Clipo - 20pc Box product reviews

My daughter was gifted some of this Clipo product for her second birthday. She had been spending a lot of time getting creative with building blocks. She had even been building things using books, etc. So a friend thought that she might enjoy Clipo.

And my friend was right. Clipo is very bright and colourful. It was an instant hit with my daughter. She played with this for hours right from the moment she got it. She made cars, trucks, animals and people. She tried out different colours together, different patterns.

Unfortunately, the product was a bit frustrating as well. Often the pieces didn't slot together as well as one would hope. The pieces were stiff and hard to manipulate. They definitely got easier to use the more they had been used. Once they were together, it was often very hard for my daughter to pull them apart. This meant that her usual self-play was always interrupted. And she often got a bit frustrated with the stop/start of the creativity.

Once the Clipo aged, it was easier to use and she was also stronger. That meant it got used a lot more. Until the mega-blocks turned up of course!

The clipo set was a real hit in our house. Our 20 month old son was quite fascinated with it. Like most boys he loved the fact that there were wheels included in the set. Lots of time was spent pushing it around and dismantling it. He did find it difficult to assemble but managed to get the hang of pushing the pieces together eventually. Even though it says 18m+ our older boys definately enjoyed it more than the youngest. They came up with all sorts of creations. I would say it is a good starter to get them on the road to using Lego when they are older.

A pretty good toy for the wee ones. We have a little baby in the clan who has laid absolute claim to one particular block and he will crawl around the house with it in his hand or mouth. Beware all who would try and remove it from him, for the wrath of a toddler is mighty indeed. Unleashing the dreaded Howl of Dispair upon all who would dare to steal his treasured Green Square. Though he settles for a little bit if you replace it with a clean Orange Square while you wash the huge globs of drool and food leftovers out of his favoured one. It's not exactly Lego so has limited 'multifunctional play' options but it is safe for gums, teeth and all other body orifices not otherwise covered. The locking knobs are thick and sturdy but with some 'give' to them so they wont hurt tender gobs when being sucked or chewed on, nor will they snap off the way they used to way back when I was a toddler myself. This is an excellent remake of a classic favourite from my era, though I really would like to see more variety in the designs and shapes. Promoting creative thinking is one thing, but there are only so many ways you can clip these together before they start to run out of 'reasonable representations' and start moving into 'imagination overdrive' where a single round pink block is the entire flying saucer.