Gearhead Mom

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Ello? Ello? Anyone There?

Posted by Missy W. @ 8:25 AM

Over the weekend, my sister phoned this review into me as she and her husband were on the way to Target. We all lead such exciting lives, don’t we?

My niece, T, is almost six years old and got this Ello Creation System kit as a gift when she was a wee three. She opened it and Gwen thought to herself, don’t these people like us? Why would they give us a toy with one hundred and seventy four pieces?? They put the toy away until T was about five and now it’s enjoyed much more by all parties of the household.

The Ello systems allow you to build people, animals, houses (dependent on the kit you get). There are little grooves in the pieces which allow them to attach in either straight lines or angles, enabling your child’s imagination to soar along with their creations. The pieces are brightly colored, fairly easy to handle and come in a reusable box and tray (good thing with so many pieces). There are also reusable stickers and you can even make jewelry if you so desire.

Mattel seems to skew this toy towards girls which I think is silly. Why wouldn’t a boy want to build a jungle-scape, too? It completely irks me when manufacturers designate a gender to a toy right out of the box. Ridiculous. Hang on, let me remove myself from my soap box before I really get going. Ok. As I was saying…

Gwen pointed out that this is a toy for a certain kind of kid and a certain kind of parent, i.e., the blasted thing has one hundred and seventy four parts to it! If you need a tidy house and nothing underfoot, not for you. It also means that your child has to be able to sit, concoct a scenario and build it, preferably without demanding the larger person in the room to do it for them. If your child is synonymous with a tornado, put it back on the shelf. If your child is like mine who will sit and play with the same set of lacing beads for a half an hour, snap it up! I can’t wait until this one comes along in a hand-me-down box from my sister! Read that, sis?

Snapshot
• Boy, are there a lot of pieces. This is a great toy if you have really, really tidy kids. Probably not best if you have someone under three in the house who likes to eat toys.
• The game is fun for an older sibling as well. A ten year old can easily jump in and play with a five year old on the same project.
• It’s a tad hard to find. We think it’s mainly marketed in the UK. Lucky ducks!

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