165 Shape, Model and Mold

Hoped for a better kit especially from M&D while its sturdily built - wooden, the impressions need quit a firm press to get them in the play dough. Otherwise hours of daily fun

This Melissa & Doug Shape Model and Mold set is Awesome! It comes with the different rolling pins, the pie crust thingie and the five block shape imprinters, as well as the four tubs of playdough. Admittedly the playdough is a bit dried out by the time it gets to the consumer so it is not as maleable as it should be so you may not get as much play out of it as you would hope for. However each of the small tubs the dough comes in has an animal shape imprint in the lid. Making the dough container a toy in and of itself. So even after the dough dries out you will want to keep the tubs around to press into new dough and see the animal shape left behind. Also, I would like to point out that the square blocks are the perfect size and shape for small toddler hands to use. Any child can use them to play with playdough, they are easy for them to grasp and then push into the dough. If it is too hard for them to push into traditional playdough, try making homemade playdough. The recipes I have tried seem to be softer than the store bought stuff. The only word of caution I have is that as an adult trying to roll out the playdough for my son, my larger hands rub against the main part of the rolling pin and I almost got a splinter. I don't think this is a problem for smaller toddler hands, but I will be taking a cautionary piece of sandpaper to the rolling pin just in case. As the set is wood, I forsee it lasting me quite some time. My son loves playing with playdough and this set has allready been well worth it's price.

Nice set but should have a lid for storage

We order Melissa & Doug toys in expectation they are non toxic, made of wood, educational & fun! (toys should list all chemical ingredients on the label & should exceed government recommendation limits )

I bought this kit to work on wrist stability and functional play with our son, who has a laundry list of diagnoses at this point that as come with global developmental delays. Right now, we're using this as part of a non-verbal imitation (NVI) target, but the wrist stability is the big thing I'm hoping to get out of it, as it's an important area for developing a tripod grasp with writing utensils. I purchased this as opposed to other roller sets for 3 reasons: 1) two of the rolling pin style rollers have designs they will imprint into the clay and I suspected/hoped this would be more motivating for our little man, 2) one of the rollers is a one-hander, and I thought that he might be able to manage that easier first and therefore be more willing to try it as an NVI thing, ad 3) the wooden blocks with imprint shapes I felt would be easier for him to grasp then typical cookie cutters and would give him something he could do to modify the clay quicker from the skills standpoint, which again, I thought would be more motivating. I love that I proved to be right on all 3 of those, because yesterday was one of those days with our little guy that was serving me my butt in a wheelbarrow, and this morning when we tried to walk in a different direction other then his sister's school wasn't any better, and I totally needed to see something succeed like crazy. So, as you can see from the manufacturer's picture, these canisters of play clay are tiny. Just barely enough to be functional with this kit. It did initially seem goopier to me then play do, but it honestly didn't stick to the table any more then play do did, and I didn't have any problems whatsoever cleaning things out when we were done. Very miniscule amounts of the clay product actually stuck to the wood block we were using, none of it stuck to the rollers, which seemed to have a higher gloss varnish/sealer on them, so they're a bit less sticky. And I'm going to respectfully disagree with another reviewer that plastic play do toys are better, because we've got a full set of those and have since our daughter was a toddler...and let me tell you, it doesn't matter what they're made of, if play do dries in them, they can be murder to clean out regardless, but sometimes plastic is easier to break then wood if you're trying to chip out dried play clay. I did notice that a small bit of paint came off from the red block we were using into the clay, but I looked at it closely, and it appeared to be some loose painted wood dust that was left over from manufacturing, because I didn't see any chipped paint on our block. But I imagine paint could chip over time with use and it would go into the clay. But then, anything including pet hair will do that, so I'm not really going to be fussy about that. For our son, he's 5, and his hands are a bit on the big side for his age. He can grasp the one handed roller fine, it's more fine motor for him to do the other rollers because he can't wrap his hands all the way around the grippers and has to use his finger tips. Which I think can be useful as well. So, if you are getting this for an older or a bigger pre schooler or kindergartener, that is something to consider...they may be more comfortable with something with a larger hand grip space. But since he has fine motor needs also, I'm pretty groovy with that. And I think that the shapes in the lid are super cool too and I'm going to progress up to those once he's feeling comfortable with the blocks. So overall, I think this is a very cool product.

nice pattern making toy with clay. good quality