I am often asked for recommendations for the best toy for a given age. There is nothing worse than wanting to get the perfect toy for your favorite little tyke only for you both to be disappointed when it isn’t as expected.
So I have decided to begin officially reviewing products on my website. Here is the inaugural review. Send me an email if you have a product to suggest for review and please add your thoughts on any given product.
I am a total sucker for any toy that can fit in my purse. It’s almost an addiction. I like to whip out a game, doll, or toy on a moments notice when we have a long wait for a table or miss a flight in the airport. My latest addition to the collection is Plus-Plus.
The product is very simple. It’s just small plastic hashtags in a variety of colors. That’s it. They come in only one size but are packaged in several different quantities. I bought the 300-piece set for $19.99. The hashtags fit together like puzzle pieces allowing one to build anything in one’s imagination. Because they only come in one size it takes some thought and good visual spatial relations to make the more complex items. This adds to the lasting power of Plus-Plus.
Maybe my favorite aspect of Plus-Plus is the tag line for the toy–”A new toy world. For girls and boys.” And true to the tag line, it is equally appealing to my son as it is to my daughter. In fact, my entire family could happily play this while waiting for our dinners in a restaurant. Keeping us playing together is important to me and Plus-Plus accomplishes that.
To say we all love Plus-Plus would be an understatement. The toy has endless possibilities. Over the course of the week my son built two skiers, his sister, a fall New York tree, little doggies in a dog run, and the ocean complete with white-capped waves. My daughter got into the action too, and they worked together to make a little village.
Plus-Plus is very easy to carry (I dumped mine into a Ziploc bag). The 300-pack is a great starter pack and is probably all we really need. If you wanted to make this a toy for use at home only, you might want to invest in one of the bigger packages.
The only downside of Plus-Plus is that it has small pieces. Therefore, this toy is not recommended for people with children younger than 3 years old.
Overall Plus-Plus gets five stars based on its inclusive construction, ease of use, and limitless possibilities for play.
