For my birthday, I received a surprise from my parents. They had bought me a table!
Whoopie... I got a kickass table for birthday. Er... Dad , this does not sound right???!!!???
I was a little perplexed. I saw the picture on the box showing a table with a train set and thought I was getting the train set instead. A table may be interesting to some but it sure does not sound enticing to me.
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| Where is the table? |
Daddy explained that this table is a special table. It would be a play table for us for our existing wooden train set. This special table is the
Melissa and Doug Multi activity table. Daddy had sourced high and low for a good quality train table, but they are hard to come by in Singapore. Thankfully he found this at Mothercare!
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| Instructions |
The package is huge and heavy. Measuring a monstrous 50 x 33x 17.75 inch when assembled, the box itself is much longer and wider. As a result it would not fit in most cars except maybe an MPV like the
VW Sharan that we had for a week.
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| Separate into parts ( cute kid not included) |
Assembly
There are 15 different parts in the Melissa and Doug table. Before assembly, we recommend you to sort them out first for easy reference. There are stickers indicating the parts number, so it is pretty easy to identify them. As for assembly, if you can follow a typical IKEA instructions, Melissa and Doug table would be a breeze .As for the materials, the Melissa and Doug table comes in solid wood as compared to plywood products from certain brands. Given its quality, we have no doubt that it would make a sturdy and stable table when completed.
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| Little helper. |
With my assistance, Daddy completed "building" the table in under an hour. We had an existing "no brand" train set from IKEA and decided to use that on the table. It does look a little puny within the massive table.
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| Melissa and Doug activity table assembled |
There is also a nifty storage drawer to store our excess trains that we do not use. It would be better if it is bigger, but it should be sufficient to store trains and even tracks within.
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| Build in drawer |
Should you need more space, you can utilize the spaces under the table with storage boxes to store other toys.
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| Choo choo |
Sensing that the existing little train set would be too small for the table, Daddy decided to surprise me with my 'real' birthday gift... The Calley's rescue set from Chuggington wooden railway series.
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| Calley's Rescue set |
Play
With a little bit of creative engineering , Daddy managed to combine both the new and old wooden train sets into one. After an hour of building , he is ready to unveil our very own train paradise. The train set itself is not glued or bolted down. Instead Daddy used blu-tac to keep the tracks in place. This way it allows flexibility to change the track designs or to use the table for other purposes in the future.
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| Train set on Melissa and Doug |
As I have no particular favourite amongst the brands of trains, I am fine playing both the Chuggington or the Thomas wooden train set version. Both brands works with our new and old train tracks perfectly. What we like about the table is that it keeps the tracks and train in place due to the raise edge on the sides.
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| Chuggington or Thomas |
I would imagine myself having hours of fun on the Melissa and Doug train set. I am sure Kor Kor would agreed with me on that and I am almost certain Daddy would sneak into my room to play as well.
For those interested, the Melissa and Doug Multi Activity table is
available at Mothercare Singapore. It may not be available in all stores, so do head down to their website here to order one. The table could also be used for other functions such as puzzles, building blocks, doll house, Lego tables, etc, thus the term 'multi activity'. Considering the cost is cheaper than a Thomas the Train table set, the table is value for money given it's functions.
Do take note that the table is a tad big. It took up half our room when fixed!
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| Playing at the Melissa and Doug train table |
An Alternative
For those looking for a cheaper alternative , you can consider the Lack Coffee Table from Ikea. With little or minimum hack, you can turn this
to
It was suppose to be Daddy's choice, but since he had a fantastic deal , he simply could not resist getting the Melissa & Doug version instead.
Disclaimer
This is not a sponsored post hor...We did pay for the table albeit at a generous discount. There are simply too little info on train tables in Singapore, so we thought of sharing this for those looking for one. A special thank to Shu Ming who made Little Lou birthday extra special.
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