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Electronic Pets | Home » » Melissa & Doug Farm Wooden Chunky Puzzle | | | | | | | Description: | | This hand-painted, playfully styled Jumbo Puzzle is sure to capture and keep the attention of curious young minds. The thick, chunky wooden puzzle pieces fit neatly into their spots on the colorful board and also stand up for additional pretend play. Puzzle features full-color images beneath each piece to guide little ones. Measures 12"H x 11"W x 0.8"D. | | | Features: | |
• Pieces stand on their own for additional play
• Thick puzzle pieces are easy for small hands
• Full-color pictures beneath each piece
• This unique puzzle promotes pretend play as well as matching skills
• Recommended Age Range 2 Years and up
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 0.9 inches | | Product Width:
| 10.7 inches | | Product Height:
| 11.9 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.55 pounds | | Package Length:
| 11.7 inches | | Package Width:
| 10.7 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.8 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.55 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 25 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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 Great For Babies and Younger ToddlersMar 16, 2010
I initially bought this for my soon-to-be born baby girl, but when my 2 1/2 toddler saw it, he insisted on mommy opening it. He played with it for 10 minutes then got bored since it was too easy for him. However, we did use the pieces to help him remember the names of the animals and the sounds they make. He already knew most of the animals from his board books, but it helped having a 3 dimensional version that he can hold while making the sounds.
 Beautiful For A DayFeb 26, 2010
I was so excited to get this puzzle for my little ones. Unfortunately, the item description is misleading. The puzzle looks nice (before the kids get to it) and the chunky pieces were a perfect size! However, this puzzle is NOT hand painted. The puzzle pieces are just faced with a sticker, that easily comes off (in pieces!). That is not the quality I was expecting, especially from Melissa and Doug. I've had the puzzle for 2 months now, and 2 or 3 of the pieces have the stickers mostly peeled off.
Not solid wood but still very niceJan 13, 2010
Other reviewers have commented that this puzzle is not solid wood, which is true. The board is plywood and particle board, and the pieces are particle board. It's all very smooth and solid-feeling, and for the price I'm very pleased, but this probably isn't a teething toy-- wait until after 15 months or so. I really like the colorful and cute graphics, the variety of animals for talking about animal sounds, and the fact that the chunky pieces stand up for pretend play-- does double duty to replace our missing Little People farm animals! I also like the format-- no knobs to distract from the pictures. I'm planning to buy a couple of the others as well because my 17 month old definitely prefers this puzzle to the knob and crepe rubber puzzles we already have.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Not wood--not hand-paintedDec 14, 2009
This would be such a great puzzle IF it were actually hand-painted and made of wood. I read the other reviews and I think the design of the puzzle must have changed. I was so excited about this puzzle, and my kids love it. The only problem is that I'm about to throw it away after just a few weeks because the stickers on the pieces are all but gone. We have only used this puzzle gently and as intended. I'm very disappointed and now I don't trust the descriptions of Melissa and Doug puzzles.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
MDF Does Not a Wooden Puzzle MakeDec 12, 2009
This toy is fun. The farm animals are super cute. It's a great concept for a 'first' puzzle, with it's bright fun animals and easy-match puzzle board. It is certainly educational, and when I bought it I felt pretty good about my kids playing with it.
I bought this puzzle expecting it to be precisely what was advertised: A wooden puzzle. Naive to the world of children's toys, I took that description at face value. When I think wooden, I think solid wood, which is what these pieces appear to be. They have a nice heavy feel to them, and when thoroughly coated in paint, considering the false advertising, you'd really have no reason to expect otherwise.
Enter time and a little rough tossing around of the puzzle pieces, and as the paint begins to chip away, another story is revealed. These puzzle pieces are nothing but pressed paper-like sawdust material. When revealed beneath the chipped-off paint, this dry, dusty substance easily flakes off where it can get into little mouths and become part of the general household dust.
Okay, so Melissa and Doug fudged a little on their description. What might have been wood once upon a time is now thinly pressed layers of sawdust and resin, but it was wood in a previous life, and that still counts, right? It's intentionally deceptive marketing, but does any of that really matter in the practical sense?
I think it does.
Medium density fiberboard (MDF) is nasty stuff. Containing a higher resin-to-wood ration than any other pressed wood product, MDF emits VOCs for at least a few months after manufacture and emits urea formaldehyde for the duration of its life. I doubt there have been any studies on using pressed wood for a child's toy that may be mouthed and is nonetheless handled frequently and in close proximity to their faces during day-to-day play. There have been studies suggesting urea formaldehyde is a suspected carcinogen; others show that incidences of leukemia and lymphoma increase through prolonged exposure of VOCs in the indoor environment.
Bottom line, most MDF is not something you want in your home in any form, and it's probably not the best thing to make a child's toy out of. There are ways to manufacture MDF which use resins that do not contain formaldehyde which are supposed to be environmentally friendly. I contacted Melissa and Doug to find out if they use these formaldehyde-free resins in their MDF. They've got really friendly customer service, but no one available could provide me with that information. I was told they'd get back to me. I'm still waiting.
In the meantime, I think I'll just stick with the old adage: You get what you pay for.
I think the important part is knowing what you're getting when you decide to purchase it and not being led falsely into believing you're paying for superior materials when you're really just buying a few adorable cubes or formaldehyde-imbued garbage coated thickly in conveniently concealing paint. Had this been disclosed in the description, I'd have no gripe with this puzzle. I also would not have purchased it to begin with.
There are solid wood (and plywood) puzzles out there. They cost anywhere from 2 to 3 times as much as a Melissa and Doug 'wooden' puzzle (sometimes more), but most have the added bonus of not being made in China; a small detail of Melissa and Doug's toys that has always sent a red flag of sorts up for me.
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