eternityawaits's Full Review: Lego Lego Duplo Large Green Building Plate
I’m telling you, LEGO has some crazy scam going! I mean, really, $12.99 for a piece of green plastic?! It doesn’t even make noise, or need batteries, or…… oh wait, I guess I should be happy about that, right? Oh, the things we do for our kids.
Anyway, a LEGO base plate is a building essential for your young architect. This Green LEGO Duplo Base Plate is a great item to have handy. What is a LEGO base plate? Think of it as paper to an artist – it’s the basic substance that you create on. In the case of LEGO blocks, it gives you a flat surface that you can attach your LEGO blocks to. This is invaluable when building fancy structures such as houses, rocket ships, or doghouses, of course. It saves you the agony of your creations becoming a heap of blocks, because it is very difficult to build on soft or uneven surfaces, such as carpeted flooring. Now imagine being three years old, and frustrated, trying to build something cool with your blocks only to have it collapse every so often. Then imagine being the parent of that three year old. Yeah, that’s exactly how they get away with charging $12.99 for a sheet of green plastic.
LEGO Duplo blocks are the middle size that LEGO offers – just right for preschoolers, otherwise known as ages 3 to 5 years. LEGO blocks are generally referred to by the number of “pegs” they have, rather than in inches, so a 2x2 block is 2 pegs tall by 2 pegs wide. In LEGO Duplo blocks, this is roughly a 1.5”x1.5” block.
The LEGO Duplo Green Base Plate is 24x24 pegs, about 18”x18”. This is a good amount of space for your little artist to work on, considering the age group the Duplo blocks are meant for. The Duplo base plate will only work with Duplo blocks, and will not work with the much larger Quatro blocks, or the much smaller standard LEGO bricks.
Sadly, I did find these to be very hard to come by in retail stores. LEGO sells them online through their website, but the only store I have found them at is Toys R Us. If you do not have a Toys R Us store or possibly a small specialty toy retailer in your area, you may be resigned to ordering it online, bringing the cost up to about $19 with shipping.
The good news is that these base plates, as well as every other LEGO product we’ve ever owned, are indestructible, short of leaving them on the stove when the burner has been on, resulting in a melty plastic mess. Otherwise no amount of climbing, jumping, or stomping on can seem to break these. That means you are hopefully buying these only once in a lifetime, unless you’re like me and accidentally put it too close to the oven after confiscating it from your kid for using it like a Frisbee. Yes, mommy’s a little slow some days.
Overall these are a great investment if your kids are very much into building with their LEGO Duplo blocks – ours gets used on a daily basis. They can be washed with soap and water if they get grimy, which is always a plus to parents. We give them two big thumbs up!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 12.99 Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
Large format allows child to build and expand on the world he or she has created Provides a building surface for any DUPLO set Made of sturdy, impact-...More at Amazon
Large format allows child to build and expand on the world he or she has created Provides a building surface for any DUPLO set Made of sturdy, impact-...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.