Holding All Your Other Duplo Blocks Together
Written: Apr 13 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Makes building with Duplo blocks easier
Cons: Expensive
The Bottom Line: A must have addition to your Duplo blocks.
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| mmcphee's Full Review: DUPLO - Green Baseplate |
If your preschooler likes Duplo building blocks than the Duplo Green Baseplate is a must have!
Not familiar with Duplo blocks? Think oversized Lego building blocks. Duplo blocks are designed to be a child’s first Lego. Until they have learned not to put tiny toy pieces in their mouths, Duplo blocks are a safe alternative to Lego blocks. They are brightly colored plastic building bricks that lock together top to bottom, and herein lies the problem with Duplo blocks, they aren’t very stable for making tall structures. And of course that is the direction most toddlers are interested in building – straight up!
What You Get
There isn’t much to the Duplo Green Baseplate. It is a 15” green square that is less than ˝” thick. The top looks like the top to a Duplo block being covered in little Duplo building circles. It is made out of the same nearly indestructible plastic as Duplo blocks. It doesn’t come with any building blocks. It doesn’t come with an idea book. So why do you need it?
The Play Factor
You and your child need the Duplo Green Baseplate because it is the only way to build something in multiple dimensions. Without this plate you can only build up. That gets boring very quickly. Duplo blocks come in two basic shapes: square and rectangles that are the size of two squares. (Yes, there are other special shapes, but I will save those for a review on Duplo blocks themselves.) The under 5 set (for whom Duplo blocks are manufactured) simply do not understand the concept of staggering bricks (think brick wall) to build sideways. So young kids only build up the width of one rectangle. My daughter received a bucket of Duplo blocks for her second birthday and she quickly became frustrated with them since her creations toppled over much too easily.
For Christmas we bought the Duplo Green Baseplate. Purchasing this plate opens up a whole new world for Duplo blocks. Suddenly you can build (relatively) long walls to make buildings and castles. No longer is your child limited to a single tower. Suddenly they can build a home for their dolls or a garage to store their cars. The blocks snap easily onto the base plate just like the bricks snap onto each other. It is sturdy and durable. Having this base plate has given a whole new life to our Duplo blocks.
The Mommy Factor
Now, all this multidimensional building doesn’t come without help. When my daughter first used the Duplo Green Baseplate it was simply as a large base to offer stability for her single width brick towers. But she was so happy! She was able to build a tower that didn’t fall that was as high as she could reach, and she isn’t a short child by any means. This was a huge leap from her former structures that fell at “only” two feet high or so. And for a long while she was happy with that and resisted anyone showing her any other way to build with her Duplo blocks. Then one day, when she wasn’t paying too much attention to me, I built a small house on the base plate. She immediately recognized it as the third Little Pig’s house of bricks (OK, who am I to disagree). Since then she has been hooked on creating buildings of all shapes and sizes. She still needs help to build her igloos and barns and such, but at the ripe old of 2 ˝ she is starting to get the hang of things. If I build the foundation row she does a pretty good job of building the rest of the walls herself.
Final Thoughts
My husband nearly had a heart attack when I told him that I spent $13 on what is essentially a single, large Duplo block. However, he is now a convert seeing how much more use the $7 bucket of Duplo blocks gets.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 12.99
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
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Epinions.com ID:
mmcphee
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Member: Mary Ellen
Location: Nutmeg State
Reviews written: 1120
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Invaded by swine flu! It isn't pretty...
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