Decorate-Your-Own Wooden Train Kit Review

Connecticut-based toy company Melissa & Doug sells a plethora of unique craft kits at drop-in-the-bucket prices. The prices are right, but do these button-cute art projects keep the attention of active youngsters? To find out, we took the Decorate-Your-Own Wooden Train Kit for a spin with our five-year-old toy tester, Douglas.

The DYO Wooden Train Kit, one of a trio of DYO Vehicle crafts that Melissa & Doug offers, comes with a wooden engine body, 6 wooden wheels, paints, a paintbrush, glue, and stickers. So far so good. The wooden train itself seemed well-made, and our tester was able to assemble it fairly easily with a little help from his mom. When it came time for Douglas to decorate, things didn't go as smoothly. The paintbrush included with the kit was hard for him to work with, and the paints didn't want to transfer from the brush to the wooden engine. He ended up breaking out some paints he already owned to finish coloring in his train. Once the paint was dry, Douglas had a great time embellishing his engine with stickers and making it chug along. He seemed proud of his creation, and his mom said he spent quite a while playing with it once it was completed.

Our child tester's experience with the DYO Wooden Train Kit wasn't perfect, but it was favorable. It kept him occupied, gave free rein to his creativity, and inspired pretend play. We found only a smattering of online toy reviews for this product, and most seemed similarly pleased, like this Amazon parent to a three-year-old recommended these for junior party guests.

Our verdict: The Melissa & Doug Decorate-Your-Own Wooden Train Kit may not impress older grade-schoolers, but parents of children 3 to 7 might find it a welcome boredom-buster or rainy-day diversion.