Here is the second Blue's Clues playset that my 2 year old daughter received for Christmas. The Blue's Clues Safari Collectible Playset is both Courtney's and my favorite.

About the Blue's Clues Safari Collectible Playset

Blue is going on a safari and is taking her friend Periwinkle along. Included in the Blue's Clues Safari Collectible Playset is:

A Car Well, you can't go on a safari without some wheels and Blue has brought along a cute little green car that has a yellow seat, wheel, and tires. Plus, a safari wouldn't be fun all by herself either so sitting in the back of Blue's car is her next door neighbor Periwinkle. Blue's car is about 3 inches long and is made from hard plastic.

Blue Blue is included in all 3 playsets and in this one, she is wearing a yellow hat and in her right paw is holding yellow binoculars. There is a little hole in the bottom of Blue's feet and that hole fits over a peg in the car's seat. This way Blue can be secured in her car and drive around without her falling out. Blue stands about 2 1/2 inches high and is made from rubbery plastic.

A Tent Just in case Blue decides to camp out over night, she has brought her tent. Her tent is about 3 inches wide and Blue will fit into it while lying down. Her tent is yellow, is made from hard plastic and even has a cute little blue worm going up the side of it.

A Lion No safari would be complete without a wild animal and in the Blue's Clues Safari Collectible Playset a cute orange lion is included. While lions are normally wild animals, this one is quite friendly looking and the back half of him can even fit into Blue's tent. Our lion friend is about 3 inches long and is made from soft plastic.

Why I Recommend Blue's Clues Safari Collectible Playset

Pretend play is so important for kids and anything that will stimulate a child's imagination is a great toy. Add to that one of their favorite characters and you've got a recipe for success. These playsets don't have a million pieces to them and you would think that only 4 pieces would limit a child's enthusiasm but not so in Courtney's case. Her favorite pieces in this set are the car and the lion. She loves cars and in fact, the word "car" was one of the first she spoke. She has lots of cars and I always find this car and the car from the Blue's Clues Racing Set in with her other toy cars. She really likes the lion in the Blue's Clues Safari Collectible Playset because we've been working on the names of animals and lion was an easy word for her to learn. If she knows the name of something, then it's an item she loves to play with. I will often find the lion in this playset with the lion in her Little People Zoo. That lets me know that although the 2 lions don't look exactly alike, she knows that they are the same animal. We've had similar results with the Underwater Playset and the fish that come with it.

Unfortunately, I do have a con. In fact, that is why I couldn't give any of these playsets 5 stars because with each one there was a con that was quite significant to Courtney. Like I said above, on the bottom of Blue's feet is a small hole that goes over a little peg in the seat of the car. This fastens Blue into the car so that she doesn't fall out while the car is being driven around the floor. It's a good idea because otherwise Blue probably would fall out, however, the hole and the peg are quite small and most kids don't have the proper hand/eye coordination yet to fit the 2 together. And once you do fit them together, you really have to push hard to get Blue to go down onto the peg. This really does frustrate Courtney and when she's in the mood for Blue to be in her car, she brings them both to me and says "mommy do". She then promptly takes them apart and hands them back to me. We can play this game for quite a while and the whole time I'm cursing Mattel for not making this easier for children to do.

Other than that though, the Blue's Clues Safari Collectible Playset is great for children ages 2 to 5. Because some of these pieces are small, I wouldn't recommend giving these to children under the age of 2. If your child likes animals or cars or Blue's Clues, then this is a cute little playset that they would probably enjoy.

Related Websites

Blue's Clues on Nick Jr. :

http://www.nickjr.com/grownups/home/shows/blue/

Clue Into Safety :

http://www.clueintosafety.com/cis/www/asp/neighborhood.asp



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 6.50 on eBay
Type of Toy: Playscene
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years