Toyologist Review: Box 1 contents, 2 months on

It's been almost 2 months now since the first box of toys arrived from Toys R Us, so I thought I'd look back on what we received and see if any opinions have changed.



Melissa & Doug Trilogy: Colouring Pad, Crayon Set, Sticker Collection

We have an issue with the crayons, but it really has nothing to do with the crayons themselves and more to do with the fact that someone snapped them all in two. They're now annoyingly small and not the easiest of things to hold. I have to say the colouring pad has only been used once since we received it. This is nothing against the pad, but more to do with the children going through a painting period.

I, however, have many nicely coloured Spider-Man pictures in my book.

The stickers have been used to make a couple of Birthday cards, but that's about it. As I said in the review, there's only so much you can do with stickers.


WaterWheel Play table

This has been used a lot. We bought some watery animals (crocodile, whale, fish, etc) and the kids love using those and the boats. It's also very useful as a reservoir for filling water pistols.

The overwhelming complaint is the lack of a cover. I have to give the table a quick scrub with an old washing-up brush every time the kids want to play with it due to Nature having a go at it in between. The only other option would be to bring it inside every night but, while it is possible to collapse it, this isn't the isn't of things to do.


Littlest Pet Shop Jet


Don't actually know anything more about this one since we gave it away. Sorry!




Picnic table/Sandpit

Ah, the infamous Picnic Table of Doom. Well, we do use it. But it's still terrible. It's fine for playing toys on and fine for using for hide and seek, but that's about it. The wibbly-wobbly nature of the lid doesn't even make it look nice sat in the garden.


It doesn't appear as though the faults with mine were one-offs either. The table was tested by another Toyologist who came across a lot of the same problems (although her overall opinion was far better than mine), and I discovered there's one at my son's school which has the same dodgy-leg problem (I couldn't see the state of the table top as there was a huge tank of water on top of it).


I much prefer the £12 one we have. It took 10 minutes to assemble and all the holes were in the right place. We've been using it for about 18 months now without any problems - the kids use it for all their meals, plus painting, jigsaws etc. The wood isn't as fat and chunky as the TP table, but it was all completely flat.

Other Toyology reviews can by found in the Toys R Us Toy Box on Facebook.