| | |  | Toddler Toys | | Home » » » » | | | | | | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 6.1 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.1 inches | | Product Height:
| 4.13 inches | | Product Weight:
| 2.16 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.6 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.5 inches | | Package Height:
| 4.7 inches | | Package Weight:
| 2.25 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 51 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 51 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
56 of 56 found the following review helpful:
 Wow!Apr 01, 2009
By teamstan
Love love love love this toy. Santa brought it to my then 10-month-old son, and I thought he wouldn't really get into it until he was older. But within a couple of weeks, he was happily banging the balls down with the hammer, and putting them back into the holes. FANTASTIC for both gross and fine motor skills (takes a bit of aiming to get the ball back into the holes). What do I love about this toy?
1. Unlike flashy plastic toys, this actually keeps my son occupied for 30 minutes at a time. I can actually cook an entire meal because of this toy.
2. Extremely durable, fantastic craftsmanship. All wood, dovetailed construction and Plan Toys guarantees the safety of their toys. Unlike other drop and hammer toys, the balls are not plastic (generally, the plastic balls are squeezed through the holes). These balls are wooden and are kept up inside the holes by an additional gear-like piece, which the banging shifts until the balls fall through.
3. At first, I didn't like how there is not "catcher" for the balls when they roll out and go scattering across the kitchen floor, but well...he so loves this toy, he will crawl after the balls, bring them back and continue banging, which gives me even more time to maybe even whip up dessert. Sometimes they get lost under sofas and behind curtains, but oh well.
4. Educational: teaches cause and effect, tool usage, gross motor skills, aiming, colors. Gives him a real sense of accomplishment.
cons:
1. Not sure if ours is defective or if it's a design flaw, but with one of the holes, the ball gets wedged inside about 50% of the time and does not roll out. A little frustrating for him at first because he would think the ball had rolled off somewhere, but once he figured it out, it did add a new interesting twist to the puzzle for him.
2. No storage for the hammer. The Plan Toys miracle pounding toy has a neat little notch for the hammer, wish they had done the same here.
3. Love the wooden balls but man, they sure do some damage when thrown.
19 of 19 found the following review helpful:
Awesome toy to grow withJan 15, 2009
By M. Cardona
I got this toy very early. At 4M my son liked to hold the balls. To date there is no other ball (he owns many) that is so pleasurable to hold. By 6M he enjoyed putting them in the hole (I would retrieve the ball for him sometimes). When he was learning to crawl he would drag himself about holding the ball and pounding it into the floor. He would try carpet then wood. Sigh, I try to remind myself that this will be the first of many pits in the floors while raising a rowdy boy. He is almost 9M and he loves this toy. Sometimes the balls roll away under furniture and will either try to put other balls into the box (doesn't work) or he will play the box. I still haven't given him the hammer yet. I intend to save it until he is older.
The most interesting part of this toy is how long it will hold his attention. I have seen him play with this toy for an alarming amount of time. 35 consecutive minutes has been the absolute longest. Albeit doing different things with the toy not just the punch and drop part. He was particularly interested while learning "in" "out" kinds of concepts.
This means I can take just one toy with us when we, say, fold laundry or do dishes.
Another surprising aspect of this toy is that we can play together. Three balls and two hands makes it easy start teaching sharing. The joy seeing all three balls drop far exceeds his need place each ball in the hole. However, sometimes he does need to push each ball.
I have seen this little boy do many harsh things with toy. I don't think one would be able to tell by looking at it. Very well constructed. There is nothing about this toy that makes me nervous. This includes the color stains of the balls.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
classic toy!Jan 09, 2007
By J. Owens-Haines
My one year old son loves this well-made wooden toy. He pushes the balls with his hand for now & keeps putting them back on top to push through again. He also loves to play with the balls. He'll carry them around, bang them together, try to use them with other toys & we'll roll them back and forth. I think later he'll use the hammer to hit the balls & it will be fun all over again. For now, he uses the hammer on his xylophone!
He has so many plastic disposable toys, many of which are already broken in one way or another, but this is not one of them.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Maybe not for the 12 month oldJan 27, 2010
By MaryH
I read the good reviews before purchasing as a Christmas present. My 12 month old grandson is extremely active and I thought he would enjoy hammering. The set is well made and heavy. We had to take the hammer away as he was trying to use it on the house windows. The wooden balls are heavy and he throws them which he thinks is great fun, however the dogs now avoid him. I think this may still be a good toy once he is a little older.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
He loves it!Nov 03, 2011
By Alizabeth Szilagyi
This was the first Plan Toy item I purchased, and after it came I quickly ordered three more (and have my eyes on others). It's so nice to find a toy company that makes quality products. As a conscious consumer, I love that Plan Toys is so environmentally friendly.
Fun: For the first week or so that my son had this (gave it to him for his first birthday) I played with it most. I wanted to show him how to hammer, and he watched happily. He loved tapping the balls together in his hands, or watching them roll out when he pushed them with his hand. I was actually having fun hammering. After a week, he caught on to how he was suppose to use the toy. He spent the whole rest of the day swinging away. He loves it!
Educational: Great eye hand coordination. Great cause effect. But I think the best skill it teaches is simply sticking to a task. This really holds my little ones attention, and in an intelligent way. That's the best education I could ask for at 12 months.
Durable: Considering how hard he whacks, and how often he misses . . . there are far less knicks than I'd imagine. The toy feels lightweight for being solid wood, but it is durable wood.
Other reviewers concerns: I don't mind that the wood panel inside is slanted. From the "engineering" perspective of how this toy works, it makes complete sense. If it wasn't slanted, the balls wouldn't roll out at all. They rarely get caught, but if a ball doesn't roll all the way out, I just tilt the block and it comes right out. As for the hammer being "dangerous" . . . it's way too light weight to do any damage. My boy is strong, always has been, and I have no fears of him breaking anything with this toy. He's even whacked himself a couple times, and it doesn't even phase him. The hammer stays with the toy, he doesn't use it on anything else (it stores inside the box well when not in use).
See all 51 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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