a durable product for her. The keys did not work after a few weeks of her having it she did like the product, however I would not purchase this for a 7yr old again.

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The Moxie Girls Laptop was a Christmas present, but I cantell you that as soon as it was opened it never left her hands, as she played with it and carried it with her the entire evening.

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Mega Bloks Thomas Sodor Search and Rescue

I wrote this review for the quarry set as well:

My almost 3 year old son loves Thomas. He got two of these sets for Christmas. Yes, as a parent I am left to rebuild after every disaster but I knew that going into it. He has been playing with these things non stop for two days now! Neither set was missing pieces and they all work together especially with the addition of some more mega bloks. Overall, you need to expect to have time spent rebuilding these tracks but I can tell already that these Thomas sets will be toys that he plays with for years.

The differences between the two are more than just the characters in the package.I recommend anyone interested in purchasing one of the sets first buy this one, it is more fun than the quarry but together they make a great combo.So many negative reviews on these toys that I just don't understand.Maybe people have just grown lazy due to toys with less 'maintaince' like video games.

This product was purchased for a three year old. He was extremely excited when he opened this gift for Christmas. As soon as he could, he opened it up and started playing with it. I have purchase Thomas the Train Mega Bloks for him before and he loves playing with them.

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My kids have spent hours building and playing since opening this gift on Christmas. This is one of the best Thomas products on the market. It opens windows of imagination while helping your little one build coordination and reasoning.

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This is a nice set for what it is.However, if you haven't purchased any of the Thomas Mega Bloks products be prepared to buy more.There isn't a whole lot of tracks that come with it and if you want to do imaginative play instead of the layout in the instructions you won't have nearly enough tracks.Fortunately for my son with Aspergers, we have bought a bunch of sets and he is able to be creative and have a lot of fun with them.Also, the tracks are not flat.They are designed to curve up and down and this can be difficult to support properly so the connect right and don't fall over.

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Kids and grandkids have used these sets I have one that is 20+ yrs old my son played with it now my grandson and grand daughter are playing with it

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D & D Minis: Warden of the Wood # 18 - War of the Dragon Queen

I had read reviews comparing D&D Minis with prepainted minis from WizKids. Almost all said WizKids is a superior product, but I thought I'd see for myself. If you're considering the purchase of a miniature and the choice is between a D&D mini or one from WizKids, I encourage you to select the superior quality, especially the level of detail in the painting, of a WizKids miniature.

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Little Tikes Market Umbrella

This umbrella can be used with lots of other playsets, not just the Little Tikes brand. We use ours staked in the ground next to our Step 2 Naturally Playful sandbox/wading pool and we take it along and use it with his folding plastic chair that has an umbrella hole and clip. Great for hot days at the pool, beach or just hanging around in the backyard. It comes with a storage/ carry bag that has a carrying strap for over-the-shoulder hauling around, too. It has a wind vent at the top, but I would still close it at night or take it indoors if you have high winds, since it is a petite size and weighs less than similar full-size versions sold to adults. Nice forest green color and white pole and finial; the fabric is heavy-weight and overall the umbrella seems well-made. A great buy at this price.

This umbrella looks great with the table but it's a little too small to provide adequate shade for my toddler and her friends.I wish it was bigger.

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This Market umbrella is the perfect and needed addition to our Little Tykes fold and store picnic table that seats 8.I love it and my children love having a cool shaded place to rest and eat and play!

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I ordered this umbrella to go with the Little Tikes table that we already owned. It was advertised as being the umbrella that went with the specific table. When we tried to set up the umbrella, it did not fit into the hole on the table.We had to use a saw to cut out the oversprayed plastic on the table and then use a board and hammer to get the stand to fit into the hole. Now we can not get the stand back out, so we have to leave the stand in all the the time and just attach the umbrella when we need it. It was not at all what I had hoped for, but I suppose it still serves its intended purpose.

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We've had this umbrella for about 2 years now and it's held up beautifully. It stays outside all year round (we don't get snow and lately we don't get rain either, but I digress). We do keep the cover on it when we're not using it. The cover has faded, but it's still in good shape. My kids love to make it go up and down.

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D & D Minis: Guenhwyvar # 17 - Under Dark

It's more small than my pinky finger:S. You should specify the size of your product. If I had this figure I would probably give it free to anyone

This is one sexy mini! The second I unwrapped Guenhwyvar I knew it was love at first sight. I would never go on a campaign through the underdark without my loyal friend Guenhwyvar. Perfectly painted and she has a very unique stance that you just don't see in other minis. By far my favorite. Item was delivered faster than expected.

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KidKraft Train Trundle in Honey

A really nice piece to go with the KidKraft play/train table; big and deep; holds a lot of stuff. Looks good, seems durable, and is easy to assemble. Go ahead and get a second trundle, a matching set. It looks even and you will appreciate the storage space. The whole set, train table and 2 trundles, is relatively inexpensive.

Perfect for a ton of extra storage under the bed.They were fairly uncomplicated to put together.Glad I purchased them.

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The drawer is quite good quality. Easy to assemble.I find it just a bit on the pricy side, though.

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the train table trundler drawers! They were very easy to put together and I did it in about a half an hour! They are very sturdy and there is lots of room for storeing trains and lego duplo blocks and lots more!! if you get the train table you should order two of these drawers to go with it!!

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My son absolutely loves this table and the trundle drawers.The drawers are very big and can hold a lot of stuff!Thankfully since he has so many trains.The table also has roads painted on it so it works well with cars and trucks (his other favorite!).It seems to be made pretty sturdy as well.Easy to put together.My husband did it by himself no problems.

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Melissa & Doug Tabletop Puppet Theater

This is very pretty put together, but I had a very hard time with the process. 4 of the "screw" holes were not even there, so I had to create them myself. Also, this is not really for hand puppets, it's more for the marionette style puppets. The curtain is completely different than what's pictured, but it's still nice. Overall it was ok.

Very pleased with this well-constructed and colorful theater.The grandkids especially like the retractable curtain--a nice touch!Excellent service, arrived very soon after ordering.

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PlanToys Tree House

The tree house is easy to assemble. Quality construction. The posts that the swing and ladder hang from do not "lock" into place. They rest in a carved out groove in the wood. This causes the stumps to pop out and the swing and ladder to fall often. We had to glue it down as it was causing too much frustration. This solved the issue and was easy.Would prefer for Plan Toys to create like a wood screw so that it'd stay in. This was a gift from our wish list for our 3 year old son. He is into imaginary play right now and it was a good alternative to a doll house. He's put his other Plan Toy trucks onto the pully and lifted them to the top levels and really seems to enjoy the dolls.

We bought this treehouse for my son's third birthday. He loves it! Here are the pros and cons.

Pros:

No fake leaves or anything for them to get frustrated with

Adorable construction and toy people

Cool accessories, including the pulley

Stable base

Cons:

Although the base is stable, the rest of the treehouse is not. I am going to have to hot glue gun some pieces on because it is too frustrating for any child to play with. The little fences that the swing and rope ladder hang from fall out CONSTANTLY.You can't swing the people on them without them falling out. The tent is supposed to be held up by the tension of four elastic cords, but it really doesn't work well at all.

Overall, I usually LOVE plan toys, which is why I chose this one out of all the other ones. I like it, my son really loves it, but it needs some work.

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This is a beautiful tree house with excellent quality (as Plan Toys usually is).It is very stable, comes with many accessories, including a swing, ladder, and a pulley system w/ bucket!This is a great uni-sex toy house that fosters creative play and will grow with your child for years.My son is really into pretend play these days, and plays with this house all the time in very creative ways.It definitely has more educational value than some of the electronic toys out there these days.

I have personally not found it to be fragile.I think if your kid is 3/4+, they should have good hand coordination and not find it to be frustrating.The ropes on the ladder and swing loop quite well and my son does not have any problem with it.But I suppose if your kid does, like the other reviewer suggested, you can easily put a dab of glue on it to stablize it.

I have looked around at different tree houses before I purchased, and this is my favorite and I would highly recommend.

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Tomica Mega Station Hypercity Set

This item is only $69.99 at Toys R Us, most internet sites including Ebay are ripping people off with this over $100 price tag!!

Like a previous buyer I got this set on sale at ToysRUs, but for $59.99. The buyer that got it for $39.99 got an amazing deal, great job. The set is pretty nice overall. The train tracks, trains, cars, and motorized car ramp are decent enough quality for this price and seem durable so far. Sometimes the automatic train undercarriage stop/go mechanism by the motorized car ramp stops the train literally in the roadway (the undercarriage stop not the gate), but it seems its caused by human error throwing off the timing while controlling it in manual mode, and then switching to auto mode. Its fairly easy to set it right while in manual mode. Still I think the logic should recognize that when the gate goes up, the undercarriage stop has to stay down no matter what, at least while in auto mode.

The car ramp works well unless you just go crazy with the manual button (like my son does sometimes). In that case cars and the train may collide or too many cars enter the ramp and can topple over each other. I am a little worried the little plastic "flaps" which pull the cars up the ramp may break eventually. I say this because if you feed a slightly elongated vehicle into the ramp it causes the flap to bend more and push the car against the side of the ramp. The cars that come with the set, and any other cars of similar length, are fine. But still, even they eventually may cause the flaps to bend more permanently, even under normal usage. I wish the flaps were better constructed so I wouldn't have to worry, but I guess for this price it is what it is. I also wished the car ramp could be used fully manually, i.e. pushing the cars up manually. While the system does push manually I dont believe it is supposed to be used this way, and it doesn't feel like it is.

Above are more words of caution than complaints against the product. But if I had paid over $100 then they would be real complaints against the product since I would expect much higher quality at twice the price.

The only thing I'm truly unhappy with this product so far, is the cardboard roadway "puzzle pieces". The concept of puzzle pieces is fine especially if you plan to expand or re-design the set, but why Tomica didnt use the same plastics as the stations and parking lots, is beyond me. The heavy cardboard pieces are slightly bowed, therefore they don't create a perfectly flat roadway and they dont fit together perfectly. I believe this is a noticable design flaw worth one full star off my review. Also even the plastics have fairly weak connectors which can come apart a bit too easily. I believe even at $59.99 price tag these items should have been done better.

While it sounds like a lot of complaints, I like the overall design and concept of this set, and it functions pretty much as advertised. I also like that it can be expanded quite a bit and the expansion mini-sets seem to be priced right. I will probably invest even more in add-ons because of the fair-enough quality and decent pricing I was able to get. Only time will tell how durable this is. I was struggling to rate this 3 stars or 4. I think 3.5 is more correct but I feel that I just really need to nail this product on the cardboard roadway pieces and plastic parking area inter-connects. I am still happy I bought this product and would still recommend it at the right price.

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I thought I should be dad of the year, so I bought this for my 2 year old for Christmas. He absolutely loves it, and kept bugging me to take the batteries out of his favorite toy and put them in this so he can play with this instead (since I'm too cheap for c-cells apparently)

Its sturdy, and he learned quickly which buttons to press to let the train go and to raise the barriers for the cars to roll around etc. Not really educational but something for him to practice his motor skills which are now finer than a bleach blonde country girls hair

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My son and I just purchased the "Mega Station" and it's a big hit. My son it just turning four and I told him he was old enough for a big boys train set. Tomica caught my eye watching train video on youtube. I was excited to see Toys r us carrying the brand but the with limited selection. I actually found mine at a discount store for for 65% off the retail price so I couldn't pass it up.

This toy has not disappointed my son or myself. The detail is great and there is enough to do for both of us to stay entertained and playing together for awhile. There are some stickers to put on and some are tricky. I recommend using tweezers, they really help.

This toy takes four "C" batteries and this makes the train go faster then the "AA" Thomas trains so Thomas gets over run a lot.

All in all I all I am looking forward in building on with more sets.

It's great fun and my son loves that we play with this together. The hugs and kisses are a sure sign of that.

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We love Tomica and we have bought almost every product sold in the US.This set is well made and works perfectly.The buttons and controls were very entertaining.However the interest only lasted a day or so.It is basically a circular track with a nifty railroad crossing.My son uses the paper roads much more often than the whole set.

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Scooby-Doo Mod Mystery Centerpiece Party Accessory

I make all my grandkids birthday cakes.I wasn' sure how I was going to make a 3 year old a scooby do cake.I cheated this year and am going to use this center piece for the cake top decoration.I make very large round b-day cake.

This centerpiece is perfect for a Scooby Doo party.It is easy to assemble, large enough to be noticed but does not take over the table and represents all of the Scooby Doo characters.

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Guidecraft Butterfly Extra Chairs

We bought the table and two chairs from ToysRUs when they had a great sale.We then bought the remaining two chairs from Amazon.This set is amazing.Very sturdy and the bolts used to put it together are huge.This set should well outlast our daughter fitting in it.Great quality and very pretty.I would highly recommend.

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10" Tall Blue Lapis Ocean Table Top World Map Gemstone Globe with 4-leg Gold Stand

Hello,

I have been wanting to buy a Gemstone globe for over three years.I first saw one in a local touristy store that was discounted 40%.Even after the discount the globe was $175.I discovered this online and am thrilled.It was much less expensive and is actually larger than the one I saw locally.The globe arrived in 2 days (even though I did not pay expedited shipping).It was very well packed and was in great shape.If you are looking for a nice desk accessory, I highly recommend it.

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