Pete's Expert Summary
Ah, another offering from the giants who rule this house. This appears to be a bucket filled with a hundred small, colorful wooden objects of various geometric persuasions, made by a brand called "OOOK," which sounds like the noise a human makes when they stub a toe. It's supposedly for "toddlers," those miniature, unpredictable humans, to "learn" by stacking and sorting. For me, the appeal is not in the stacking, but in the un-stacking. The sheer quantity of pieces presents a glorious opportunity for wide-scale dispersal under furniture and into hard-to-reach corners. The bucket might make a decent napping vessel if I can empty it of its noisy, angular contents, but the lid with its strange-shaped holes is an unnecessary complication. A potential catalyst for chaos, but hardly a sophisticated toy for a feline of my caliber.
Key Features
- Montessori Toys for Kids - The toddler blocks set comes in 5 colors and 11 different shapes totally 100pcs, which allows kids to build castles, parks, rockets, cars, bridges or whatever they like with imagination and creativity
- Nice Storage Bucket - Toddler block set is assorted with a bucket for easy storage and portability. The shape sorter on lid makes it more fun for kids to sort wooden blocks, promote skills of color and shape identification and develop good storage habits
- Safe for Toddlers - The building blocks for toddlers 3-5 are made of solid wood with water-based paint, colorful and safe. Each block comes with rounded edges and smooth surfaces. Larger block sizes keep kids safe from choking hazards
- Play and Learn - Wooden stacking block for toddlers have always been an indispensable toy for growing up. Toddlers build different styles with imagination and creativity while promoting color recognition, shape matching, stacking and sorting skills
- Early Learning Tools - Building blocks are essential Montessori toys which positively promote kids' development in any setting and upbringing, home or school. The ideal present for 1 2 3 year old boys and girls
A Tale from Pete the Cat
The thing arrived in a large, uninteresting cylinder. My Human, with that hopeful glint in her eye she gets when she thinks she's found "the one," unscrewed the top and tipped it over. The sound was not the delicate crinkle of a new bag of treats, nor the promising squeak of a faux-mouse. It was a cacophony, a wooden waterfall of clattering, clicking, and thudding as one hundred small, brightly-painted blocks tumbled onto the rug. I, observing from my post on the back of the sofa, remained unimpressed. They smelled of wood and disappointment. My Human began her strange ritual, stacking the blocks one upon the other. A red cube, a blue rectangle, a yellow cylinder. It was a monument to futility, a tower of Babel built from sheer boredom. She cooed at it, as if it had accomplished something. I twitched an ear. The structure grew, teetering precariously. It offended my sense of architectural integrity. Who builds with a cylinder as a foundation? An amateur. I watched, my gray tail a slow, metronomic pendulum of judgment, as she added a green arch near the top. An flourish of hubris. She turned her back for a mere moment, distracted by the chiming of her pocket rectangle. It was all the time a master requires. I didn't rush. I descended from the sofa with the liquid grace of smoke, my white paws making no sound on the floor. I did not stalk this tower; I appraised it, like a food critic examining a poorly prepared dish. I selected my tool—a single, errant orange triangle lying nearby. With a flick of my paw, I sent it skittering across the floor. It was a perfect shot, a bank off the leg of the coffee table that sent the projectile directly into the tower's weak, cylindrical base. The collapse was magnificent. It was a symphony of destruction, a colorful explosion that sent blocks skittering into every conceivable hiding place under the sun. The Human sighed that familiar, long-suffering sigh. I, however, was satisfied. I located a particularly satisfying purple semi-circle, batted it once to confirm its excellent skitter-factor, and then nonchalantly began cleaning a pristine white paw. This is no toy. It is a system. A system for generating delightful, widespread messes and for teaching my Human a valuable lesson in the ephemeral nature of all her silly little constructions. It is, in its own chaotic way, a masterpiece. Approved.
