We bought this puzzle for my son before his first birthday, long before he was really doing puzzles, but was really in love with Elmo. My mother had warned me that he was too young and would find it nothing but frustration, but I bought it anyway, and am very glad I did.

The Puzzle
Made by Mattel, this toy consists of 7 chunky, 3-dimensional, high quality hard plastic pieces, and a blue tray.

Pieces:
~ Beach ball
~ Airplane
~ Trumpet
~ Elmo's hand holding a train
~ Elmo's other hand holding two crayons
~ Elmo's face
~ Elmo's body with a toy drum in front of it

Each piece is red, yellow, or white plastic with painted details. I can attest to the relative quality of the pieces because we now have some similar puzzles made by Fisher Price, and the plastic pieces in those puzzles are noticably thinner and not as durable. The Fisher Price pieces are also flatter, and not as easily gripped and maneuvered by small hands.

The blue tray is solid blue under each piece, but has a very detailed raised plastic outline of the entire puzzle on it. For example, if you lift up Elmo's face you'll see a detailed outline of Elmo's nose, mouth, eyes, etc.

Difficulty Level
This puzzle would be an ideal first puzzle, particularly for a child who adores Elmo, trains, or airplanes. The airplane, ball, and trumpet of this piece are all stand-alone pieces, with the other four pieces being parts of Elmo and fitting together. Unlike the more difficult Fisher Price puzzles we have, each piece of this puzzle fits obviously and solidly into it's spot, and does not slide around once it is in.

Our Experience
When my son wasn't anywhere near ready to do puzzles, he would still carry Elmo's face around with him, or take the airplane out and pretend it was flying around in the "sky" above his head. Later, when he was ready for basic shape-fitting activities, he loved removing just the ball and then putting it back. Because we started so early, it was actually several months before my son had mastered this puzzle, but he never found it frustrating. At 28 months, my son has now moved on to much more difficult puzzles, but he still loves his Elmo puzzle enough that he comes back to it almost every day.

Durability
After a year-and-a-half of hard use, this puzzle shows almost no wear at all. A few of the pieces have very tiny chips in their paint, but they are almost not noticable. We have stepped on the pieces repeatedly, which really hurts when they are upside down. This puzzle seems made to last forever.

I have no regrets about purchasing this puzzle, and I'm glad I got it when my son was very young. It has more than redeemed it's $6.99 purchase price.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): $6.95
Type of Toy: Puzzle
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months