“The wooden stacking robots are weirdly compelling, and very clever, but I can’t help thinking that there’s not enough of them.”

Buy online at Armstrong Ward

Price £12.95

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Initial thoughts: This is a box of nine retro-styled, wooden robots. The box is heavy – the robots are sturdier than you might imagine – but it’s a clear, plastic film front meaning that once you’ve opened the box you can’t store the robots in it to keep them together. We have a stash of toy baskets for such items, but I can imagine otherwise they’d easily get lost at the bottom of a toy box.

We liked: The robots are beautifully made and Flea was keen on the bright colours. The website suggested these were for over 3s, which initially surprised me as you’d thinking stacking toy = baby toy. But actually these robots don’t stack on top of each other as such – the robots are designed so you can balance on their arms and shoulders, building diagonal and horizontal towers, A-shapes, and all sorts of designs. It makes them a bit more challenging than the conventional stacking toy, and oddly compelling – I found myself trying to copy some of the designs on the box, and they’re pretty tricky!

We weren’t keen: the packaging isn’t particularly practical, and I think there should be more robots in the pack considering the way they’re designed to stack – some of the designs need 12 robots to achieve – on the box it says you might want to consider buying two packs but being a greedy consumer, I think they should put more in the first box!

Overall: Lovely quality and design, and lots of fun, these robots will help build fine motor skills and problem-solving. Flea has also enjoyed playing with them imaginatively and they’re sturdy enough to stand up to lots of energetic play, with no small pieces or sharp edges to bother the little ones. A lovely option for children of all ages.

[Sally, Who's the Mummy]