Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby's First Blocks
From Fisher Price
Customer Reviews
A good choice
This was given to my 15 month old for Christmas, and he likes it a lot. He can get some of the shapes in and is still working on figuring out the others. He is fascinated by putting other toys in the bucket, and taking them out, and putting them in, and so on. It seems very durable, and I appreciate the fact that it doesn't make annoying and useless noise like so many children's toys do. The reason I didn't give it quite five stars is because he enjoys it a lot but doesn't LOVE it.
Great fun!
Like most other young infants, our daughter prefers to pull the top off, dump the blocks out, and chew on everything. She's 8 mos now, so I figure in a few more months or so she might just start trying to figure it out. She loves it though...so we do too! I actually like the fact that the lid comes off so easily. If it didn't, she might not play with it at all yet. Afterall, what baby wants to play with something frustrating? :)
Not horrible, but there are better out there
There isn't much to say about a shape sorter - they are (in general) great for young toddlers. It's one of the better early brain development toys, and any "game" where the goal is to put all the pieces away is something worth embracing.
That being said, most shape sorters aren't going to appear much different, so there is generally going to be one or two things that differ from one to the other. The Fisher Price model here has a rectangular base which stays firm, and comes with a carrying handle (which is nice, I guess.) The shape blocks have a small hole in the middle to make it a little less of a choking hazard.
However the major flaw with the product is the top of the sorter. It is easily removable, even by accident. Just pulling up on the top through the holes can pull off the top, eliminating any of the "challenge" of putting the blocks through the holes. I guess you could say the real brain development of this toy is whether they can figure out how easy it is to just remove the top.
I would think most toddlers don't want to take the cheap way out, so if you can find this cheap enough here (or need the immediate gratification of finding it in a brick & mortar store) then it's not a horrible pick, but if you're looking for a shower gift, I'd highly recommend the Tolo Rolling Shape Sorter instead. For a few dollars more, you get a much better product with locking tops (both sides) and rattling blocks.
Features
- Baby can sort and stack and learn to identify and match shapes
- Filling the bucket with blocks, dumping them out, and starting over is great for eye-hand coordination and other early skills
- Ten bright blocks are ready for baby to drop into the open bucket or through the shape-sorting lid
- Learning Blocks
- Interactive learning aid
