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Is the Melissa & Doug Shape Sorter Truly Evil or Am I Just the Dumbest PhD in America?

post #1 of 34
5/23/08 at 2:10pm
Thread Starter 
Seriously? A square, a rectangle, a parallelogram, a diamond, and a trapezoid that are almost identical in size? A pentagon, a hexagon, and an octagon? This thing confuses and frustrates me! How is dd supposed to enjoy this? (I've just been letting her thrown the pieces around the living room. I'm letting go of my anger vicariously.)
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post #2 of 34
5/23/08 at 2:13pm
Nope. I'm with you. And my kid thinks I am tricking him. So he stacks them instead. But I am beside myself at how close some of those shapes look like.
post #3 of 34
5/23/08 at 2:26pm
Add that to the list of things I will not be getting for ds.
post #4 of 34
5/23/08 at 2:38pm
we got a shape sorter recently and i was amazed at how fast ds was with it (he's about to turn 3, but he has never been able to do anything like that beofore) then i walked closer and the square hole was big enough for all the peices so he was just shoving them all in there. lol

do they even test these things once with one kid??
post #5 of 34
5/23/08 at 2:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kwynne View Post
And my kid thinks I am tricking him. So he stacks them instead.

that is adorable.
post #6 of 34
5/23/08 at 2:43pm
Yeah, we just build towers with it and then knock them down.
post #7 of 34
5/23/08 at 3:06pm
DS loves his.
He adores all things puzzle related though.
post #8 of 34
5/23/08 at 3:28pm
Oh, are yours the same colors, too? Ours the diamond and the parrallelogram are both yellow, the square and the rectangle both green... Drives me insane. :



I still like it though.
post #9 of 34
5/23/08 at 3:38pm
It's also annoying that the top is not attached. It always falls of and dumps the pieces everywhere when ds uses it.
post #10 of 34
5/23/08 at 4:20pm
Evil. Where's the poll?

I ditched mine, but I had bought it at a thrift store so it wasn't a big deal. Honestly, I don't care for most M&D stuff. There's so much nicer stuff out there. We like this shape sorter: http://www.oompa.com/baby-toys/item/...ting-Farm.html
It's officially NOT EVIL.
post #11 of 34
5/23/08 at 5:10pm
We have this, and my DD likes some of it.

Am I the only one annoyed that there's no freakin' circle? Or is my DD just an idiot, and *all* babies know circles by now (she does know oval, star, and triangle thanks to that thing, though...the rest she usually just puts in by taking off the lid).
post #12 of 34
5/23/08 at 6:30pm
No, it is truly evil. We got one as a gift, and dd hated to play with it because so many of the shapes were similar. DH and I hated it for the same reason. Then I got the bright idea of using colored sharpie (red, blue, and green) to outline the shapes (about 1/4" around the hole) on the box that corresponded to the colored shape. Since then, dd has gotten FAST with it, and enjoys the cube. But DH and I still think it is ridiculous. I'm sure they don't have any real kids test out their toys to see if they really work for that age of a child.

We have another toy of theirs that we hated too, but for slightly different reasons - it is a little table with balls that you pound through the holes. Supposedly meant for a 2 year old (like my dd). But apparently the person who designed the inefficient and TINY hammer and the person who made the balls the wrong size to actually fit through the holes never talked to each other. So, when dd tried to play with it, she couldn't get the balls to fall through. Heck, *THREE* adults had to use full strength and hit the balls 7 times with the tiny hammer provided before one would fall through!! What the heck were they thinking?? Being the creative people we are, we finally figured out a solution to the problem. We gave dd a deadblow (a weighted 1.5lb plastic hammer) hammer to use instead. Now she actually enjoy playing with the toy because it works! And she is getting pretty good with a hammer too......
post #13 of 34
5/23/08 at 6:31pm
It sucks--hard! We had one and Freecycled it. It's hard to fit the pieces into the holes, and, of course, like all M&D stuff, the paint chips and there's the "is there lead in there or not?" MIC controversey. Adios, shape sorter...
post #14 of 34
5/23/08 at 8:17pm
Where the heck was this thread two days ago when I bought this toy? I at least coulda got one cheap from you all

I am going to see about that sharpie idea... tho DD is only 13mo so it's mostly for container play anyway at this point.
post #15 of 34
5/23/08 at 8:19pm
Both dd's love it, but it doesn't get used as a "shape sorter" much. And I'll happily join the "evil" camp.
post #16 of 34
5/23/08 at 8:29pm
I refused to buy that one because the lid's not staying in place drove me crazy -- and that was just in the few minutes we spent examining it in the store. Ended up ordering this instead -- http://www.evospecialties.com/catalo...l?catId=290074 . Fewer shapes, but a better design overall, and I don't have to worry about possible lead in the paint.
post #17 of 34
5/23/08 at 8:38pm
Well it's good for dumping out and stacking pieces.

Sorting shapes - ehhhh, not so much. The diamond and parallelogram thing is truly madening. Plus when you get a few shapes in there you can't stick anything in the bottom holes!!! Unless you turn it, which of course sends everything dumping out putting you right back where you started.

I think we got a puzzle from M&D that took a lot of adult effort to shove the pieces in thier spots. FIL had to sand down (saw off?) some of the edges to make it work.
post #18 of 34
5/23/08 at 8:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Lotus View Post
We have another toy of theirs that we hated too, but for slightly different reasons - it is a little table with balls that you pound through the holes.
Oh my gosh, I almost bought this today and went with a toy closer to my son's age. Thank goodness! I wanted another toy that our friend's kids might enjoy so bought their first vehicle set, just a plane, car and truck...thank goodness I didn't get the pounding thing, so glad I found this thread.
post #19 of 34
5/23/08 at 8:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LittleYellow View Post

Sorting shapes - ehhhh, not so much. The diamond and parallelogram thing is truly madening.

One time, FIL was over and he *could.not* figure these pieces out. He is usually *very, very* mechanically inclined and had had a few glasses of red wine, but still...He decided that the holes had been cut incorrectly.

DH and I figured it out after he left. No, it wasn't defective--he was just trying to put the wrong piece in the wrong hole, as the diamond and parallelogram are nearly identical. More proof of its EVIL-ness.
post #20 of 34
5/23/08 at 9:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aja-belly View Post
we got a shape sorter recently and i was amazed at how fast ds was with it (he's about to turn 3, but he has never been able to do anything like that beofore) then i walked closer and the square hole was big enough for all the peices so he was just shoving them all in there. lol

do they even test these things once with one kid??

laughup
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