Holiday Gift Guide – Review and Giveaway: Oh! Toys

Gift Guide Category: Gifts For Kids

This year’s holiday season has just barely started, and I’m already struggling when it comes to finding the right gifts for my kids. One thing I’ve really noticed this year is that the toy selection doesn’t really change much. Oh, there are new sets of whatever kind of toy is popular, but once kids have a set or two of something, do they really need any more? And, how many do the toys they have or want actually stimulate their imaginations and make them think? Another concern, especially lately, is whether the toys we buy for our kids are safe.

I recently had the opportunity to become acquainted with a company that imports kids’ toys from Europe, called Oh! Toys, that’s addressing all of these questions for parents.

What they are:

Oh! Toys offers toys which are imported, safe and unique – basically, “cool, hard-to-find toys that stimulate your child’s sense of play, fun and creativity!”. They offer toy sets such as marble runs, puzzles and games, construction toys and more that are very different from the usual offerings that we typically see in the stores here in the US. And all of the toys offered are 100% safe with no lead paint or other toxic substances used in manufacturing them.

We received three toys to try out:

• Sina Magnetic Construction Spheres – “Each nicely finished, colored wooden sphere has a different number of magnets embedded in them, allowing for lots of creativity, combinations, and fun! Arranging and assembling the balls in ever new regular, bizarre, or molecule-like configurations is a rewarding challenge over and over again. 20 pieces in a cloth bag. Ages 5 and up.  Designer:  Yasuo Aizawa”
• Tsumiki Construction Blocks – Award-winning Tsumiki Blocks, imported from Japan.  The innovative shapes and beautiful finish in this wooden construction toy set let you create shapes and structures way beyond the conventional wooden block set.  60 pieces.  Ages 3 and up.
• Ruck + Zuck – Two lovable characters in the Kellner Stick Figure family – they are whatever you make them to be.   This award-winning toy system lets you take over and create characters and scenes that are only limited by your imagination.  Pieces are child-safe wood, fabric and plastic.  48 pieces, plus 40 Jummi (joiner) pieces.

Here’s my our take on them:

My girls were thrilled to have new toys to try out, and I was excited to see the new toys as well. We started off with the set of Tsumiki construction blocks – and immediately noticed how many different and unique shapes there are, as compared to the block sets that we already have. In fact, my girls started out just by building typical block towers and it wasn’t until I pointed out the interesting and fun constructions shown on the box that they began experimenting to see if they could re-create any of them and make their own as well.

This toy says it’s for ages 3 and up, but my 2-1/2 year old had so much fun with it too.  She’s a ‘block-a-holic’ and has been playing with this set almost nonstop since we got it. With so many varied block shapes, the possibilities for things to build are just about endless!

We also have a lot of fun with the construction spheres too – my oldest especially likes the challenge of making structures and getting them to balance and stand on their own, and my 5-year-old puts them all together to create some crazy combinations too. There’s something about magnets that really interests kids and mine are definitely no exception.

I don’t have any of my own pictures of the Ruck + Zuck set because my husband is the one who sat with my 7-year-old to play with it when I wasn’t home (and picture-taking wasn’t on his mind at the time). But they had a blast and it’s been a fun activity for them to do together.

The bottom line:

I love the feel of the wood pieces in my hands when we play with these, and they are such a fun alternative to the plastic, blinking, loud, and sometimes overwhelming toys that our house is already full of. These toys make my kids think when they play with them, and that’s one of the things I think is lost by toys that talk, play music, and do things for kids instead of the other way around. If you’re looking for fun, unique and challenging toys for your kids this holiday season, be sure to check out Oh! Toys.

Where can you find them?:

Oh! Toys is located online at http://www.oh-toys.com. You can find toys by searching by category, price or brand. Prices range depending on the toy – the three toys that we tried out sell for $49 (Ruck + Zuck), $39 (Sina construction spheres), and the set of Tsumiki construction blocks is currently on sale for $59 (down from $99!). There are many toys in the lower price ranges as well.

Would you like to try them?:

Oh! Toys is generously donating a $25 gift certificate to their store to a lucky reader! If you’d like to put some of these great toys under your kids’ tree this holiday season (or buy for anyone else on your list), here are the rules:

1. Enter by checking out Oh! Toys and leaving a comment here to let me know which toys interest you the most. Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
2. The contest will run until Saturday, December 13th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY.Fetch. This giveaway is open to the US and Canada.
3. Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If you don’t wish to leave your e-mail address, please make sure that you leave a unique name and check back with PRIZEYWinners to see if you won. If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
4. If you’d like extra entries, you can:

• Subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar) or subscribe via e-mail – leave me a separate comment to let me know.
• Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
• Put the button for my Holiday Gift Guide on your blog’s sidebar – the code for it is in the sidebar.
• Either Twitter about, ‘Stumble’, ‘Digg’ or ‘Kirtsy’ this post – leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site you chose (one extra entry).

So that’s a total of 5 comments/entries if you do all of the extra entry options.

Good luck! 

THIS CONTEST IS NOW  CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #112 as the winner:

Congratulations to Jennifer M (no blog) who said, “I like the Familie Ubermut (The Brave Family)“! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.