[peacenclarity]

I am looking for a good set of large, natural, maple blocks for my three year old. Has anyone purchased blocks from either http://www.oldfashionedblocks.com/403.html, or Educational Concepts? And if so were they worth the price? They offer alot of unique shapes in their unit sets, but they seem a bit pricey. I am looking for something solid, and long lasting, and, preferably, with unique pieces like the Gothic Arc. Thanks!

 

[kghaffar]

We have Barclay blocks. They are maple, made in the US, beautiful and built to last lifetimes.

http://www.barclaywoods.com/home.htm

As for unique extras I have ordered ours from Constructive Playthings. We have a local store. And you can order individual blocks from their catalog and have them shipped to the store for free. Although they are not maple, I love the accessibility of ordering individual blocks as we need or want them- not paying shipping or ordering any pieces we don't want or get ones we do.

 

[pandora665]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kghaffar We have Barclay blocks. They are maple, made in the US, beautiful and built to last lifetimes. http://www.barclaywoods.com/home.htm As for unique extras I have ordered ours from Constructive Playthings. We have a local store. And you can order individual blocks from their catalog and have them shipped to the store for free. Although they are not maple, I love the accessibility of ordering individual blocks as we need or want them- not paying shipping or ordering any pieces we don't want or get ones we do.

We love our Barclay blocks. I don't have any "special" pieces yet, but for our purposes, they are sturdy, great builders, perfectly sanded, and USA made.

 

[peacenclarity]

I also like the Barclay blocks, but when I had compared them to the Old Fashioned Blocks, it seemed that OFB had more unique pieces. Also, we already have little wooden peg people, so I didn't think we needed the additional pieces from their set. It seems like alot of moms like them, though, so I will have to reconsider them. I really love the gothic arc piece, though, and alone it is pretty pricey. Thanks!

 

[karne]

I have to say that I think really good wooden unit blocks are worth every penny, if you have a child who likes block play. My kids never went for the tree blocks, but they love unit blocks. Neither was particularly into them at age three however. Now at 6 and 10 years they are one of the most played with "toys" we have, to the point that sometimes very little else gets played with. Over the years we have amassed quite a collection which is wonderful when you have more than one playing. Block play can be extended with just a few extra props, ie cars, small animals, etc. My dd is very VS and she "sees" what she wants to build, to the point that she's now moving into some really interesting design work on paper-a budding architecht! You can sometimes find quite nice sets on Craig's list, BTW.

 

[jp79]

Our son LOVES his OFBs! The shapes are very unique. He uses them for railroad tracks right now. The awesome thing is that my DP played with the set when she was a little girl. There's even her crayon markings on some of the pieces.

:

Oh, and the gothic arc is a favorite piece! So is the half arch -- which DS sometimes calls an 'L'. Great set!

 

[sandygalvin]

We always appreciate the kind comments about our blocks. Thanks.

However, we are completely baffled by the suggestion that we have fewer types of blocks in open stock than OFB as our 87 different shapes are two or three times as many as anyone else and include all or most of the shapes that they manufacture. We can only guess that this comment was from a person who had never looked at this page. Our site is quite large and it often happens that people are too busy to explore it fully.

It's also important to remember that other manufacturer's blocks most directly compare to our First and Seconds. As far as I know, we are the only manufacturer that plucks out perfectly colored blocks to make the Premium sets.

Sandy Galvin
Barclay Blocks