One of the toys I remember most fondly from my own childhood is the assorted collection of Colorform sets we used to own. There was something magical about those small vinyl adhesive “stickers”. To this day, the image of the classic Colorforms logo instantly triggers my brain to conjure up the smell of them.
For years I’ve searched in vain for something similar to give to my girls. That is, until a chance encounter at a doctor’s office where Stella found something called Create-A-Scene
It’s the closest I’ve been able to come to the Colorforms of my youth and, better yet, Create-A-Scene is a bit sturdier and uses thicker magnets in lieu of thin vinyl. After Stella’s encounter with the Create-A-Scene set at the doctor’s, I searched online and immediately purchased three sets off of Amazon. They offer a large collection- from dinosaurs, to fairies, pirates, princesses, cars, farms, zoos, firefighters, and trains – just to name a few. The prices range around $10 but I have seen them go as cheaply as $5 and as high as $12 before–
Still…not too bad for a new family favorite, and so, I’m adding them to my list of Must-Have resources.
The only downside we had was when Stella tried closing her set up while her princess-carriage piece was placed on the fold. She pushed so hard she cracked the magnet in half. I’ve since showed the girls how to make sure the pieces are off of the crease before they close up their set and we haven’t had the problem since.
These Create-A-Scene
Amazingly enough, we haven’t had any lost pieces. (Or if we have the girls haven’t noticed them.) In any event, I haven’t had to perform any massive search parties yet.
I love being able to inject something much-loved from my own childhood into my daughters’ lives. Awhile back I wrote about one of my favorite books as a young child and the joy I received while watching my daughters giggle over it together. These Create-A-Scenes are giving me that same nostalgic happiness. It’s the passing of a torch. . . and I like to think it keeps the kid-at-heart alive inside of me.
I also loved colorforms as a kid and have spent quite a bit of time looking for something similar for my girls. I will definitely have to check these out! They look adorable.
I loved Colorforms as a kid! I had forgotten all about them until I saw your post. I’ll have to check out these magnetic sets. I would think they would be sturdier than the old ones too…I remember I used to love paper dolls too, but I haven’t seen any of those around lately either. Too bad, because I think my younger girls would enjoy a lot of the same toys I grew up on. Do you happen to know of a place to get paper dolls??
Hi Jennifer!
My girls simply adore their new Andi and Taffy paper dolls. You can see some close-up images of them here. And as an added benefit, these paper dolls are fairly sturdy and use a bit of Velcro instead of those annoying fold-over tabs.
I was just talking about the old Colorform sets with my Mom last week! I’ll have to get some of these Create-a-Scene’s for my son. Thank you.
I also just saw these paper dolls http://www.minimepaperdolls.com/ and thought they looked wonderful.