The Beginning of the Brick Invasion

Author's Rating:

Pros: good basic set, cute extra pieces, new interesting colors, storage box

Cons: will need to add on

The Bottom Line: 
You too can build a hippopato-lion - Duplo style.

Author's Review
Gifts from my in-laws can sometimes be iffy as they don't usually listen even when they ask for suggestions. Well this Christmas, they seem to have done pretty well. Knowing every time Little Man came to visit he automatically pulled out the 2 mega containers of Duplo blocks and started building, they gave him the Lego Duplo Brick Blocks set for Christmas.

Larger Bricks, for Smaller Hands
Lego's Duplo blocks are a lager preschool version of the beloved Lego building bricks, most appropriate for 2-5 year olds. Coming with its own storage box (with a tightly snapping lid), the Brick Blocks set is a basic starter set containing 33 pieces, good for little ones who are just starting out with bricks. this set includes six different colors of basic bricks (red, yellow, orange, blue, light blue, green light green), several unique shaped bricks and special pieces including a window set-up, a cat, two eye bricks and two flowers.

Building and Building and Building
My Son LOVES these blocks. I think he has pretty much forgotten that we also have a MegaBlocks set since Duplos have come into the house. At first Duplos took a little getting used to for him since he was used to the MegaBlocks, which pretty much just slide together. Duplos take a little more ompph to put together. For a two year old anything over 10 minutes is like an eternity, but he will sit for extended periods just putting the blocks together in various configurations. Most of it to me seems pretty random but I am starting to see the little wheels turning in his mind on how to put pieces together. The box does show how to make a small house and a duck figure. Little Man, just today, began figuring out how to make abstract animal designs with the bricks. I swear one of the creations was a hippopota-lion.

I like that my son is getting into Legos. I had quite the extensive collection as a kid (Hmmm I wonder where those went) and wow have Legos changed since then. As soon as I opened the box I was really taken by the new colors included in the box. I also know how much of an educational impact building with Legos can have. My little guy is building fine motor skills by manipulating the bricks, and many cognitive skills trying to figure out how to fit the pieces together. How much better can you get for early math and science development - something most kids are lacking now.

Go Get a Box!
I would assume this set was purchased at Meijer and would also be available in other toy sections of mass retailers. This was a gift but from what I can see it retails for around $15. This is pretty much a starter set and eventually we will need more sets since there isn't anything really significant that can be built with these 33 pieces. At least to start off with we have a storage box for when we get sets that only come in cardboard boxes. Duplo blocks are a safe size for toddlers and extremely sturdy plastic building bricks. They have already been a huge hit and I'm sure we will tons more use out of them in the next few years.