When my daughter received this as a gift for her birthday, I thought it was “pretty cool,” but just a regular Play-Doh set – until I opened the canister of tan Play-Doh. I was put off by the texture at first and thought something must have been wrong with it. It was wet and gritty…just like beach sand, and it smelled like coconuts and sunscreen. Genius!
The canisters aren’t as big as the typical Play-Doh canisters, but that’s okay. There are still four colors, each in a two-ounce container. It could be just us, but that seems like the perfect amount for playing with without dropping globs onto the floor.
Most of the time, I think there’s just too much Play-Doh in other containers and chunks get forgotten or fall off. They’re dropped on the floor to harden and stab you in the foot later (or get smushed into the carpet). There’s not enough in a two-ounce container to play with half of one color and leave the other half tossed aside.
Even without the sand-like Play-Doh, my daughter would still love it. You can make starfish, lobster, or attach a dolphin head and tail to a hand-sculpted body. There’s a tiny bucket and shovel inside to fill up with the “sand” and then build castles with, and a rolling pin to flatten the Play-Doh out with so it can be cut into shapes.
The whole set comes in a bucket so it’s easy to keep all of the pieces together when they’re not in use—or when you want to pack up and go somewhere new to play.
I really enjoy playing with this set with her over all the others she’s had, mostly because it smells like the beach. Hey, I’ll take what I can get.
Photo credit: Hasbro
