Plan Toys Mini Golf Single Set from Great Gizmos
We're huge fans of wooden toys in our house and have quite a collection. I like the tactile, educational benefits of them and the children enjoy playing with them very much. Recently we received the Mini Golf Single Set from Plan Toys, as sold by Great Gizmos. We have a few Plan Toys here and I'm always impressed with their innovative designs and quality so I was interested to see what their take on a golf set would be.
The set arrives in a long thin box which opens to reveal a cotton drawstring bag, wooden golf club. two tracks to hit your golf ball over, a hole, with flag (which pops into a small hole on this) and a wooden ball. Every piece is beautifully decorated and the golf club shows the Plan Toys branding.
Bud loves Crazy Golf and he's always first on the course whenever we spot one, as a result we've had a couple of plastic golf sets through our house. We've found these to be really poor quality and they've been left out in the garden to be played with. The Plan Toys Golf Set is an altogether different proposition. It's so solidly built and Bud exclaimed as soon as he saw it 'look Mummy, a proper golf club!' The bag is an excellent addition to the set as it allows you to dispense with the box and store it neatly together in a shed or wherever you keep your outdoor toys.
The beauty of the set means it allows you to create your own course using the tracks and your child can decide which way to approach the hole, just like in a real game of golf. I think this toy does need to be played with outdoors, you need space to set up a 'course' and space to swing that substantial golf club! The ball is quite heavy too.
Bud has loved this set since it arrived. He's very active with it (as this rather blurry action shot shows), playing golf and chasing after the ball. I think it's best played with on a paved surface or short grass, our lawn's grass is too long at the moment, the ball won't roll. This is a great toy for encouraging outdoor play and I've found Bud taking the bag outside to play rather a lot. I think this will become a fixture in our camping kit too and the bag makes it perfect to take with us on those trips.
The set is aimed at age four and over and I think this is just right. Bud is definitely using it to improve his hand eye coordination and it's interesting to see him adjust his grip the more he plays. LM is very attracted by this set but we did have an incident where she hit Bud with the club so we're keeping it away from her now. She's too little, at two, to play with it properly. The set costs £21:95 which is more expensive than plastic golf sets but well worth it for a high quality, great looking toy which promotes active, outdoor play so much. It's a definite 'hole in one' from us.
Disclosure: We received this set for review purposes.
