Maxim Deluxe Wooden ABC Blocks. Extra-Large Engraved Baby Alphabet Letters, Counting & Building Block Set

I was recommended blocks as a great toy for my 5-6 month old. I researched all the blocks on Amazon and landed on these. Now that I have them, I can confirm that these are the BEST blocks on Amazon!! Here are a couple of the highlights:-large enough that they are not a choking hazard. I confirmed by measuring, they are 1.75in square.-well designed: fun colors, side images are lasered/ burned on so that it's not screen printed. Sides are rounded on 4 faces. I was hoping they'd be fully rounded but the sides facing the letters are flat. The rest of the sides are buttery smooth so I am happy with this part overall. They are not splintering.-paint doesn't come off in my baby's mouth. I tested trying to rub some off and it was solid!-pictures match letters- this was not always the case when looking for other blocks. Some of these blocks have only 2 labeled pictures. Other faces may be extra numbers, or it looks like some house components (window, brick wall, door) so you can build a house.-you get letters, numbers, and mathematical symbols.-comes with a mesh bag to hold all the blocks.These are the best! Highly recommend! I will get more sets as gifts for friends.

This is a block set I had to purchase because about 18 months ago, when I was feeling like I needed to try and adopt minimalism for the sake of my sanity and overall emotional well-being (ha, ha, ha...that died a super quick death given the current therapy programs we're working on over here) I donated the alphabet blocks that we had because we were trying to get our son to use smaller ones for building and he was obsessed with them because they were an easier size for him to manipulate and I couldn't get him to even touch the smaller ones as long as they were anywhere he could find. And then his speech therapist recommended we get some alphabet blocks to push together as we were making the sounds for a word to help emphasize the idea of putting sounds together for our little man and I went... "Crud". That will teach me to be hasty about the decluttering.What I like about these is that they have both the capital and the lower case letter on each block. That is super important, I actually find it pretty frustrating that so many shows and products geared towards teaching kiddos alphabet recognition emphasize the capital letters, because most of what they are actually going to be reading and decoding is in lower case. So I love, love, love that these have all the lower case letters. I like that it has more then one of each vowel, because it helps with putting words and sounds together for what we are doing. I like that it has numbers. And something else that is kind of cute, one of the sides of each block has a brick or window pattern so that you could also use it to build an imaginary house or whatever. I think that's kind of cool, although I don't really picture my sweet little guy using that feature any time soon.As of right now, they have been holding up well to a few solid weeks of my son chewing on them (he's a heavy oral stemmer), and the paint isn't coming off easily at all. I also like the mesh bag that comes with these for storage, his previous set (which was a different brand) didn't have one, and I really appreciate that this one does. Overall, I am pleased with this purchase and the quality of this product.

I originally had purchased the "Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden ABC/123 Blocks Set With Storage Pouch (50pc; colors may vary)" set and instantly HATED them! They were teeny tiny! (Yes, I read the dimensions but still didn't realize how small they would be when handing them to my son). What's worse is that their quality was shoddy - the biggest thing is that the edges of the blocks were "fraying" and I knew that they wouldn't last long - I'm now in the process of returning them.For only about $5 more, this set may have 10 less blocks but they are definitely a higher quality. I see no "fraying" or any other issues. They are also the perfect size that I've been looking for that I remember from when I had blocks as a kid. As soon as I dumped them out next to him, my 15 month old started stacking them...and then knocking them down haha. I also love the variety of designs on the sides to also help teach him various things. I'm planning on homeschooling him for his first few years so everything I buy I try to make sure it has multiple uses and will last.I now will always try to choose Maxim Enterprise, Inc. over Melissa and Doug whenever I can. *And for the record, the only reason I'm putting Melissa and Doug in this review is because EVERYONE seems to rave about their items but so far everything I've gotten from them has not impressed me/seemed cheap. I'm tired of the big name brands getting all the customers because they get all the word-of-mouth.If I had one complaint: The letter "Y" does not come in Yellow. I wish it did since I'm also teaching colors and like having "R" for Red, "B" for Blue, etc. so he subconsciously starts to begin the spelling properly. For yellow, I either use the yellow "E" or the yellow = sign.I'm not sure about the bag for storage. It's kinda net-like so I'd think the edges of the blocks would make the holes larger over time? But I haven't even put them in it - I'll probably use it for something else and put these in a bin.