Archive for 'Dolls'

Nice for the price
My 2yr old daughter enjoys playing with her castle. Build quality is average. It's 99% ready to be played with out of the box.

My daughter has these Disney Princess figures that she plays with and they are not too big to be used with this castle. The figures are about 3-4 inches tall.

My only complaint is that it takes some strength to open and close the swan gates by turning the knob.

My daughter loves this toy
She earned it with a sticker chart. And she is always playing with it. True, I find pieces under my feet all the time. But she does play with it. And it isn't broken yet.

Finally an Imaginext product for girls
My 7 year old daughter is a huge Imaginext fan, and have been really pleased with the line except for one thing, there hasn't been a set just for little girls. The Precious Places palace and accessories rectify this. Even though this product isn't marked or labeled as Imaginext, the figures are interchangeable with our other sets and work well with all them. I was worried that this might be too young for my daughter, but she plays with this all the time. If your child loves dolls and dollhouses I'm sure she'll love this palace. The palace is sturdy and bigger than expected and comes with cute figures and accessories. There's a great attention to detail and will keep your princess lover occupied for hours. Even though I found this particular piece on clearance, I'd definitely pay full price for it. I've also found the accessory pieces BOGO fairly often at another major retailer, so it's possible to complete the set for an affordable price. Highly recommended.

Perfect Birthday Gift
I purchased this for my daughters 4th birthday and I was very pleased as soon as it arrived. It was much bigger than I thought it would be, so it was very impressive on the gift table. It was easy to set up and she was able to start playing right away. She also loved the video that came with it, I think it helped her increase her immaginative play with it. It is an item that is played with daily, something I can't say about most of the toys I've bought.

Princess Perfect
My 4 yr old granddaughter asked me for a castle for Christmas. When she unwrapped this present, she started bouncing up and down and clapping her hands. I chose this one over the Disney one because of the reviews. It is well made, good quality materials, and has pop-outs such as a bed and dance floor. The only complaint is that the spires on the towers are not attached, and short of super-glueing, we can't figure out how they are supposed to go on. But she doesn't care. She spends hours at a time playing with her little princess dolls and this castle.

Love it but a few tweaks needed, and comments on optional furniture/accessories/dolls
I love the look of this doll house and would highly recommend. I got it on sale and with free shipping at holiday time from Amazon, more than 30% less than the local toy store was charging for it (thanks, Amazon!). Daughter was pleased with Santa for bringing it and liked the house right-off. She and friends and adults have admired and played with it ever since. We have it sitting on an inexpensive, rather large coffee table that we bought at a yard sale -- you'll need something to put it on. Overall, the M&D victorian doll house is a hit and was a good value for the money. However, a few tweaks could improve it... making it better for kids to play with. Some things to note:

1. Major Assembly Required. We got this out of the box on Christmas Eve after the kids were in bed... I'd recommend an earlier start. Embarking on assembly, my husband said "The instruction manual is 35 pages long; I'm going to get my tools and a beer." An hour or two later, it was assembled. The instructions were fine, and the drill came in handy.

2. The furniture & accessories (purchased separately) are NOT a must-have. You couldn't have convinced me of this at the time that I ordered since they look so cute. The M&/D furniture sets are very cute, and are reasonably well made, but the whole set is not needed. I was surprised that the furniture sets just barely fit in the rooms -- when furnished, there is not enough room to play in the house, even with small hands. Given the cuteness factor, I'd suggest just purchasing the bedroom, living room, and bathroom set and supplementing with other things that you have around. We put away some of the more fragile pieces for the future, given that our daughter is only 3 and making more room. Also to note, having the nursery furniture in the attic (as they portray) doesn't make sense, and with the steeply sloping roof of the top floor, you can't really use the rocking chair or tall crib up there. I also bought the accessory kits, and though they are really cute, they are truly not needed, are more appropriate for a 10 year old than a 3 year old (of course) and would just crowd things further. Tweak needed:the house would be much improved if the whole things was about 20% bigger (taller? redesign?) to accommodate the furniture and allowing more room for kids to actually play inside it.

3. The Victorian Doll Family (purchased separately) needs improvement. These dolls are super cute from my perspective, I love their non-plastic look and outfits, but daughter (3.5) and her friends (3-6) just don't really like them. Daughter told me recently that I can give the M&D family to good will-- all except for the baby. I put them away to give her in a few years. The M&D Victorian family dolls are not very flexible -- not easy to make "sit" in the chairs etc. She has been using other dolls (small 2-5" size, like disney princesses and polly-pocket, and some of the small barbie-sister and barbie-baby dolls) with the house and likes those much better, though they are not a perfect match for this house. Tweak needed: the cute M&D dolls need to be bendy (arms, elbows, legs, knees) to stay in new positions, and have changeable clothes/shoes, for kids to actually like them. Perhaps add a boy to the set too?

Dissappointed
My daughter spotted this at our local Melissa and Doug toy outlet. She instantly fell in love with it and asked Santa to bring it for christmas. The assembly was very easy and I loved all the furniture that was available to purchase for it. The doll family was not what I envisioned for this beautiful house and my daughter most often uses her polly dolls or peekaboos. The furniture is not sturdy at all. We have had several misshaps already with what I would call normal use. The rooms are crowded and the interior is very dark. We ended up putting it on top of a small table in her room with a lamp behind it so she can see better. She does play with it but, for the price I wish I would of kept her other doll house. Very dissapointed with this Melissa and Dough product.

grandma's gift
This is a beautiful house. It is heavy. My daughter put it together for my granddaughter downstairs. It took two to take it upstairs. I am happy I got it for my granddaughter. She and her friends enjoy many hours playing with it.

Overall it's good!
I have always wanted a wooden dollhouse and finally I received this one. It took a bit to put it together, but the end product was absolutely worth it. When building this you probably want to be two people unless you are an speedy screw tightener. Also when putting this together, just use some common sense and it is no trouble to put it together. Everything looks really high quality and wherever you put it up it will surely look beautiful. Just a few more suggestions; if you do get the furniture to go in it just work on moving the furniture around because if you put it the way that they suggest on the box the house will look a little crowded, but if you take the time it will be surely worth the investment because it looks fantastic, is super sturdy, and I for one think that most who get this will not be disappointed it is a wonderful treasure that will last a lifetime if it is taken care of. It's worth the investment, the instructions were quite simple to follow and the finished product looks great.

Great Dollhouse
This dollhouse is very sturdy and looks great once put together. I would say the only downfall to construction of the dollhouse is none of the panels are labeled (even though the written instructions letter the panels)so you have to find the correct panel by looking at the pictures. None are exactly the same, but it obviously took longer to put together because of this. The kitchen and bathroom are a little small for furniture. My daughter absolutely loved it. It is so big. She will get years of playing with this dollhouse.

I LOVE this set
I got this set for my daughters birthday last year and she LOVES it. It is one of the longest lasting played with toys she has (besides her babies) My son who is 4 loves to play with her and we have actually even taken if back and forth to grandparents houses because it is so easy to collapse into each other and pocket all the sets

Easy to put together? You have to be joking...
Supposedly this is "easy" to put together..sure teh frame is easy and as long as you have about 8 hands to help with the cloth part for on top, a genius IQ to figure out the picture directions, I'm sure thats helpful but doing it on your own, forget it. I'm still trying to figure it out and sitting here frustrated after an HOUR of velcroing these pieces to the frame to have it look weird...its not fitting right. My kids have knocked over my attempts, putting it together a few times and for the moment while i sit here and type this out of sheer frustration the annoyingness of it all, I threw a sheet over the thing and they are just as happy with that. Haven't even attempted the stove, nor do I really want to at this point...anyone want this "fun" toy?? I'll gladly ship it off to another person who wants to deal with it.

So much fun!
We gave this to our two year old for her birthday. She loves it almost a year later and its still in great shape. We leave it up ALL the time in the playroom. She hides in it, takes care of her babies, and makes us soup. We love it! We looked into getting some of the side items, but they are not as well made. We paired this with a wooden table and play food. The stove, washer, and sink that come with it are great. The shelves fall out sometimes, but was can just put them back in and it fine. LOVE THIS HOUSE!

Fantastic playhouse!
I debated giving it to my 5 year old for Christmas but in the end I gave it to my 3 year old an I am glad I did. I had never seen one of these in person and I always wondered how was it worth the cost? Anyhow, we love it. It has a fabric cover over metal bars. This makes it a bit hard to put together but makes it washable with is super nice as kids tend to bring food into play houses. It is tiny, my 3 year old is the perfect size but I have had my 9 & 11 year old sleep in it. My three year old spends HOURS in it playing. You can split the sides apart and make it all open or push them together for a
"closed" house with a door. In the end I am VERY glad I bought this. Her favorite gift by far at Christmas!

What a cottage!
We bought this for our 3 and 1 year old daughters. They love it. They have played in it everyday for weeks. It is the perfect size for their bedroom. We had no trouble putting it together though it did take 30 minutes and full concentration. We love the details. We act out every fairy tale ever written from Goldilocks to the 3 pigs. Great gift.