Building blocks vs. Lego Duplo

My 5 year old girl loves puzzle and building.  She received Lego Duplo when she was two.  She was too young to build with them but now of course it is not an issue she has the strength and fine motor skills.  I have observed that she enjoys her Plan toys Twisted Blocks, Magna-Tiles and Tegu blocks much more than Lego blocks. The Lego Duplo are just not as much fun as other building toys: hard to click together: Haba Sticki blocks are much better starting toys in that regard.

The free form options allows her to conduct arranging games on the carpet, build castles, garages, horse stables much more readily than Lego.

My 2 year old with his tegu blocks which continue to be a huge hit.


I also recommend these twisted Plan Toys blocks but it seems that they are getting discontinued as Plan Toys continues the transition from wood to a composite. Too bad, these are really cool. We have one set to which we added the hollow blocks form Plan Toys. I think one more set would be good but I am still trying to figure it out. My 5 year old plays with these every week.
  +  = great set, fits neatly in a cube bin