Order LEGO Duplo Learning (5497)

My 2 year old daughter received this Duplo set for her birthday. Overall it's a nice set with a lot of pieces, but it all depends on what you're wanting to do with Legos. Do you want to build? Or play matching games? Do you already own a whole slew of Legos and now you're looking for some novelty pieces? If so, then this set would definitely fit the bill.

This set is great for novelty pieces, like the double-decker four peg pieces which each have a number or corresponding number of items. They would be great fun for playing little number games with (my daughter is still a little on the young side of this, but this may be neat later). This set also contains one cute little person who can be made to attach standing, or laying, or sitting on any Lego piece, and his pal, a dalmation dog. My daughter loves the dog. There is a single window, and a little standard Lego car. The white fence is a great novelty piece too.

The problem with this set (or advantage depending on your perspective) is that there are too many novelty pieces, and too few basic building pieces. This set is sorely lacking in the rectangular pieces which are so necessary to building just about any structure. The novelty pieces are pretty cool, and I imagine as we amass more basic Lego bricks, we'll have a whole new appreciation for the novelty pieces, but the bottom line is that if you are wanting a building set, I would start with something more basic than this.

I think one area in which Lego has gone astray is in adding too much to a lot of their sets in an effort to make them more educational, or less centered on the classic (boring?) building aspect of Legos, which was/is in fact the most educational part anyway. And besides building is fun. That said, I think this set does sit comfortably astride the line between overkill in that department and being just simple enough to have multiple practical uses.

For anyone new to Legos, or who is balking at the $25 price tag, I think it is worth mentioning that the ABS plastic used by Lego is quite safe and durable, and that many basic Lego bricks are still manufactured in European countries, which is pretty outstanding when you consider how big the company is. That, of course, is another reason to stick to basic block sets. All sets that have the more fancy pieces are going to contain parts manufactured in China, and this set is no exception. I think the countries listed on the back of the box were China, Mexico, Hungary and Germany, if memory serves. However, of China-made toys, Lego has one of the cleanest records of all those tested with XRF technology by the Ecology Center - which is better than could be said of a lot of toy companies. Bottom line: I think you can have a bit more faith in the integrity of Legos than of a lot of toys on the market. But that's just my opinion.

Anyway, I wouldn't necessarily pass up this set. The possibility for games with numbers is cool, the novel pieces are nice, and there are a few basics like the car, but I would recommend at least one basic Duplo block set and a large baseplate being in your collection before adding this one.Get more detail about LEGO Duplo Learning (5497).