Maybe it’s because I blog about sandwiches or because I shop often for toys but I’ve started noticing quite a lot of sandwich toys on the market these days. I enlisted the help of my 4-year old daughter and 2-year old son to help me test out four fun-looking sandwich toys I’ve come across lately. If you’ve got any food-loving children (or kids at heart) on your holiday shopping list you’ll definitely want to look into these. PLUS…
**Win These Sandwich Toys!**
At the end of this post you’ll have the chance to enter to win the toys that I’ve featured – from brands including Melissa & Doug, Green Toys, Gamewright and Handstand Kids. Read on!
We love Melissa & Doug food toys in our house – their Melissa & Doug Felt Food – Sandwich Set (retail $19.99) was just as much fun as their sushi, ice cream and cupcake sets. There are quite a number of mix-and-match “ingredients” to this set – 33 in all. An adult (like myself) may look at the pieces and perceive them as vaguely resembling real food but with a child’s (like my daughter’s) imagination they are as real as can be. My daughter started out assembling sandwiches that she regularly eats – PB & J, turkey and cheese – and then ventured into more creative territory involving the fried egg and pickles. She also enjoyed wearing the red onions like bracelets.
Although my two-year old is a little young for this toy (recommended for ages 3+) he enjoyed picking up each of the felt pieces and had learned all of their names (“bwead!”) after a week of playing with them.
The Green Toys Sandwich Shop (retail $16.99) is an especially good choice for very young toddlers, ages 2 and up. It’s got about half the number of pieces as the Melissa & Doug set – fewer to get lost around the house – and since they’re made with food-safe recycled plastic they can withstand the chomping, whacking and hurling that kids this age tend to inflict on their toys. The set comes with all the fixins for a very well-dressed hamburger or deli sandwich. An added fun detail is the pack of order forms that lets the kids take your sandwich order just like at a real sandwich shop and then attempt to create the requested sandwich (you can even print out additional forms from their website).
Older children may prefer the greater breadth of ingredient options that the Melissa & Doug set offers, while the Green Toys set features fewer but more realistic, durable and “green” components.
Even though it’s primarily a cookbook, I’ve included the Handstand Kids Italian Cookbook Kit (retail $25.00) on my list of top sandwich toys because 1) it contains a panini recipe so kids can actually make a real sandwich and 2) it comes with a little chef hat and is creatively packaged in a pizza box. My daughter loves to go into the pantry – where I keep all of my cookbooks – pull out this little pizza box, don the chef hat and plop down her cookbook to browse the recipes and stories.
This is definitely not your typical super-simple recipe cookbook for kids. I had to separate seven eggs and fold in whipped whites to execute the Torta al Cioccolato (chocolate cake) with my little girl! Most of the recipes aren’t nearly that involved, but I mention it to demonstrate the kit’s commitment to the food and the cultures it represents (the company makes Mexican and Chinese kits as well). Many of the ingredient names are actually written in Italian, which my daughter picked up right away as we were cooking and thought was fun (“When do we add the zucchero?”).
The kit is geared mainly for school-aged children, but it grabbed the attention and interest of even my preschooler.
With it’s bread-shaped playing cards, Slamwich (retail $9.99) caught my attention one day at our local toy store. It’s definitely the sort of card game I would have loved playing as a kid with my sisters. It’s fast paced, you’re looking for cards to appear in a certain sandwich stacking order, there’s lots of card-slapping and yelling out of “slamwich!” and “stop thief!”. There’s a little bit of a learning curve when it comes to understanding the rules at first (it’s designed for kids 6-11 so it’s not that complicated) but I easily simplified the play to allow my 4-year old to enjoy it as well. She even made little “sandwiches” with the beautifully illustrated cards.
There’s also a special Collector’s Edition of this game (I haven’t played this version yet), which comes with new cards and is packaged in a pretty cool metal lunch box.
* * *
It’s a BIG Sandwich Toy Giveaway! [THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED]
Here’s your chance to win the Melissa & Doug Felt Food – Sandwich Set, Green Toys Sandwich Shop, Handstand Kids Italian Cookbook Kit or Slamwich! I’ll choose four winners at random – each winner will receive one of the sandwich toy prizes.
Here are four ways to enter, you can do any or all of them (please leave separate comments for each entry):
- Leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite toy as a kid (either one you had or one you wished you had!).
- “Like” Panini Happy on Facebook
- Subscribe to free updates from Panini Happy via e-mail or RSS
- Follow me @paninikathy on Twitter
The giveaway will close on Friday, December 9, 2011 at noon PST. [THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED] I will use random.org to select four winners (each winner will receive one of the sandwich toy prizes) and announce the winners in this post. I will contact the winners via e-mail – if I don’t receive a response within 5 days I will draw another name. Due to shipping costs, the prize can only be shipped to U.S. addresses.
**UPDATE 12/10/11: Congratulations to our winners – Joanna Liwanag #7, Angela Chee #52, Grace #41 and Mandi #4!
Thanks to Melissa & Doug, Green Toys, Gamewright and Handstand Kids for providing products for review and the prizes for this giveaway.
Panini Happy, online since 2008, is more than just a sandwich blog. Here, you'll find hundreds of my original 
My favorite game was Memory Game, where you matched up the picture cards.
My favorite toy as a kid was my tea set. Endless imagination and parties!
I like “Panini Happy” on FB!
I like Panini Happy on Facebook!
As a kid, my favorite toy was probably art supplies: crayons, paints, paper, etc.
I loved my Cabbage Patch Kid 🙂
That was my favorite, too! Waldo Weber 🙂
My favorite toy as a kid was the Fisher-Price Little People village.
I like Panini Happy on Facebook!
My favorite toy was a toy oven that actually made sparks from the burner when you twisted the knob.
I like Panini Happy on facebook
I follow Paninikathy on twitter
@jednc2
My favorite toy as a kid was Alphie! Loved that little robot.
Whoa, I had completely forgotten about that one!! I loved all those robot toys.
I like Panini Happy on Facebook.
I follow you on Twitter.
alysiajuanita
I loved Teddy Ruxbin as a kid. It’s a bit creepy now but it sure was a fun toy. As an older kid, I play slamwich with my younger siblings… what an awesome game!
I liked Panini Happy on FB.
My favorite toy as a kid was my American Girl doll… I got the Samantha doll after saving money for what seemed like forever and loved her! 🙂
I loved my barbies!
I subscribe via email!
I love your toy/cookbook suggestions for my granddaughter who has expressed an interest in cooking. It is also a great bonding time for grandma and brings back memories of childhood.
I loved my Cabbage Patch kids and barbies. I had to buy the 20th anniversary doll for my oldest daughter because I found one that looked like my original.
My favorite “toy” was a Wheel-o that my brother bought me when they first were marketed in the 1960’s by Wham-O. It did not work properly, so he showed me how to send a letter to the company. They sent me a new one that worked great!! I was delighted with the toy and with their customer service.
Picking one toy is tough! I have to say that I loved Weebles and was so excited to give one of my twins the new Weebles set for her birthday.
I don’t remember a favorite toy…I do remember liking to play dress-up with old clothes, play in the sandbox, and read books!
email subscriber
like Panini happy on fb
I like Panini Happy on Facebook.
My favorite was my Barbies
My favorite toy was Voltron.
“Like” Panini Happy on Facebook
DONE!
Subscribe to free updates from Panini Happy via e-mail or RSS
DONE!
Follow me @paninikathy on Twitter
DONE!
my favorite toy was a barbie!!!!
My favorite toys were paper dolls I made myself. I wold create lots of paper dresses as well for any occasion 🙂
My favorite toy was my Chatty Cathy
My favorite toys were the play kitchen of course! The little teas set and dishes and my own sink to pretend washing them!
My Little Ponies! I still have a few of them to show my kids when they are older :0) And I loved Barbies!
I get emails and updates!
I liked you on Facebook! Thanks for sharing all your yummy recipes.
hmmmm. I think my favorite toy was probably my lego set. I could build all sorts of things and I rarely followed the directions. I had a giant box for keeping my legos in that also doubled as a lego building area.
My favorite toys were and still are ninja turtle action figures. Turtle power!
Barbie Dream House
RSS
My favorite toy as a kid was a red metal fire engine that had pedals… mostly because my grandfather and uncles were all firemen and I loved going to the firehouse!
liked Panini Happy on facebook
I loved playing “kitchen” when I was little. We had a few play foods (or made up our own with broken crayons, etc), but I also had an aluminum sink, stove and my Grandpa made me a refrigerator/freezer in wood to match!
So Cute!!!! My favorite childhood game was coloring. Does that count?!
I just saw sandwich slippers the other day! Now I will have to find you the link!
Oh my goodness, I like the sound of those slippers!
My favorite toys were my Cabbage Patch Dolls
I subscribe via email!
I just loved my cabbage patch doll!
My favorite toy was the Snoopy snowcone maker.
Oh yes! I loved that one too. I think I gave it as a gift for every birthday party when I was 7 or 8. 🙂
Simon-remember the electronic memory game with the colors! I’d play that all day.
Me too! I’d still play that now if I still had one. 🙂
my favorite toy was my bicycle
tmc480 at yahoo dot com
like you on fb
tmc480 at yahoo dot com
email subscribe
tmc480 at yahoo dot com
follow you on twitter
tmc480 at yahoo dot com
I made it just in time! My favorite toy as a child was my brother’s and my pogo stick. We would have competitions to see who could get the most bounces without dropping. 🙂
Thanks for the great giveaway Kathy! Hope you’re doing well.
I already follow you on twitter @mommiecooks
I also like you on Facebook.
easy bake oven was my favorite toy ever!
following you on twitter now!
As a kid I used to like to play store and had a little yellow and orange grocery cart! Now, 25 years later I still have my grocery cart and my son plays with all over the house in and out! He says he’s going to the super mercado (super market) to buy frutita (fruit)! lol