Melissa & Doug's high-quality goods bring your child's imagination to life. Mainly focusing on wooden structures designed to be passed down from generation to generation for years of entertainment, we wanted to investigate this firm to discover if their toys were sturdy and fascinating. The brand's major purpose is to get children away from smart devices and allow them to be kids again, but with new, current products. Melissa & Doug has established itself as an industry leader with over three decades of experience creating safe and high-quality products. 

We took a look at the Melissa & Doug Ice Cream Counter.

Prices range from £40.99 to £49.99 across Amazon and all well known toy stores such as The Entertainer and Smyths Toys. For this price we were looking for a high end product capable of lasting a significant period of time.

If your child loves role-playing, then this is a must-have. As you can see from the image above, the item for sale appears to be very similar to what you would find at your typical ice cream parlour. Out of the box, the product comes exactly as is, with no assembly required your child can just jump straight into the action, leaving mum and dad feeling relaxed. With a variety of eye-catching colours, this specific product would also look great as home decor. ves role-playing, then this is a must-have. As you can see from the image above, the item for sale appears to be very similar to what you would find at your typical ice cream parlour. Out of the box, the product comes exactly as is, with no assembly required your child can just jump straight into the action, leaving mum and dad feeling relaxed. With a variety of eye-catching colours, this specific product would also look great as home decor. 

What’s in the box?

This 28 piece ice cream set includes the following

·        1x wooden ice cream counter

·        1x ice cream scooper

·        1x ice cream pot

·        2x ice cream cones

·        1x wooden spoon

·        1x topping grabber

·        8x Ice cream flavours

·        6x ice cream toppings

·        1x restaurant menu

·        6x role play currency

So, as you can see, you get a lot of merchandise for your money, and we can honestly tell that each individual item is well crafted and sturdy. 

Our experience

We bought this for our 6-year-old daughter for Christmas after she spotted it on a cartoon channel commercial. She had been expressing for weeks before Santa arrived that the ice cream counter looked like so much fun, so this item had been added to her list and brought by the big man. When opened on Christmas day, her eyes lit up. We’ve never seen wrapping paper torn off so fast, she was eager for the fun to begin and extremely happy that Santa delivered.  As previously indicated, no construction was needed; therefore, all that was required was to peel off the plastic cover while taking special care not to damage any of the magnificent paint work. She was gone and transformed into an ice cream shop clerk, asking us what we wanted and relishing every order that was placed. Although this was intended for our daughter, our two-year-old took an immediate liking to it and appears to have adopted the product as his own, which is excellent because both children now play well together. Of course, a two-year-old has a tendency to toss things, but we can assure you that no product was harmed and not even a speck of paintwork was removed. Six months on and the children still play with the Melissa & Doug ice cream counter, so it’s totally worth the money spent. The toy certainly helps your youngsters learn about value for money when trading the ice cream over the counter experience. 

OUR SCORE

8.25/10

GOLD RATING

ALL IN ALL

Don't be concerned about the price tag. If your child is a learner rather than a device watcher, it is absolutely worth every penny. We would gladly pay this sum again if the product were ever lost because the longevity sells itself.  

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Prices are taken from date of publication (9/05/23)