Magnetic Dress Up Sets by Melissa & Doug

Magnetic Dress-up Sets by Melissa & Doug

The Joey Magnetic Dress-up Set, as well as the Julia Magnetic Dress-up Set, takes me back to the days of the Betsy McCall paper doll of McCall magazine. I can’t tell you how much I looked forward to my Mother’s monthly magazine! After she was finished, I had the magazine to myself to carefully cut out the pieces and continue creating Betsy’s story!

Joey…and Julia are similar to Betsy in that playing with them will let your children exercise their imaginations. The manual dexterity that was developed using scissors isn’t available with these products or in folding the flaps over to hold ‘clothes’ onto the dolls, BUT some dexterity is required and developed just in choosing which pieces to put onto the characters and arranging them properly to stay in place.

The fact that these toys are magnetic could lessen the frustration level that I readily admit I experienced when outfits I’d put on my paper doll fell off! Both paper dolls and these magnetic dress-up sets are wonderful when it comes to sparking the imagination and active/creative thinking. They lend themselves to language development as well as they can be used as a springboard for kidlets who are more reserved with storytelling; with the pieces leading into fantastic plots for Joey or Julia!

If you know you’re going to have to wait at an appointment for a while these would be great toys to take along to engage your child in hands-on, imagination-rich play. So in that regard and the above benefits, they get a PLAY ON stamp of approval…with a couple of annoying drawbacks:

• Though the toy comes in a handy, compartmentalized box…there’s no lid! So it’s useless. To keep from losing the pieces, losing your mind and/or losing your cool just decide from the get-go to contain the pieces in a plastic storage container.
• These toys are recommended for children ages 3 and older. This is because the accessories are choking hazards. So if you have younger children, you’ll need to be mindful they are not near enough to grab a piece and potentially choke.
• Melissa & Doug have other magnetic dress sets like Princess Elise Magnetic Dress-up Set, but the Joey set is the only one specifically geared towards boys. Now it’s TRUE, that I happen to think a good toy is a good toy regardless if it’s played with by a boy or girl, but it would be nice if they could provide more obvious options for little boys to engage their imaginations and options for adults to facilitate language development in young boys. Why not have a Prince Evan Magnetic Dress-up Set…you know what I’m saying?