Customer Reviews

Melissa & Doug Rainbow Stacker

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

This is a good basic addition to any toddler's toy collection. We like it because:

- It's wood. The rings make a satisfying "clink" that plastic or cloth stacking rings lack.
- It's easy for kids to do. We've had other stacking toys (like the Melissa & Doug stacking train) where certain pieces only fit in certain places, and that is frustrating for little ones just figuring out how things work. This one's simple and straight-forward.
- It's inexpensive.

My older son received this when he was about 18 months and played with it quite a bit. Now his younger brother enjoys it, and has been able to put the rings on & off since about 12 months.

(Just a warning: the stick, or "ring holder" as we call it, often gets banged around like a hammer in our house - this is partly why they like this toy so much, but it means close supervision is necessary!)

I ordered this rainbow stacker after reading several great reviews. My 13 mo. old daughter grabbed for it as I was unpacking it, so I think she's going to love it. HOWEVER, I am disappointed in the quality - several of the rings are stuck together by paint. The ones I have been able to pry apart have paint stuck on them (blue on yellow for example) and the purple & yellow ones I have not been able to pry apart yet (neither has my husband!) I'm sure they will come apart eventually, but personally I would not give this as a gift due to this quality control issue.

I bought this as a safe and natural alternative to plastic. However, the rings were cracked and the paint chipped off. Fortunately, I noticed this before my baby 'explored' it with his mouth because he would have had a mouthful of paint chips - no exaggeration. So much for being safe and natural - I had to throw it away. So unsafe that I had to write a review.

The top piece, the blue one pictured, is small enough to be a choking hazard. Just FYI. We removed that piece and threw it away.

Also, the pole and the hole are small requiring really really good fine motor skills. For babies just learning this skill look for bigger poles and holes otherwise, it's really hard for them to do this one.

Back before I actually had a kid, when I was insisting on natural materials only, I ordered the Melissa & Doug Rainbow Stacker, even though I'm not a fan of M&D toys as a rule (I find many of them to be cheaply made).

We got the classic Fisher-Price Rock-A-Stack as a gift when Jackson was born, and I remember scoffing a little. "Plastic! Look at this silly thing with the ridiculous foil shiny thing inside the top ring. They couldn't even make it a real rainbow, they ruined it putting those dumb little balls in the top half of the red ring. And why does it rock?! What kind of ridiculous popcorn-button-on-the-microwave unnecessary extra feature is that?"

Of course, six months later, the Rock-a-Stack is the undefeated champion of playtime, and the Rainbow Stacker sits unused in the closet. Jackson loves the balls in the red ring, he likes to make it rock, he can actually get the rings off and play with them, and I don't worry one bit when he teethes on the fat, squat, yellow ring-holder-thingy in the middle.

The rings on the M&D stacker, on the other hand, are heavy and hard for him to lift and manipulate, the red ball rolls away (and reminds me of a scary clown nose), and I'm always worried he's going to gag himself when he tries to chew on the tall, skinny wooden stick in the middle.

The Rainbow Stacker might be a great toy for a three-year-old, but it's not a good fit for my baby at this stage.

who doesn't love a stacker? what i especially like is that the rings are all the same size on the inside so my daughter can stack them any way she likes...they don't have to go in the same order each time!

My mother in law bought this toy for my son. After playing with it once, it became clear that some of the rings were not solid wood but were held together by some kind of putty. The putty was not resistant to water, so after my son put it in his mouth once, the paint clipped off and the putty became soft. Luckily we noticed right away and threw away the rings that were not solid wood. After playing with this toy for a week, the paint on all of the pieces began chipping off. I had to throw the entire product away! I must say I was shocked by all of this since Melissa and Doug has such a great reputation. I was also shocked to see that a company with such a great reputation would have a huge spike in the center of their toy. What a huge disappointment. I replaced it with a similar product by Sprig, which is made of recycled plastic & reclaimed sawdust and has no center spike. Each piece has a rattle in it and they join together with fun shapes. My son loves it. I will never ask for or purchase Melissa and Doug again.
Sprig Cone Stacker

I ordered this for my one year old thinking a wooden toy would be "cuter" than the standard plastic stacking rings. The size of this is considerable smaller than any others I'd seen. My son puts everything in his mouth so the stacked center had to be shelved immediately. I didn't want him to impale himself on the slim dowel! He liked to crawl around with the little rings, they were a good size for chubby little hands...but then the paint started chipping off the rings. So that's one toy I trashed already!

By the time my son had played with this for a while, the paint began chipping off! There are little chips all over each ring and the top ball. Honestly, he didn't even play with it that much. So now, I'm tossing it out rather than handing it down to my daughter. Such a shame, but I've found that most Melissa and Doug toys (all made in China!) just don't have the durability you would expect for the price.

We received this stacker as a gift for our 11 month old daughter's baptism. When we first opened the gift the pieces went right into her mouth (of course!) and we were disconcerted by the fact that the paint seemed to be washing off the pieces already. Although hesitant, we were willing to let this slide as M and D list their paint as being non-toxic and the amount was really pretty negligible at that point. Our daughter played with this toy daily for almost 2 weeks when we then noticed the paint heavily flaking (not washing) off of the red ball, so much that the toy is now rendered useless as we definitely will not let her play with it now. Very disappointed as we love this toy for its wooden simplicity and its educational value. On a positive note, I contacted M and D this morning who readily agreed to look at this as a quality control issue and offered to send out a different toy with which we hope to have better luck. Agree with the reviewers who wondered why this toy has not also been recalled here in the US...