Reviews (1)

Great fun for young children!
We got this puzzle a short while ago when our 4-yr old began blowing away the 24-piece puzzles. While not as easy as the normal 24-piece puzzles, because these pieces are slightly smaller, he quickly figured it out. Our neighbor's children, 4 y/o twins, also love this puzzle and the other Ravensburger puzzles we have.

This is a superb puzzle for almost any child (I recommend over 3 y/o) to enhance problem solving skills, vocabulary building (teaching what the ocean animals are) and for fun. I am becoming a huge fan of Ravensburger puzzles and have bought several more receently. They are not easy, but not difficult and the overall value for these puzzles can not be estimated for your child's future learning. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A keeper!
I bought 2 of this for 2 3-yr-olds at my son's daycare. They happened to be Bob the Builder fans and really loved this toolset!

Build Fine-Motor Skills with a favorite toy!
Besides being one of my son's favorite toys, I feel great about him playing with it all the time because he is building on his fine motor skills. Also, it is adorable to watch him follow his father around the house when his father fixes things. Cleap up is made easy by the tool box that comes with it - and this toy is holding up unbelivablly well considering how quickly my son's toys normally break! ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Just one glitch...
I bought this puzzle because I thought it would be terrific, and for the most part it is. However, there's one thing that bothers me: many of the lower case letters are too similar! The a, p, d, q are virtually interchangable...very difficult for a small child to differentiate. If you can show the little one the very subtle difference between the letters it'd be fine..but for some children this would be very frustrating and NOT fun. Just a little caution. Otherwise, the puzzle is well-made and great!

Great learning tool for letter recognition
This is quite inexpensive for all you get. I love that this is a combination of upper and lower case letters.

This puzzle can be made the traditional way or it can be used as a moveable alphabet. A moveable alphabet is a name for little letters that kids can manipulate on their own. Moveable alphabets are used in Montessori schools and other schools. After buying an expensive moveable alphabet of only lowercase letters (that is all that is available from that other manufacturer) I realized I could have bought multiple sets of this puzzle and use them in the same way. A moveable alphabet is used in freeform activities with your child to teach letter recognition. It is a tactile exercise as the child is holding the letter and moving it, rather than it being a little mark of ink on a page. You or the child can also form words with the letters and sound them out and read them as a way to supplement teaching reading. (Multiple puzzles would be needed so that there are more than one letter each.) My children hold up the letters and ask me which it is and we play games like that, that either they or I invent.

This puzzle is very durable as are all the other wood puzzles from this company.

The only downside is that organization is key if you want to not lose any of the pieces. This is too large for the puzzle holder that this company sells. Also beware the L's and I's are quite small and definately are choking hazard sized..so if you have little ones, take care to keep this out of their reach.

I think this is an inexpensive learning tool that every child should own. Please buy this for your child or give it as a gift to other children.

The puzzle doesn't have fancy graphics or bells and whistles to entertain. Games could be made up by the parent working alongside the child to make this interesting.

Great opportunities
In this puzzle and in reality, there are strong similarities in
a, p, q, b, and d. This puzzle gives great opportunities for fine tuning similarities differences skills. Since you only have one of each letter, trace or print the following. p p q p then b d b b and so forth. Let children practice noticing the differences and similarities. Learning Abilities Books is a cool website with free information about similarities and differences training. That's where I got this idea. You might want to buy more than one of this cool puzzle.

Bam-Bam Loves Wooden Letters
My son os NOT gentle with toys and he's clumsy to boot but this toy has survived admirably.

Lights, Camera, Interaction makes wonderfully well-built toys with quality finish work and appealing colors. This alphabet set is no exception. It has the decided benefit of having upper- and lower-case letters. Little did I realize this benefit until my son was "interviewed" for pre-school. Because he could distinguish both sets he will now get to work with a classroom aid on pre-reading skills.

One caution: My son was never one to put toys in his mouth so I got him this toy WAY before he'll turn 3. While the letters aren't inordinately small, parents should call Lights, Camera, Interaction to get the dimensions of the smallest letters to ensure the toy is appropriate for their child. An ounce of prevention, you know.....

Great puzzle
It is so wonderful to have an alphabet puzzle that pairs lower and uppercase letters. Great for kids who need a little more challenge. They learn to associate letters with "baby" ones. Wonderful! So many toys underestimate preschoolers' abilities with overly simple formats. This one is just right for young puzzle lovers. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Probably Better for Slightly Older Kiddos
This puzzle is really beautiful and well constructed, but a couple of it's attributes make it a bit frustrating for the younger crowd (Amazon says 3+, the sticker on the back of the puzzle says 4+).

My little guy is 3 and his favorite activity is putting puzzles together. The little 25-30 piece puzzles have become too easy for him, so I got this one with 48 pieces. I've been teaching him to put puzzle pieces together gently (rather than mashing and beating them together as rough and tumble boys sometimes tend to do) so that he doesn't bend up the cardboard pieces. I explain to him that if he has the correct two pieces, they will go together easily. This puzzle, however, is constructed of wood and is thicker than typical puzzles, so the pieces don't just slide together. They do fit well together, but you have to line them up well and use a bit more pressure than usual, so he often thinks he has the wrong piece when he actually has the right one. This is frustrating for him.

My other issue with this puzzle is the lack of a picture to go by. I expect it is good memory practice for older kids to see the puzzle together, take it apart, and put it together from memory, but this isn't so easy for a three-year-old. My little guy can do it, but he gets frustrated when he can't remember what the puzzle looked like and so isn't quite certain what general area to put a loose piece near.

Other things to keep in mind when you are deciding whether to purchase this puzzle include it's size and storage needs. It is larger than other flat wood puzzles and doesn't fit into the puzzle storage or drawers we generally have available for our puzzles. It's dimensions are about 15.5 x 11.75. Also, it comes in it's wood tray, so it does not have a box and the puzzle has to be completely put together to be stored properly. The wood tray is nice, but is not absolutely necessary to put the puzzle together, so if the size of the tray is a problem for storage you could put the pieces in a baggie or box of your own and keep it separate from the tray.

This puzzle looks nice enough to glue together and hang on a wall when your child (or even multiple children) has outgrown it. It is very durable and is likely to last quite well up to that point even with repeated use (I wanna do this one again, Mommy! Pleeeeaaaaassssse!!) ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Great storage for your wooden puzzles
I love this puzzle storage case. It holds all of my kid's wooden puzzles and they actually like putting their puzzles away in this case. It's also colorful and looks great in the play room.

This is a great case!
It's kind of fun because my son actually thinks it's fun to put his puzzles away now. He's more inclined to play with them and they're educational! But most of all, it's very durable and a definite necessity for storing puzzles. It might be a good idea to go with the bigger one, though. 8/11 of our puzzles fit. The other 3 sit on the top.

A nice and sturdy "cubbie" for your child's wood puzzles!
I was very impressed when I first removed this storage case from the packaging. It is very well-made, colorful, and appears it will hold up to years of use and abuse from storing and retrieving wood puzzles. My 18 month old daughter received 5 wood puzzles for Christmas and I found storing these pegged toys to be cumbersome, so I bought the case. So far, she enjoys sliding the puzzles partially in and out, one by one from the case to select the one she wants to play with. Of course, at this age we help her remove and replace the puzzles, but it sure is nice to have a storage place for all the boards and pieces to be kept neatly together. Highly recommended!

Thank goodness! A way to store the puzzles!
This rack is very functional and necessary. There is nothing worse than trying to keep the pieces of peg wooden puzzles in their place and trying to balance them on a regular shelf. What an annoyance to try to organize the puzzles without this rack.

This rack has helped us stay organized. Simply insert the completed puzzle onto the rack and they sit there, intact, waiting to be played with again. It is very durable and easy to use, even for my one year old to handle.

It fits the standard size of wood peg puzzles made by this manufacturer and others. It has enough clearance space for the little pegs on the peg puzzles. It also fits the older Playschool wood puzzles that don't have pegs.

A must-have.

Personally I'd prefer a natural wood color but I took function over decor.

A perfect way to keep from losing puzzle pieces!
Awesome gadget! Before I had the puzzle storage case all our kids puzzles were kept in a toy box. It was a nightmare trying to keep all the pieces with the appropriate puzzle. Now it is as simple as sliding the one you want to play with out. My 2 year old can get it herself, though she can't get it back in. A great organizer. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Best I've seen
My almost 3 daughter loves these puzzles. They are just challenging enough to make her think, but not so hard that she gets discouraged. Once she's mastered them with the template you can take it out and go again.
I would love to have the entire line of puzzles. ... Read more

Editorial Review

This 84-piece jigsaw puzzle assembles into the 48 contiguous United States, plus Alaska and Hawaii. The pieces are large enough to be safe for curious little ones and make for a fun and truly hands-on lesson in geography. The mapping is detailed enough to highlight major cities and towns, as well as rivers and some topography. To test your smarts, try constructing it without the benefit of a map. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great Buy
I had tried to order this last Christmas but it sold so well that it was out of stock!Great price & a great buy,i signed up for the waiting list & finally got it a couple of days ago.Its really hard to find a good map of the US & at a good price.This covers every state,has the major cities marked & the capitols are marked.I had looked at other maps in the store but never bought one because it didnt have the things i was looking for.Plus they were very expensive.This will help our child with learning where all the states are & to know the capitols.We all have to learn them for school & this is a fun way to do it.Also a way for the rest of the family to brush up on this information!

Every kid should have one of these puzzles!
I don't know how they can sell this so inexpensively, as this puzzle is of very high quality and would be very beneficial to kids of all ages who need to learn more about US geography. I was surprised at how much my nephew enjoyed it, even though he is just six years old.

Don't throw this one away!
When we moved across the country, we decided to garage sale many of our daughter's toys, including this puzzle, which we assumed she had outgrown. As soon as we got to our new address, she demanded the puzzle and was alarmed to hear that we'd sold it. She has asked about it so often during the past year, that it is now clear to us: we need to purchase it again and will not discard it, even when the day comes for her to go to college! It truly helped her become the geography whiz she is now, at age 7! Parents out there: buy it and keep it! It's an amazing deal and a most educational toy. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

"Melissa & Doug" toys are wonderful
In earlier reviews, I see that one familiy had problems with this puzzle, but I think that must have been an anomaly. We have 10 or more "Melissa and Doug" puzzles, and I think that they are the best.

I have a daughter that has significant motor delays, and these puzzles are unique, attractive and challenging for her. They provide just the right level of difficulty that is not overwhelming and keeps her engaged. Our other daughter has spent a lot of time with them as well.

Clearly, all special ed classrooms should have this and other "Melissa & Doug" toys. I think that they are great for everyone else, too!!

SMALL PARTS CHOKING!
MY GIRLS GOT THIS PUZZLE FOR CHRISTMAS. THE FIRST TIME THEY WERE PLAYING WITH IT I NOTICED SOMETHING IN MY DAUGHTERS MOUTH. THE ITEMS THAT WERE ON THE PUZZLE PIECE HAD CAME OFF WHICH HAD A SCREWS AND WASHERS THAT WERE HOLDING THEM ON. THREE OF THE FIVE PUZZLE PICECS HAD THE ITEM COME OFF AND WE HAD ABOUT TEN SCREWS AND TEN WASHERS. THEY ARE SUCH SMALL PIECES WHICH I WAS SO SHOCKED THAT THIS PUZZLE WAS EVEN MADE THIS WAY. I JUST WANTED ANY PARENT WHO HAS THIS PUZZLE OR IS THINKING OF BUYING IT TO BE CAREFUL AND MAKE SURE THE ITEMS ARE ATTACHED TEH CORRECT WAY. I HAVE CONTACTED CONSUMERS AFFAIRS TO LOOK INTO HAVING THIS PUZZLE RECALLED. HOPE THIS WILL HELP ANOTHER CHILD FROM BEING HURT.

Great Great Great
My four year old son and two year old daughter both love the basic skills board. My son can do all of the activities, but especially likes the jacket. My daughter has more fun just taking the pieces out and putting them back in. Today she started playing with the laces on the shoes, so it was the perfect opportunity to teach her how to tie her own shoes. I highly recommend this toy for anyone with kids under five.

Wonderful skills-based toy
This is a beautifully made puzzle that is a good challenge for 2 year olds. Under each piece there is a picture of the inside of the object (what's in the backpack, what's under the shirt, etc.) which is extra fun. The buttons, laces, zipper are large enough for little hands. It will take some time for the little ones to get the hang of completing the tasks, but it's time well spent and they'll feel great once they can do it. Wonderful for those who are beginning to want to dress themselves ("I'll do it myself!" they say, right?) Now, they have a way to practice those skills so they can feel successful. Highly recommend this!

Great Value and Skill Builder...
This product is the best that I've seen for helping children to learn how to complete basic tasks. My sons and their friends can all play at once because the pieces are removable puzzle pieces! AND it is half the price as thoise dress-up dolls. This is the perfect skills builder for home and school! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Preschoolers are fascinated by all kinds of vehicles. Thiswooden peg puzzle shows nine different vehicles, including a police car,a fire truck, and an ambulance. Each removable puzzle piece has alaminated picture and an attached red peg to help little hands lift thepieces out of the frame. The same pictures that are on the pieces areillustrated on the board, making it easy for little ones to match pieceswhen reassembling the puzzle.The puzzle frame is made of natural woodwith rounded edges and measures 8.5 inches high by 12 inches wide. Thepuzzle pieces may also be used as templates for tracing the shapes ofthe vehicles. --Marcie Bovetz ... Read more

Reviews (8)

My 18-mth-old son loves it!
He plays with it all the time, has learned to say the names, and can put the pieces in place. He loves to bring the puzzle to me and have me say the names. Very sturdy. I love that the pictures underneath match the pieces. Great puzzle!

Teethers beware splinters.
My kid mostly played with the cars as though they were cars. He did some shape matching for a few minutes, but would get bored with that pretty quickly. My biggest problem was pulling the splinter out of his lip after he gnawed on one of the puzzle pieces.

I'm having the same splinter problem with the wooden ABC blocks. Funny -- I don't remember that being a problem when I was a kid.

love wooden puzzles
my son got this as a gift, he loves vehicles and learnt all the different vehicle names on this puzzle. the pictures are detailed and colorful. the only thing is he mastered it so quickly, there are only a certain amount of times you can do this puzzle before it becomes basic. (this may be true of any puzzle) i try to keep it out of sight and bring it out every now and then to keep the interest.

Excellent puzzle for the transportation enthusiast
This puzzle is great. My boys love putting the pieces in and out. It encourages them to not only problem solve but helps with their hand eye coordination. Definitely a must have for kids ages 2 and up.

Puzzles are great! And this company makes good ones!
Lights, Camera, Interaction creates some of the best puzzles I have found! Puzzles are really good- they are great for eye and hand coordination, which is an important prereading skill. They are good for fostering independence. Puzzles encourage many other skills (matching, sorting, vocabulary, etc)

This is a fun puzzle. One of the things I like about it is that in addition to having the usual forms of transportation (car, boat) it also has some non traditional forms of transportation (helicopter, taxi). The colors are bright and the pieces fit well into their places. The little pegs are great for toddler fingers and really help the child have success.

I look for toys that are fairly quiet, encourage independence or creativity and are fun. I look for toys that are easy to play with and sturdy. I like toys that are versatile or will grow with the child. I think these puzzles match the items on this list very well.

Enjoy! ... Read more

Reviews (6)

looked fun, ended up being a disaster!!!
I ordered it because it looked really fun, and looked like a great display item! It was a disaster!! for one thing it took me 22 hours NON STOP to finish it, and after it was all finished(i followed the the directions to the letter) it looked like a 300 year old barn!!!!!! Everything was sagging, the pieces wouldn't fit,(all of the pieces mostly looked alike, so if you screwed up once the whole puzzle is ruined)!! It was stressing, and NOT fun!! DON'T BUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

missing pieces
I got this for christmas, because im an avid lotr fan. I love rohan and gondor, so i thought the puzzle would be cool. Its now march and im not done with it because i have at least twelve missing pieces. If it had all the pieces when i got it maybe i could finish it............but this is just to warn you, high risk of missing pieces.

Great puzzle
This was my first 3D puzzle and it was great. As a fan of LoTR I was especially motivated. It was equally challanging and motivating. It was a great experience. It took me some evenings to put it together.

And now I put all my LoRT figurines next to it.

Great puzzle and inspiration.

A great toy for clever fingers!
I got my brother this for his birthday sometime back, just as it was hot off the press. He's more inclined towards things of that sort...he's done tons of Puzz3D's. Anyway, it's a great toy for your enjoyment, and it will provide hours of fun to put together, and makes a great display piece afterward. Or, of course, you can disassemble it and save it for a rainy day!

I wish I never finish it
3d puzzles by Wrebbit are always a lot of fun, I wish they make more, and make them more affordable. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Cute Puzzle!
Very cute puzzle! Very happy with product. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Family game player
We played Phoney Baloney five or six times last week. Once for a party and the other times as a family. Once we didn't even finish the game because we started talking about one of the subjects in the game. We also use the cards as topics for our home schooling. We received our game as a gift, then later gave two as gifts to our friends. The only thing that could be improved is the card holder. It's no big deal and doesn't change the game, but it should be made of plastic instead of card board. The rest is great.

A rivalry of knowledge!
Outwit and outsmart your opponents, but not with the right answer. This time, you have to choose the wrong answers. The more answers that you get that are wrong, the more points you get. Confusing, right? Not at all. You get on a roll going as fast as you can to beat your opponents for an intriguing and fun game. Plus, this helps you understand the rule of elimination. So even if you don't know the right answer, you can choose the ones that you know are obviopusly wrong. Or you can just geuss.

Just like you did on your tests at school, right?

Better than Trivia Pursuit
Phoney Baloney gives interesting facts before asking the question. These facts, as well as that all players participate on every turn, has led to fun family times and good discussions. It's also the only game I know where there can be more than one winner. Phoney Baloney is a winner.

Family Fun!
This game is pure fun! We have a busy family life with not much free time. I do like trivia and learning new things so I bought it. Our 16 year old played with my husband and I. It was the first time in a while we all had a good time together. The game is challanging and moves quickly. Everyone is playing at every turn so there is no boredom. The subjects are so interesting that you end up discussing them during each move. This is a great game and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves!

Finally, a thinking persons game!
I've played most every party game and trivia game and found Phoney Baloney to be more inviting and far more interesting. The subjects were very clever, and having everyone play at the same time kept the whole group entertained. This game seems to get people talking, and I like that. The game pieces with the moving eyes were fun. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Preschoolers have an endless fascination with constructionvehicles of all kinds. This wooden peg puzzle has nine laminated woodenpieces with pictures of seven different vehicles, a house underconstruction, and a collection of tools. The puzzle pieces have tiny redpegs for easy grasping. The same pictures that are on the pieces arealso laminated on the board, making it easy for little ones to placepieces when reassembling the puzzle. The wooden puzzle frame has roundedcorners and measures 8.5 by 12 inches. --Marcie Bovetz ... Read more

Reviews (4)

My son LOVES these puzzles!
These durable, well-constructed wooden puzzles are a big hit with the 18 months + crowd. I believe my son's love of trucks started with this educational puzzle. The pieces are easy for little hands to grasp with the attached pegs, the puzzle is easy yet developmentally sound for toddlers and definitely worth the money. Do yourself a favor though--get a puzzle holder if you plan on purchasing a few of these types of puzzles...

This is a very nice learning toy
We purchased this for our sons, after finally finding it @ Toys'R'Us.

The toy is beautifully hand-made -- as well as perfectly put together, however, it does chip very easily...

Being that usually a child, as young as 1 1/2 will begin using puzzles, if interested; I think they should coat the puzzle a little better to avoid the various bumps and scraps it might encounter..

Other then the slight chipping after less than a month, it is a very nice puzzle, which is actually easier for our kids to play with then the regular flat puzzles...I think it was a very good idea for motor skill improvement...

nice, smooth, durable puzzle
This is a nice puzzle, but I perfer the Jumbo Knob Puzzle Farm. The Jumbo Knob Puzzle has a knob instead of a peg and it is easier for little children to grasp.

This puzzle will do just fine though, .... The edges are smooth and the base of the puzzle is thick enough that it is not going to break.

Great Educational Toy
My son (2 yr 2 mo) loves his peg puzzles. He has several L-C-A peg puzzles, and this is a favorite. He loves construction equipment. He recognized most by name, and we're using it to work on colors too. I would recommend any of the LCA peg puzzles. ... Read more