Preschool and Toddler Fun with Duplo Blocks
Written: Nov 07 '04 (Updated Nov 07 '04)
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Pros: Inexpensive, durable, educational
Cons: Lots of pieces to clean up
The Bottom Line: Duplo blocks are a great educational toy. They help develop eye-hand coordination as well as fostering imaginative play.
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| mmcphee's Full Review: LEGO Large DUPLO Bucket 4085 |
Anything that my 3 year old can build with ranks high on the "favorite toy" list. Duplo blocks are on that list. This 90 piece set was a huge hit last Christmas and continues to be played with on a daily basis.
The Basics
Duplo blocks are a building toy geared for children 18 months old and up. They are made by Lego and are similar to those blocks, just larger. All of the interlocking pieces are brightly colored durable plastic. Pieces lock on to each other vertically. Once pressed together they stay together through normal play but are easy to pull apart.
The bottoms of Duplo blocks are mostly hollow, with some structural pieces that allow them to snap onto other blocks. The tops of the blocks have small circles that fit into the structure on the bottom of the other blocks.
This set comes with two basics shapes, square and rectangle plus a few special pieces. The square pieces are 1 1/4" each side and 1” high. There are total of 61 squares with this set in red, green, blues and yellow. This includes two yellow and two red squares with eyes on two sides. Each square block has four small circles on top. The rectangles are 2 1/2" X 1 1/4" and 1” thick. There are a total of 13 rectangles in the same colors as the squares. Two squares are equal in size to one rectangle so the rectangle has 4 circles on top the long way and 2 on the short side.
There are six special pieces there are squares with a have round end. These blue, yellow and green blocks take up three spaces on a rectangle. There are two red rectangles, which are half the thickness of a regular block. When these two half pieces are stacked together they are the same size as a basic rectangular block. There is a half circle piece that is the length and width of a rectangle piece, although about twice as high. A red base and a blue propeller snap together to make a helicopter shaped piece. Additional pieces are two red triangles and two green pieces with one concave side. The last piece is a long blue piece that is that is six circles long. This piece has concave sides on each end.
Let’s Build
Duplo blocks are a huge hit with my daughter. She loves to build high towers. Since Duplo blocks lock together they are more stable than the wooden blocks she also enjoys building with. The blocks are easy for her to snap together, stay together while playing and are still easy for her to take apart herself.
Do to their design Duplo blocks are pretty much limited to narrow vertical towers. There is no simple way to connect the pieces sideways. To address this problem we purchased a Duplo base plate. The base plate looks like one enormous Duplo so young children can build sideways as well as up and down. This allows my daughter to expand her building play beyond tall towers to include castles and towns. With or without the base plate Duplo blocks allow for a lot of creative play. This toy is only limited to your child’s imagination.
My daughter has very limited interest in the special shaped blocks. She would be just as happy to have only rectangles and squares. When she is building something all of the odd shaped blocks get pushed to the side in favor of the standard ones. This set comes with 16 special blocks, but we would be happier with a few more squares.
Beyond the building aspects children are learning when playing with Duplo blocks. Preschoolers can sort by shape, size or color. There is also the very basic math concept that two squares equal one rectangle.
Mom’s Thoughts
Something I like is that Duplo blocks come with its own storage system. The sturdy plastic container is shaped like a large square Duplo block complete with the circles on top of the block. The top snaps on tightly so that is the bucket flips over the pieces stay inside, but the top is easy enough for my 3 year old to remove. There is extra room in the bucket so all of the pieces do not have to be taken apart to fit in the bucket. In fact the bucket for this 90 piece set also holds all of the bricks from our 45 piece set with room to spare.
Durability has never been an issue with Duplo blocks. The blocks have been thrown and stepped on – something that hurts in bare feet! They have been through the dishwasher but removed before the heated dry cycle. A note on the box indicates they are safe in water temperatures up to 104 F. When I have forgotten to check pockets we have even had a few go through the washing machine. Not one has broken yet.
I enjoy playing with Duplo blocks because I can actually building objects with them. There are several pictures on the container and when my daughter requests them I can actually reproduce a bird in a tree, a turtle and several other nondescript animals. The set came with a small idea book that has long since been lost, but we still have fun building together.
The size of these blocks makes them safe for my 16 month old to play with as well. It is one of the few toys that my 3 year old really loves where I don’t have to be concerned about the younger one getting her hands on them. And since there are plenty of bricks to go around for both of them I hardly every hear “she took my block.” By the same token, having a few pieces slip out of reach under the couch does not stop the fun. A few misplaced pieces may mean slightly smaller structures but the play is not disrupted.
Final Thoughts
Duplo blocks are a huge hit with everyone in this house. They are inexpensive, durable and a lot of fun. This is a toy that I enjoy getting down on the floor to play with. 90 pieces are a pretty good amount to build some large structures. All Duplo blocks work together so you can combine pieces from any set to build larger and more complex structures.
Other Duplo Reviews
Duplo Green Base Plate
Small Duplo Bucket
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 8.99
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months
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Epinions.com ID:
mmcphee
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Member: Mary Ellen
Location: Nutmeg State
Reviews written: 1082
Trusted by: 217 members
About Me:Can you lose 55 lbs and still be cranky? Apparently so...
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