This review is from: Melissa & Doug Latches Wooden Activity Board (Toy)
Love love love this toy!!! It’s says ages 3+ but I decided to get it for my 12 month old before I invested the time/money into making a busy board he could care less about. It is very well made, the latches are all on very securely and there are no small parts that would come off or could be swallowed. My son has managed to figure out how to open and close all the latches with the exception of the blue house (lock #2) but I think that’s mostly because the lock itself is a little stiff and hard to turn on our board, it’ll loosen up more with lots of play. I’m becoming very partial to the Melissa & Doug brand. Every toy I’ve bought from this company has been beyond impressive and continues on with this toy, it’s worth every penny.
Starting with the top surface and latches, we (the grown-ups) are pleased with the quality. This is not an expensive toy, and we don’t expect it to be top of the line and last for generations. The latches and hinges are all reasonably secured to the board, and work very well; we haven’t encountered any issues with them being too tight or misalligned. However, we are amazed by the ridiculously flimsy paper image that is revealed when each little door is opened. Seriously, it is just cheap paper glued onto wood with an almost imperceptable vinyl coating that is so thin, a fingernail can scrape it and wreck the paper image. So, no matter how sturdy the exterior is, this will deteriorate very quickly. That said, our little grandson loves the latches and the doors, so have decided to keep it. We have pretty much all the M&D “wooden” puzzles, and have always coated them with polyurethane to keep them from peeling and warping. The edges are raw unfinished exposed layers of a composite softwood product, and the surfaces of the puzzles detach easly at the edges. A spray or brush coat of poly eliminates that problem and vastly extends the life of the puzzles with almost no expense. It also makes them impervious to liquids. The reason I mention that here is that I have tried this on the crappy paper image on this board and, so far, so good. So, in short, M&D has good ideas and graphics, but there are quality issues with the soft composite “wood” that needs to be sealed. And most apropo to this item, M&D, if you’re going to use paper for your graphics, make sure it has a sturdy vinyl or poly coating.
This review is from: Melissa & Doug Latches Wooden Activity Board (Toy)
I was pretty happy with this toy until my 8 month old pinched four of his fingers today. I thought for sure he would lose his thumb nail because it looked pretty bad, but after much icing and some pressure it looks just bruised. Hopefully the nailbed isn’t affected. His index finger is cut and the rest have peeled pinched skin. This happened on latch number 6 while my 14 year old watched and played with him. I would suggest using this toy ONLY with adult supervision.
Future lock pick coming through….,
Surprisingly poor quality,
Pinched and cut digits,