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Ageless Entertainment
Duplo was launched by Lego in 1969 after more than 10 years of research to find a toy that children could play with before they reached the 5 years old guide line to play with Lego. Duplo’s name comes from the fact they are exactly twice the size of normal Lego bricks making them much harder for little mouths to choke on or swallow. Yet, despite their size and via the clever hollowing out of the stud tops they are completely compatible with normal sized Lego bricks.
But why am I telling you this you’ve all played with Duplo and know exactly what it is unless, like me, you pre-date its arrival. My great age meant I had to wait for Lego but I certainly bought Duplo for my kids when my two daughters came along and we all played with them for hours. Now they are in their 30’s and we have a Granddaughter Maya and a Grandson Luca and, here’s the thing, they now play with their Mother’s sets of Duplo that we’ve kept all those years and they’re perfectly fine.
Notwithstanding the above I thought for Maya’s 3rd birthday I’d buy her a new set of her own and I chose Duplo Town 10991 Dream Playground. She loves playgrounds, we must have visited every one in West Sussex and is creative and intelligent in her play. So when the day arrived she opened the present with great excitement. I creaked my ancient knees on to the floor and helped her open the plastic packets and the bricks tumbled out.
She was delighted with the pile of multi-coloured bricks, doors, windows, play equipment and in particular all the play people: 4 different characters, one with a skateboard, and a dog! (Note: these being Duplo the characters do not disassemble meaning no small parts, there is, however, a small flexible lead in a separate packet for the dog which you may choose not to use.)
Maya quickly took to the small children and started lining them up on brick seats or putting them on the see-saw or whizzing them past on the pleasingly, free-wheeling
skate board. Luca was very interested, too, but at 1 year old he was too young to get involved as Maya was keen to point out. Luca didn’t seem to agree!
Little Hands Big Potential
There are three set piece constructions in the set which I was able to put together quite handily with the aid of the many-paged booklet of step-by-step instructions plus lots of full coloured pictures of the completed models and various layouts of the set.
You get a jolly, blue and white, whale that builds to over 6” high including the obligatory safety rail and is the tower for the 2-piece slide. The characters all slide down it in a satisfying fashion, even the dog and skater.
There’s a similar height swing with a star on top. The figures can be firmly fixed on the swing seat and pushed up and down whilst admiring the two-piece pink and green bush alongside.
Thirdly a simulated rocket ship with an opening hatch and a ladder for the little astronauts to enter the capsule.
As well as these there is the very nice see-saw with base and fulcrum which the red plank pivots around and on which you can place riders at each end.
A few other bits and bobs go up to make the 75 pieces that are in the set. There’s a bucket and a spade (rather more gardening sized than sand pit sized), a spare brick and a sort of console thing with a painted screen and a steering wheel. I don’t know quite what that is supposed to be but it’s the kind of thing you see in playgrounds where I don’t quite know what they are supposed to be there!
Three of the bricks have the numbers 1,2,3 on, there’s a brick with an eye on for the whale and there’s two 3-tier high bricks, one for the whale one for the rocket ship, that have opening doors to let you put people inside.
A Whale of a Time
So what’s the final verdict? Well Maya really loves it and is contentedly playing with it herself and making up her own stories. Luca likes it too when he’s allowed near it. And so do I. The characters and the dog are all wonderful little figures and really make you think of real little people playing in the playground.
The only downside to Duplo is it is not cheap. But it is a quality product. It’s well made, all the pieces fit well together and can be managed by little hands and will be compatible with full-sized Lego as they grow older and to be honest I can’t think of many things I’ve bought and are still going strong after 30 odd years. Maya can look forward to playing with this with her own children in decades to come.
Let’s put it this way, don’t tell Maya, but Father Christmas has already got her the DUPLO Town Life At The Day Nursery set put away!
