Customer Reviews

Fisher-Price TRIO Watch Tower

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My son got this because it was on sale at Sears for $5.99 (Hoorah) and he really enjoys it. It would have been cool if it came with more than 2 knights but hey for $6 I can't complain. You can also purchase additional knights here on amazon. My son had no trouble putting the set together until he got to one part attaching the sticks--my husband assisted and quickly snapped them in; then my son hurried back to his room to do the rest by himself. We've been pleased because it's not one of those toys that breaks apart every ten minutes. We are big Lego fans but this is just a different type of building toy. The Trio Knights often battle the Playmobil knights which is lots of fun; we like products that have our son using his vivid imagination.

Trios are a perfect cross between legos and tinker toys. They easily construct to build large structures that are substantial enough for little hands to manipulate and play with. Our 6 year old can follow the directions himself, but also loves coming up with his own ideas on versions of the watch tower. Best investment ever.

My son is 8-1/2 years old, and he got this out yesterday to play with it for the first time. As he was building it, he was constantly having to call me to have me help try to hold the thing together while he tried to assemble it. Trying to get the second level of the tower on without the rest falling apart was very difficult. My son, who is very adept at Lego construction, got very frustrated. He said, "Dad, it says on the box it is for kids 5-9 years old, but look how hard it is for us to put together."

I left him alone with it for a while and was doing other things. Later, when I went back upstairs, I noticed that the parts were no longer sitting out where he had been playing with it. I looked around for it to see if he'd ever gotten it together. After not finding it, I had a hunch and looked in the trash can. My son had put all the parts back in the box and put the box in the trash.

My 4 year old son loves construction toys and was absolutely thrilled when he got this as a girt for Christmas from a friend. I had seen the product advertised on TV and was curious about it but after constructing it was less than impressed.
The 2 star rating really goes to the construction part of the toy. It was nearly impossible for my 4 year old to do much of the construction at all. While he is 4-a year younger than the age recommendation-he has never struggled so much when trying to construct a toy. He did manage to get a couple of the bricks to click together but the sticks were a whole other story. He got frustrated and whiny because he could not even come close to getting them in by himself. Even I struggled to get them in and hear that magical "click." This is not a simple construction toy as it is advertised-it takes some muscle and determination which my son didn't find very fun.
Once the piece was constructed though he had a fun time playing with it for the most part. The arrows that come with the set fall rather then fly as we have never been able to get them to do anything but fall on the table in front of the device no matter what we try. The "launcher" shows white signs of wear from us trying to get it to work and my guess will be that it will break off eventually. The rest of the piece is of quite sound construction as my son has dropped it and it did not break apart (which shows how much of a pain it was together if it holds together that well) I do not see us taking it apart to try and build the other three things that are pictured that you can build with it because, as I mentioned before, it was NOT fun to construct.
Trio really pales in comparison to Legos as far as the fun of construction goes. He is able to build many things with little struggle with the Legos and I think you get a lot more for your money. After all, what fun it a construction toy that is absolutely no fun to construct? I could have bought him a toy castle and saved myself the hassle!