This is the third time I work with House of Fraser as a blogger and, as I have said it before, I absolutely love the prompt delivery and the clear and fast communication on their side, which make them the ideal merchant, time and time again, in my eyes!
This time, we were asked to choose and review some items from the building blocks and construction toy range. I jumped at the opportunity as I had seen a couple of girly Mega Blocks sets that were hugely discounted (The Barbie Build ‘N Style Beach House is still down to £14.99 from £39.99!) and I knew Emma would love them as part of her ever growing collection of construction toys.
I must admit, I hadn’t realised that Mega Blocks has a whole range of construction toys for older children too. I was thrilled to see that Emma would be able to not only have a new Barbie playhouse that she could put together herself but that, she would also own her first Smurfette abode, all due to the great prices House of Fraser had both sets at!
As expected, as soon as the toys arrived, Emma got down to putting the sets together and playing with them. It took some serious coaxing to get her out of her uniform, she was all to eager to just get stuck into it all!
I supervised from afar and I noticed that, compared to a similar Lego set, Emma found it a bit easier to follow the instructions and put the Barbie set together so if you are debating on getting either a Lego or a Mega Block set for your little one and independence is very much an issue in your household, as it is in ours at the moment, then I would recommend the Mega Blocks.
Emma got her two sets up and running within an hour, with very little help from me and they have been her main source of entertainment when I cook dinner and she wants to be close by. Although I am not a big fan of Barbie myself, the Mega Block set has been useful in helping Emma develop those all too important fine motor skills, much needed now for writing in school.
The Smurfette house, a bit smaller but as equally useful for imaginative play, has been the backdrop and set for numerous imaginary games already. Again, the set is still on sale at the moment, from £19.99 to £9.99 and it is, in our view, quite the sturdy but easy to store away construction toy to have around.
What are the go to toys your children use time and time again?
Disclaimer: we were sent the two sets for review. The opinions expressed are entirely our own.
Mama's Haven 
hmmm I might just need to add this to the Christmas list for my little girl. She would love them
They are still half price, Angela, stock up before the mad rush starts!xx
I can see why these were popular. There’s a lot of imaginative play fun that could be had out of these.
Great review but I’ll be honest, I detest overly genderised products like this. Why make everything pink? Barbie has contributed to the damage to girls’ aspirations over the past thirty years, I won’t buy them.
Thank you, Emma. I dislike Barbie too but I also see the good in my Emma playing with small toys, for dexterity’ sake, even when they are pink. What would you recommend yourself, do you know of any Lego type toys that are geared for both girls and boys?xx
I love the barbie one! I think that Barbie can be a really good role model for girls – is there any job she hasn’t done? Much of the criticism of her seems based around her looks and I try not to get my kids to judge people on what they look like 😉 I would have adored that toy when I was younger 🙂
The toys are lovely – mega blocks look very fun. Lucky little girl.
My Daughter Is only Three so she likes Wow toys and happy land.
Kian loves Megabloks as they make a Halo set – thats a really good price too
The Barbie houses are great value. My boys were never into megablocks.
Now that is one amazing looking toy – it sounds such fun 🙂 x
This reminds me of something I used to have when I was little and I LOVED it x x
Ohh I do love a good bargain, well spotted. Mich x
Mine used to love mega blocis but now they are that bit older they are into Lego. I can’t wait until the baby grows so we can get the mega blocks back out again
Mine used to love mega blocis but now they are that bit older they are into Lego. I can’t wait until the baby grows so we can get the mega blocks back out again
This looks fabulous, what a great set. We haven’t got any Mega Blocks, should look into them really POD loves building 🙂