We try to stick with the toy-buying strategy of “no buying any toys,” because we get so many hand-me-downs and gifts. Each year after the kids’ birthdays, we have them open a few gifts and set aside the rest to dole out slowly throughout the year. And somehow, we end up with a great variety of really awesome toys. So we do very little toy research and shopping.

This is the first year that Wagon Jr. is really old enough to go to a toy store and pick out his own toys, so when my mom wanted to take him shopping for his 4th birthday present, we were all pretty excited. WJ said from the beginning that he wanted a superhero toy, so we made a beeline for the section with Ironman and The Hulk. Immediately I knew this was a bad idea: every toy we came across scared him. Even the cute Superhero Squad version of Ironman freaked him out… he wanted a toy with a button, but when I pressed that Ironman’s button, it lit up and said something about firing missiles, and he almost started crying (out of fear, not joy). We all quickly realized that letting a 4 year old choose his own birthday present was probably a bad idea. I knew I had to choose a toy that was appropriate for his age and personality, let him “find” it and convince him that it was the coolest thing ever.

So I sprung into action and started browsing the aisles. I had an idea to find something that he could build with, because lately he has been building magnificent structures with blocks and legos such as these:


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One thing that had been in the back of my mind was the cool building toy Magnatiles, which I knew was probably too costly for our gift budget. But when I came to the aisle with building toys, I came across Magformers, which are very similar.

After a quick smartphone check of rave reviews on Amazon, I grabbed the box and showed WJ how he could build anything he wanted. After experiencing the very intimidating aisle full of scary-looking superhero toys, he immediately grabbed the box and declared that it was “the best toy ever!” and that he wanted it. With the store price markup it was over our budget, but luckily I had a coupon that got us right to the budget and we were on our way! As we were walking to the registers WJ said, “We’re done with this toy store now, right? This is the toy I want so now we can leave!”

(Then as we passed the book section he said, “Wait Mommy, one more thing!” and picked out a Bubble Guppies coloring book. I immediately said no but grabbed it and bought it… I’m such a sucker.)

As soon as we got home, Grandpa opened the box for WJ. WJ grabbed some pieces and five seconds later he had built this:

We all stared, open-mouthed. The pieces are so pretty and easy to grab because they’re outlines of the shapes with rounded corners. The magnetic piece is in the middle of each shape side, so as the kids are building things, they just need to place the sides together and they stick. No frustration of blocks falling over, or legos not fitting next to each other.

An incredibly quiet 30 minutes later, he had put together a 3-D version of the way the pieces lay flat in the box:

He had one square left over and gave it to Lil Miss Wagon to play with since he didn’t need it.

He’s been having a blast putting together things like this garage for cars with doors that swing open and closed. I like the fancy roof.

Now I can’t wait to get him even more expansion sets!!

Magnetic Tiles part 2 of 2

1. Magnatiles - The Best Toy Ever by Mrs. Bee
2. Toy Review: Magformers by mrs. wagon