When we came back from our break away, the children where delighted to discover they had some rather lovely Meccano sets waiting for them.
Later that day I was chatting with a friend online why the kids got busy with their reviews (no rest for the wicked) My friend asked me what my daughter was up to. Well, to say she was a little shocked when I told her Alice was busy with her own Meccano set, was an understatement! Honestly, you could hear the gasp from miles. Seriously people, are we still stuck in the dark age where girls were expected to play happily with Barbie and only Barbie?
The lovely people at Meccano sent Alice-Sara, the rather pretty, ‘Girls tool box construction set’ Wow, take a look at this and tell me Meccano is not for girls! This is totally chick, very appealing to any princess, I’m sure! A 60+ piece set all stored inside one very pink and glittery tool box.
This girlie set is aimed at little ladies aged from 5-8 years. Each set comes with an instruction booklet which is broken down into easy to follow steps to enable your child to construct a total of ten different girlie vehicles (note… only one piece can be built at any one time).
Alice is 8 years old, and at the, “Higher end of the recommend age range” that has been given for this set. This showed as she had no trouble following the instructions 
and constructing a range of different models. She commented that she enjoyed the challenge of constructing the different models and had lots of fun doing so! Alice has built all 10 models in the instruction booklet. Here favourite is the funky buggy type car, she has dismantled this reconstructing it back together a number of times. Alice seriously enjoyed the meccano set and rated it a 10
From a parental prospective, the Meccano set for girl’s, is a great addition to the children’s construction range. It’s my opinion that Meccano should bring some new girlie additions to this collection in time for Christmas (here’s hoping they do) I will be honest, I was tad disappointed that Alice did not require my help! I was kind off looking forward to showing her how it’s done (though I think she may have done better than I would have, probably showing me a thing or two)! It’s great that brands like Meccano and Lego are now marketing their toys at girls as well as boys. When I was a kids I looked to get my mitts on my brothers Meccano, but he would always tell me, ‘It’s not meant for girls!’ We live in a world where little girls grow into woman who choose to become mechanics and train drivers therefore why shouldn’t we play with toys like Meccano.
Meccano helps the development of hand/eye co-ordination and fine motor skills, it also helps a child gain independence and teaches them how to follow basic step by step instructions. The beauty with Meccano is, the sense of achievement it brings when a child has constructed a model independently. The accomplishment helps build confidence, a very important life skill. This is a set that receives a huge thumbs up from mum.
We were sent this product direct via the manufactures. However through some online research it would seem that the, ‘Meccano girls tool box construction set’ can be brought from a number of well-known stores and is priced at around ￡19.99 by most stores including Toys R us (though prices do vary).
Look out for our next Santa’s little helpers review to discover how the boys found their Meccano sets…Coming Soon!
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