Toys R Us: TRIO building blocks by Fisher-Price

In one of our Toys R Us boxes we were sent Trio building blocks by Fisher-Price.  I have never seen this before but was pretty excited about introducing it to Betty, who loves all things Lego, Mechano, Megabloks etc.

I cunningly chose to unleash this toy onto my girls during a visit to my grandmother's house this afternoon - her house is full of breakable expensive china stuff, which obviously the kids want to bash against walls etc, and so I thought this would be a perfect distraction to at least give me a chance to sit down and drink my tea.

Anyway, my plan worked, and thanks to this new toy, I was not only able to sit down and drink my tea, but I actually managed to have a conversation with my grandmother, and not break out in a sweat every 4 seconds.

The set comes with a manual showing you pictures of things that you can make: robots, helicopters, cars, and various other things, some of which I couldn't identify.  With the pieces included and a bit of imagination you could probably pretty much make anything (although probably not a pretty fairy, unfortunately for Betty).

So Betty asked if I would help her make a helicopter.  She found all the pieces we needed and I set to work.  It took me three attempts of putting together and then pulling apart various pieces before we finally cracked it.  I certainly welcomed the challenge, and I know Tom will too when I show him the new toy later.  I am not sure how easy a three year old would find trying to make what is in the manual, but is certainly keeps adults on their toes.  I guess for a child, the manual can help inspire a creation, which is exactly what a picture of an impressive building did for Betty.  After the whole helicopter thing, she then set to work, and spent two hours (TWO HOURS!) making her own constructions, one of which is pictured below.

There are some interesting pieces in this set which sets it apart from  other construction toys, and so it was a welcome change from our usual lego and mechano.  I asked Betty what she thought of this toy and she said: 'It is very lovely, and very good fun'.  And the fact that she played with it for two hours non-stop is in itself a good endorsement.  The only thing I would say against it is that sometimes the pieces are really quite hard to pull apart, but other than that it was a success.

Meanwhile Dolly loved playing with the car (that comes in the set, and that comes apart so that you can design your own car) and the little man that sits in the car.  She also liked getting in and out of the box.