Melissa/Doug Toys - What do you have and love?

[jeniferrlynne]

OK so I have been browsing this forum and keep seeing hype over these and other wooden toys. My DS is only 3 months old but I thought I would find out what the fuss was over and which of the entire line people seem to like the best. Tell me your faves and the ages they enjoyed them. I would love to buy when I see them on sale and put back for later....

[annasmom]

Hi Jen, we have a lot of M&D toys in our house. Our favorites are the rainbow ring stacker which is my one year old's favorite toy (the best $4 I have ever spent!), any of the play foods - we have the veggie basket, cutting food, and toaster set, and the jumbo knob puzzles.

You can often find M&D toys discounted at TJ Maxx, Marshalls. Also AC Moore carries M&D toys too (use the 40% or 50% off coupons).

[eb1]

We have a few wooden puzzles, some wooden food, a shape sorter, and refrigerator magnets (what's nice about them is that the back is a solid magnet, not a small piece)...and probably a few other items I'm forgetting.

To me, the best thing about Melissa & Doug is simply the availability of their products and that you can often find them on sale at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Tuesday Morning, etc. But I've found M&D's quality to be mixed. I've *never* had a safety issue with an M&D toy, but the paint comes off very easily. More expensive, less readily available brands for wooden toys (HABA, Selecta, etc.--you can find these in independent toy stores or online at Moolka, Oompa, or Maukilo), hold up MUCH better, but of course, you pay more. I've never had paint chip from one of the European-brand wooden toys. But HABA and M&D are not always comparable anyway, because they don't make all the same types of toys anyway. Incidentally, HABA makes some very cool rattles that your DS might like: http://www.oompa.com/cgi-bin/category/Baby_Toys_FIR

You can also find Melissa & Doug toys sold under the name "Wood 'N Things." Michael's carries these, as do a few other retailers. Usually these sell for less than the versions that are labeled as Melissa & Doug, and the selection of toys is smaller.

Oh, and M&D have good customer service. They'll send out replacement parts at no charge.

[tarahsolazy]

We have the cutting food, and have a few sets (pizza, sandwich) stashed away for DS's upcoming 2nd birthday. He LOVES the cutting food, its his favorite toy ever. I agree the wood and paint isn't as nice as Haba, but I don't think Haba makes cutting wooden food?

[holliam]

I agree with PP that for the younger babes, Haba has awesome teethers and rattles. I think the only M&D wooden toys we have are puzzles, and wooden toys are the only toys we have!

But, there are a ton of other wooden toy companies too, such as Schilling, Battat, North Star, Imagiplay, Ryan's Room, etc. M&D are just the most readily available.

Holli

[manda7_23]

All we have so far are the 3 peg puzzlzes which are wonderful. I am planning on getting some of the food in the near future.

Amanda

[Judegirl]

Dd also loves the cutting food. I think M&D is hit and miss - some of their stuff is kinda chintzy, and it's hard to tell what's solid wood and what's plywood. About half of the set we have is solid, and she likes it a lot. We also have their musical stuff - I think there's better stuff out there, but I got it cheaply.

I'm not crazy about their letters and numbers puzzles, but Rory likes them just fine.

HTH,
Jude

[bluestar2]

We have a bunch of wooden toys of many brands, some of which are
M&D. The quality of the M&D toys aren't the best, and they do chip quite easily, but as the PP said they are easily available and I can find them at very good prices at places like Ross. The first xylophone I bought broke within 5 minutes of use but I was able to exchange it for another one and haven't had any problems with it.

DC's current favorites, at 2 years old, are the birthday cake, the cutting food, and the 24 piece jigsaw puzzles on the tray. At one year old they liked the peg puzzles and at about 18 months, DS loved the wooden magnet puzzle books. They like the tambourine, and even though the xylophone only makes dull thuds but they like banging on it nevertheless. The toaster and the stacking train gets some play time but not alot. The misses were the pounding ball set and tiny block set.

I love the Haba and other European wooden toys, their quality and designs are amazing. With these, since they are so expensive, I generally buy things that will be played with for a long time, such as the play foods and Holtztiger animals. DC had a couple of the Haba wooden rattles when they were infants. Those would be nice for your DS and I have seen them at kidsurplus at slightly discounted prices.

[kimbe]

Another vote for the jumbo 3 peg puzzles! We LOVE them! DD is 7.5 months old and loves to play with them. (She can only take them out :) ) They are SOOO easy for her to grab and hold. *She* also has some cutting food that DH and I like to play with -- blush --- ! Hmm, also like the Noah's Ark and other play sets.

We like wood because we are planning on having more kiddos and want stuff that is going to go the distance.

[jeniferrlynne]

thanks for the feedback. I do love the wooden toys I just wondered if some were favored over others. I saw some m+d animal stringing beads at Ross and wondered would my child think that is fun? So that is where my thinking started. You guys have been more than helpful!

[annasmom]

Jen, I know your dc is very little right now so you may not be thinking about getting lacing beads yet, but I did want to let you know that M&D lacing beads have not gotten very good reviews. There have been several posts about them here, and I think the reviews on amazon.com are not very good either. Haba lacing beads are supposedly excellent and we have a very good set from Plan toys.

[ett]

We have several of the wooden food sets, puzzles, the geometric stacker, the shape sorter, the beginner pattern blocks, and the vehicle magnets. I'd also have to agree with PPs that the quality is not the best (paint chips very, very easily), but they are the most readily available for decent prices. I got most of the stuff at AC Moore with the 40% off coupons, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, and Tuesday Morning.

There are other wooden brands that are much better. All the Haba stuff that we have are great quality, but you'll pay for it. We also have Brio Plan Toys and Ryan's Room (I think it's called IQ Preschool now) which are pretty affordable and better quality than Melissa and Doug.

[bluestar2]

I'd caution against lacing beads at your DS's age. Even though my DC are 2, I don't let them play with the set they got as a gift unsupervised. I have seen DD wrap the string around her neck and say "necklace!". The beads are a chokable size as well. I forgot to mention that this M&D set gets very little play time. We have the Haba lacing beads and they choose that set over the M&D every time. They only started lacing a few months ago and the Haba set comes with a wooden "needle" that makes it much easier for them to work with.