{Review and Giveaway}: Character Mix-Up Magnetic Set

We have some serious travel plans this summer. We’ll be spending more than a month away from home  (total), and I’ve been on the look out for stuff to do in the car AND toys to bring with us that are a lot of fun but take up a small amount of room in the trunk :).

Manhattan Toy Company has a really great line of products out called imagine i CAN, which includes pet rock kits, beginning knitting, sewing, eraser-making, and a ton more!

One of the items that particularly caught my eye was their newly released magnetic play sets. I’m not sure what it is about magnets, but we love them around here.

We had the opportunity to review the Character Mix-Up and it was super fun for the kids. There are a lot of pieces (101 to be exact), which means a lot of different combinations of creative characters. The tin tote comes with 4 different scenes, and so far our favorite has been the castle. The magnets are thick and strong, which is a huge relief. One of my biggest beefs with travel magnet sets is that the magnets don’t stick very well (and hence you lose them all over the car) OR that someone plays too rough and rips off some magnetic dolls head (true story). 🙂 This was definitely not the case with this one. It’s really good quality!

I was so glad to review this one because it is great for boys and girls. It’s one of those toys that my increasingly-gender-conscious kiddos (how did that happen?!) can enjoy playing together. They thought it was super funny to make a one-arm, peg-legged monster (I wish I would have snapped a picture!).

We tried playing with this in various places. The last thing I want to do is introduce a new toy on a long car ride and find that it doesn’t work for us. 🙂 We tried it at home. We tried it in the car. We tried it on a table. What we found is that this toy is perfect for playing with at someone’s house or at a restaurant, but probably not so great for the car, at least for younger ones. Ada and Aly have little laps, so they were unable to hold it on their lap while also holding up the lid where they were sticking on the magnets. It’d work for Asante though- he was easily able to hold up the tin (see below) while creating his scene. We’ll most certainly be tucking this one in the trunk for our “on-location” toys!

You want to know the most exciting part? I’m able to give one of you a set too!! Manhattan Toys is giving one of you a choice of either the Character Mix-Up, Fashion Friends, or Travel Time magnetic set! Enter below to win. We’ll randomly choose a winner on Friday evening!