The worst toy is one with many pieces that my kids dump on the ground and then play with for only 2 minutes. This makes a cleaning to playtime ratio: 2 minute play vs 10 minute clean up
Sucking away my life as a parent.
A beautiful toy is one that the kids play with a lot, over a long time, and that isn’t hard to clean up.
1. Repeatability
Play once 1 —|—|—|— 5 Play daily for years
2. Length of play session
One minute 1 —|—|—|—5 30+ minutes
3. Clean up ease
Annoying 1 —|—|—|— 5 Easy
Score: 13
Repeatability: 5
Length of play session: 4
Clean up ease: 4
Score: 13
Repeatability: 5
Length of play session: 5
Clean up ease: 3
Score: 12
Repeatability: 4
Length of play session: 4
Clean up ease: 4
Score: 6
Repeatability: 2
Length of play session: 2
Clean up ease: 2
Comparing the toys I score high and the toy I scored low, here are the principles that I think give a toy a high score.
The high-scoring toys can become many different kinds of objects. At our house, they are robots, they are rocket ships. They are a fishing hook that then we go fishing with.
The giant magnet tiles and small magnet tiles also become containers for a narrative to play out. The magnet tiles are often present boxes to deliver birthday presents to each other, or houses that other toys live inside of. The giant tiles are houses, rocket ships, nap pods, or shops. I would rather have a pile of giant magnet tiles than one “play store”.
By contrast, the pieces in the Minecraft toy are each a specific thing: a tree, water, or lava. There are fewer world building possibilities, with everything fitting into the strong frame that the toy offers. It makes sense that they grow bored of playing with them if it has fewer “games” to offer.
Each piece of the high scoring toys has a fun relationship with the others. If the pieces are different, they are different enough that it doesn’t take a lot of thought to choose between them.
The toy below looks less fun to me because it looks more fiddly. If I was playing, I would need to figure out if I want a slightly bent angle or a straight one, and it seems like not a fun choice.
Apparently every toy that I find easiest to clean up has magnets on it. Maybe I feel the satisfaction of clicking them together as I clean them up. Cleaning becomes a little like playing.
With the high scoring toys, the magnets are strong, and the connection between parts feels satisfying when you make it.
On the other side, the Minecraft toy magnets are less strong and feel less satisfying to put together. It doesn’t have a satisfying sense of being complete when you stick them together; it’s more like a temporary paste.
The toy Clixo seems cool: flexible play, elegant shapes, and magnetic. I predict it would be a top scoring toy.