Customer Reviews

Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Pound-A-Peg

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

This toy feel apart on us not once but three times. First the head fell off the hammer the very first time my son used it. My husband thought that they had just not glued it well enough and just got out the wood glue to fix it no soon then we gave it to my son again and one of the sides fell off. My son is a typical little boy but he is not hard on his toys and was not using this in an unusual way. He has a similar toy at the montessori school that he goes to and loves it, but this is just too frustrating for him. We will be returning this toy and complaining to the manufacturer. It has the potential of being a 4 star toy if the thing would just stay together.

We've had this poundy bench for about two years and through a lot of rough use, we've never had a problem with it. The holes have a rubberized ring inside that provide resistance to the pegs, which fit just fine. The wood is extremely durable (although now pockmarked by the hammer, which is a testament to the quality). The hammer has never come apart, split or otherwise been damaged.

This is the best poundy bench I saw when shopping for them in person and I'm glad I bought a durable, solid wood bench.

**********PRODUCT RECALLED UNSAFE FOR CHILDREN*************************
Hazard Identified
Testing by Health Canada has revealed that the surface paint on the toys contains barium in excess of the allowable limit.

Some forms of barium are safely used in medical and commercial applications, while other forms of barium can be toxic, causing adverse health effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and cramps as well as more severe symptoms. Children's toys coated with paint containing barium in excess of the allowable limit are strictly prohibited in Canada.

Health Canada has not received any reports of incidents or illnesses related to the use of this product.

For some tips to help consumers choose safe toys and to help them keep children safe when they play with toys, see Health Canada's: Toy Safety Tips.
Corrective Action
Consumers should immediately take the recalled toys away from children.

As soon as my daughter got two pounds into the pound-a-peg, the mallet head fell off of the mallet, and then soon after the side fell off the bench. I was going to return the [$$] toy... but... I have decided to go straight to the manufacturer. This toy is unusable, and based on the other similar review, I don't think my pound-a-peg has a fluke defect.

I usually rave about Melissa & Doug Toys, but this one is awful! We took it out of the packaging and some of the pegs fell right to the ground through the holes. The holes were not all the same sizes (though they are supposed to be), nor were the pegs because there were some pegs that would work in certain holes and not others, but there were some holes that none of the pegs fit in without falling through. Some pegs were super tight in certain holes and couldn't be pounded properly without lots of force and others were pretty loose and one pound would knock them through. I ended up just pitching it after a while as there was no learning benefit to the toy. It was a gift, so I didn't have a receipt for it. The other reviewrs mentioned problems with the hammer... We never had any troule with it.

I'm getting a little tired of Melissa and Doug. This company is so appealing on the surface, and for that reason my little boy has been receiving, as gifts, toys made by them since he was born. Some of their toys have been great, some have been horrible, and some are so-so. This one is so-so.

I don't know why there's no toymaker on the planet that can get this toy right. I have two other versions of this pound-a-peg notion. One of them is unusable because it is so hard to get the pegs hammered thru the holes, it just sits in the basement. Wonderworld Hammer Bench. I literally can't move the pegs through the holes without putting my full upper-body strength into it.

The other one is a brand I can't remember at the moment and its holes are so irregularly-sized that thru some of the holes, the pegs just slide without being whacked at all. One or two of the holes is properly sized.

This Melissa and Doug offering is similar to the second one I mentioned. There are eight pegs and eight holes. I think two of the holes are properly sized and the others are either way too loose or pretty much too loose. It is maddening that they pay such little attention to quality control.

Even the Melissa and Doug toys that I really love (mostly the puzzles) have QC issues.

Melissa and Doug really need to look in the mirror and decide what their mission is. For now, they seem to be cruising on an ill-deserved reputation as a high-quality toymaker.

I give 3 stars for educational as it really is more a physical toy.
We haven't had a problem with it. Being that this is wooden it will swell & shrink with humidity & air conditioning, making some holes larger or smaller thus harder to hammer or too loose. Of course there may have been manufacturing flaws in some of the sets. Ours is fine. I believe the toy was designed to have different pegs hammered easier & some harder for the physical work & thinking aspect of hammering more lightly or harder. It's to make them think a little about what to do.
This is another toy that should be considered according to the child. And if you're concerned about injury if your child likes to bang on people with things, as many kids do, that's not the toy's fault. That's when the parent, guardian or supervising adult needs to step in & teach the child not to bang on people. My son does the same thing, but I tell him we do not hit people & I take the hammer (or whatever it is) away for a while.
All in all it's a good classic toy, better than plastic but yes, you may get one that's not right, like with all things, but that's easy enough to remedy; return it.

I thought Melissa & Doug products were supposed to be high quality but we didn't have this more than a couple months before the side came off (crappy glue job) and the hammer had pieces of wood chipping off. I don't understand why didn't they use a hard, durable wood for the hammer ~ it seems like common sense to me. I sanded it down but the wood is soft and still has little chips coming off and the side has come off again and is lost now. I was hoping it would last through a couple kids. I definitely would NOT recommend it to anyone. BOOOO!!!

I was expecting an old fashioned wooden pound-a-peg that my grandson could pound with the wooden mallet. This was not it. It is slick and shiny - that's o.k. except there is no resistance for the pegs. They slide almost without being touched. My grandson loved the original wooden one that he could actually hammer. This one can't be hammered, the pegs simply fall thru, except for one that was stuck when I received it and even with hammering it hasn't budged. He and I are very disappointed in the Wooden Poundless-Peg toy.

Melissa and Doug's Deluxe Wooden Pound-a-Peg is a classic toy; however, this particular item does not live up to Melissa and Doug's reputedly high standards. While the finish on the hardwood is smooth and even, the pegs fit extremely loosely into the bench portion of the toy.

Thus, while this toy was a bit of fun for my seven month old grandson, by the time he reached ten months of age he was no longer interested in hammering. He was able to push the pegs down with little effort and so was not keen on using the pound-a-peg as intended. Instead, he found he could easily remove the pegs which could then be used as chew toys. Further, he took to laying them on the play area of the family room; the flooring was a bear-themed rug in primary colors and the pegs were nearly undetectable. If the adults in the family were not careful, they risked a slip-and-fall. Additionally, because the pegs were attractive as chewing toys and carried in his mouth, I was concerned that if my grandson fell while holding one by the end, he might "impale" himself on the peg.

Because this toy is reasonably well made, I gave it two stars instead of one. However, the limited time period in which this toy holds a child's interest, as were the possible safety concerns, resulted in my decision not to award it any higher a rating. This toy was definitely not up to Melissa and Doug's reputedly high standards.