K'nex Sesame Street Neighborhood Collection

Believe it or not, my kids still love their chunky building blocks? Even though they usually play with the smaller, more complex building sets like K'nex, whenever I try and make a move to donate the blocks to charity, they let out such a howl of protest that I convince myself we can wait another 6 months. So when Team Mom and K'nex sent us a sample of K'nex's Sesame Street Neighborhood Collection, they completely ignored the 2-5 year age range and started playing with it. I was thinking of giving the set to their little cousin Sofia..... but they're enjoying it, so maybe I'll wait another six months :) Here's more about what we thought of this toy:

The Basics
The K'nex Sesame Street Neighborhood Collection is a series of basic, chunky snap-together building blocks for preschoolers (ages 2-5) with a Sesame Street theme. The set we were given, the Neighborhood Police Station Building Set, contains 44 blocks including Elmo, Ernie, a stop sign, a stoplight, and enough blocks to build a police station. It coordinates with the other sets in the K'nex Sesame Street series so if you buy it all, you and your child can build up the whole Sesame Street neighborhood.

The Bongga
K'nex is a genuis for combining the two things preschoolers love: building blocks and Sesame Street! The size of the blocks is perfect for little hands; no choking hazards here. I love the fact that the set is compatible with Mega Blocks and LEGO Duplo, so you can combine blocks from all three brands. And unlike the other two brands, the K'nex Sesame Street sets include activity sheets -- not just building instructions -- that give parents great ideas on how to use the blocks to build key preschool skills (sorting, making patterns, etc...).

The Blah
There's not much to complain about these blocks, but I think the age range should be scaled down to 2-4, since it's not likely many 5 year olds will be interested in this (my 5 year olds and 8 year olds being the exception!) And to be honest, I thought the blocks were higher quality than Mega Blocks, but not quiiiiite as sturdy as LEGO Duplo blocks.

The Bottom Line
The K'nex Sesame Street Neighborhood Collection is the perfect first building set for a young child. The chunky blocks and beloved Sesame Street characters make for endless play possibilities!

I received a sample in order to review this product, but no monetary compensation. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.