Kiwico Review 9: Panda Crate, Let's Play! with Book Bundle Book Head, Sholders, Knees, and Toes...
March 19, 2024
My son was born prematurely. He was born at 26 weeks and 6 days (3 months and 1 day early). If this box is for a baby 13-18 months, that means it should work for Aryi 16-21 months, in theory. Aryi was starting to catch up to his age at about a year. He is now fully caught up and surpassed developmental milestones for his age. That means these toys should be appropriate for him now. We are very proud of how far he has come. I feel that all of this makes our experience with development and play particularly unique.
Wonder Play Guide
We are fully in the new versions of the kits now. This means we get the Play Guides instead of Wonder Magazine and instruction cards. Having everything in one bound guide is far more superior than the previous cards and magazine. This Play guide talks a lot about independent play. This is something we are working on and trying to introduce more of into our daily routine. Dr. D answers questions on screen time, there are panda tips for how to advance fine motor skills, you get instructions for how to play with each of the toys in the crate, and DIY or cheap activities to do.
Kiwico: $0.00
Amazon Dupes: N/A
Ball Drop Drawer with 2 balls
This ball drop is super cool. I love how there is a drawer. It adds an extra skill for your child to work on. You pull the drawer open and push it closed. The balls it comes with kind of suck. They were too soft. You would want them to be harder plastic or wooden because you want to really hear the ball hit the bottom of the box. I found an Amazon dupe that was basically this, but with a coin hole and coins too. The dupe was also cheaper. I can not say anything about the quality of the dupe, but the Kiwico toy is fine quality.
Kiwico: $11.21
Amazon Dupes: $7.99
Wood Pegboard Set
This is one of our all time favorite toys. Aryi loves to match the color of the rings to the pegs and can fully complete this puzzle with the rings. This puzzle also grows with you, because you can move up to the bars that are so much harder. We are working on mastering that now. You basically get 2 toys in 1. The only problem I have with this toy is the same problem I have with a lot of their toys and have talked about this before. The paint chips and rubs off like crazy. The dupe I found was twice as expensive without the bars.
Kiwico: $11.21
Amazon Dupes: $21.96
Pull-Back Car (That we already got!!!!!)
The third and final problem we have had with Kiwico is that we got this car already. I didn’t even tell them about the problem this time. They are not going to fix it. I am sure that in their restructuring of the kits they decided this is not appropriate for a 7 month old, because it isn’t. Aryi is 21 months old and still does not understand the pull back mechanism. So they moved it to a later crate. Well don’t send me two!! This is crazy. So, now I have 2 of these cars, which is fine, but really annoying because I would not have bought two. Aryi does love it. He likes cars and loves Poppy riding in the car. The dupe I found was twice as expensive, but came with 4 cars.
Kiwico: $11.21
Amazon Dupes: $22.99
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes…
Aryi likes this book. It is kind of fun to have books that you can sing as you read. He loves songs that have physical movements with them. You can get the same book on Amazon. Due to the breakdown of the prices and there being only 4 toys in this crate, getting the book on Amazon turns out a little cheaper.
Kiwico: $11.21
Amazon Dupes: $6.91
Worth it?
Amazon Dupes total out to be $59.85 + tax.
The Panda crate can come in a few buying options. I paid for 12 crates for 2 years (crates come every 2 months) at $538.20 + tax. This also included the option to get an extra book in each crate.
$538.20 for 12 crates is $44.85 per crate
Yes, this crate was worth the price, just considering the price of dupes. I would consider this crate worth it for the pegboard alone. This toy has turned out to be an all time favorite that we have gotten hours and hours of use out of.
But, don’t forget, this is the 3rd messed up crate I have gotten. They have poor customer responses.
Kiwico: $44.85
Amazon Dupes: $59.85 + tax
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