Are Toy Subscription Boxes Worth It? | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Alexandra Frost

Pots and pans. Gardening gloves. A set of old keys from the junk drawer. These are just a few of the things that my five young kids have played with and obsessed over—despite the avalanche of actual toys to choose from in our house.

Kids will play with just about anything, and sometimes they gravitate toward random objects in lieu of even the nicest toys. So when toy subscription services joined the list of things you can have automated, personalized, and sent straight to your doorstep, I wondered why I would spend money on a new box of toys each month when I’d made it through nearly a decade of parenting without them.

Many families do swear by toy subscription boxes, however, so when Wirecutter asked me to compare a handful of the top services, I was admittedly curious.

Over the past five months, my household has received 12 carefully packed cardboard boxes of toys, books, and activities made by three different companies: KiwiCo, Lalo, and Lovevery. I compared the contents of each box, and I observed how my own children reacted to each element—both in those exciting brand-new-toy moments and in the weeks and months that followed.

In addition to my own testing and research, I also assessed online reviews and gathered feedback from other parents who have used these toy boxes with their kids, including four parents on Wirecutter’s staff.

My conclusion: These boxes are wonderfully helpful for some families and a total headache for others. If the concept appeals to you, we think the best options are from Lovevery and KiwiCo.

Here’s what to know as you consider whether subscription boxes are right for you.

Toy subscription boxes are typically sent every two or three months, and they range from about $45 up to $120 per box. You can start subscribing for a newborn and continue up until a kid is 3 or 4 years old.

These kits feature activities designed around different developmental stages of play, and they often contain Montessori-style toys (such as wooden blocks and puzzles) and books. The toys are seemingly basic, but when they’re paired together, they are designed to encourage developmentally appropriate play.

All of the toy subscription boxes I tested came with guidelines or booklets to educate parents on the how and why behind each item inside. They even provided great tips on how to get parents involved in playtime.

There are multiple reasons parents might want to give toy subscription boxes a try or even to give the service to an expecting family.

Some families find that researching, sourcing, and purchasing developmentally appropriate toys for rapidly growing babies and toddlers can make the process of bringing fun into the home just another weight in the mental load of parenting.

“Modern parents are sometimes overwhelmed by options and information,” both through social media pressure and the sheer amount of toy options available, domestic equality expert and advocate Laura Danger explained.

Dads may not be as connected or feel as welcome in social media spaces that “welcome women as primary caregivers,” Danger said. These are places where moms especially learn about critical milestones. “A lot of dads don’t see the same information and don’t face the same pressure externally or internally, because they don’t know it exists,” Danger explained.

Receiving subscription boxes (where someone else has done the research) and having something “backed and vetted” show up at your door might be helpful.

Many families have play bins or even rooms full of toys that kids seem to care nothing about after a while. Keeping toys organized, and rotating them out every so often to keep kids interested, can feel like a full-time job (we have some tips there). The subscription-box concept automates that toy rotation, arguably helping to keep kids engaged in play.

When supervising editor Ingela Amundson had her second baby, she subscribed to the Lovevery Play Kits for that very reason. By buying just the Play Kits, Ingela said, she and her family were able to “take a less-is-more approach to toys.”

These kits hold their resale value well, and there are communities on social media where people buy and sell individual toys they want specifically, as well as entire boxes. Although parents have to pack and resell the kits, it may be reassuring to know that there is already an established demand for them. (Some parents do find that the pieces can be difficult to keep track of, potentially affecting resale.)

As with any toy, these subscription services may be a delight for some families and a total burden for others. Some families may enjoy the regular arrival of a new set of toys, while others may feel overwhelmed by the promise of more clutter. Some may appreciate the suggestions for developmentally appropriate play, and others may feel exhausted by yet another source of information about what they should be doing with their kids.

Remember the kitchen utensils and gardening gloves that I mentioned my kids have played with in lieu of toys? Pediatric occupational therapist Michelle Emanuel, IBCLC and founder of the TummyTime! Method, said toy subscription boxes can actually prevent that natural curiosity.

“I like spontaneity,” Emanuel said. “I like non-toyish use of toys, tools, and equipment and the environment for exploration.” Toy subscription boxes, she said, “put the baby in a box. … It just says, ‘Here are the toys and here’s how to play with them’; it doesn’t evoke creativity, it ends the creativity.”

Senior editor Marguerite Preston, who is the mom of a 2-year-old, concluded that toy subscription boxes—and specifically the recommendations for play that accompany the toys—can feed into new-parent anxiety. “The suggestions are nice,” she said, “but it could so easily play into a lot of fretting about what you should be doing with your baby, when really you should just be playing with them and enjoying them.”

“All three boxes came with some toys that involved a lot of small pieces that I know would immediately disappear into the black hole of our toy box,” said Marguerite, who tried out boxes from Lovevery, KiwiCo, and Lalo with her toddler son.

Although the quality may be high enough to maintain resale value, that works only if you are able to keep track of the pieces.

“I wish they would do a better job of creating storage solutions to go along with their own items,” said Ingela, whose 4-year-old daughter continues to regularly receive Lovevery Play Kits. “Many of the activities involve lots of little bits and bobs.”

Some of the items are also impractically large, Ingela said. “I find this frustrating, and I live in a suburban house. But if I were still in a Brooklyn apartment with limited storage, this would be a total dealbreaker.”

After vetting eight toy subscription box services, I ultimately tested the KiwiCo Panda Crates, Lalo Play Boxes, and Lovevery Play Kits, trying multiple boxes from each company over a period of five months.

All five of my children found the Lovevery Play Kits and the KiwiCo Panda Crates enticing—even my older kids, who are triple the intended age range for the toys inside. Each box had its own pros, cons, and questionable aspects, however.

I ultimately dismissed Lalo Play Boxes because the toy quantities and types weren’t as robust and exciting for my kids as those in the other boxes. And they didn’t seem worth the price—a sentiment echoed by parents in the few reviews available online.

These thoughtfully designed boxes, for kids from birth to age 4, come with ample guidance and educational materials for parents, including an app.

Focusing on a distinct thematic milestone with every box—counting, sorting, and listening, for example—these play kits are meant to encourage play-based learning for kids from birth to age 3.

Both Lovevery Play Kits and KiwiCo Panda Crates feature similarly styled toys designed for children in a comparable age range, but Lovevery may appeal more to parents who want deeper insight into the “why” behind every stage of play.

And both companies’ boxes come with guides to help parents make the most of the toys in each kit. But Lovevery also comes with an app that shows different ways to use the toys, alongside educational information about child development, which Lovevery describes on its website as a way to help “make the most of your baby’s wake windows.” Some families may find comfort in this approach to parenting, but others may find it overwhelming. I found the app to be a potentially helpful tool for tired and busy parents who may appreciate having information about their child’s development distilled and delivered right to their phones.

Lovevery offers one box for each specific age. And KiwiCo allows parents to pick from three subscription options—Essentials, Plus, and Deluxe—with each one offering more items than the last. All KiwiCo Panda Crates are designed to focus on a single developmental theme, such as listening, speaking, and pretending. Lovevery’s kits are organized around more-amorphous concepts, such as The Charmer, The Realist, and The Free Spirit.

Because there are different subscription tiers and age ranges for each service, comparing the prices of Lovevery Play Kits and KiwiCo Panda Crates is not entirely straightforward. It’s not possible to make a one-off purchase of either type of box (but, for crate- or kit-curious families, both companies offer individual toy purchases on their websites). Individual Lovevery toys are also available à la carte at Target.

Although Lovevery Play Kits are available for babies and children up to age 4, the equivalent kits from KiwiCo go up to only age 3. (KiwiCo also makes great craft subscription boxes for kids as young as 3, and they could theoretically transition to these when they outgrow the Panda Crates.)

KiwiCo Panda Crate–Essentials

ages 0 to 3

KiwiCo Panda Crate–Plus

ages 0 to 3

KiwiCo Panda Crate–Deluxe

ages 0 to 3

Both Lovevery and KiwiCo kits come with quality, Montessori-style toys and other items that are often made of wood and feature relatively muted colors. Some toys—like a colorful wooden toy that KiwiCo calls the Double Spinning Drum and Lovevery calls the Spinning Rainbow—even appear across both subscription lines.

For all of the overlap between the two services, there are also key differences. Lovevery’s Play Kits feature toys with color blocking and basic geometric shapes. Its kits for the youngest babies (weeks 0 to 12 and months 3 to 4) include high-contrast images and soft toys, while the rest of the line relies, for the most part, on wooden blocks in muted colors. The minimalist design of the toys may spark imagination or result in boredom, depending on the child.

KiwiCo’s Panda Crates similarly offer softer, high-contrast toys for the youngest customers, but there are brighter colors throughout the rest of the subscription line. I found the toys in the KiwiCo Panda Crates more straightforward in their design than those in the Lovevery Play Kits; for better or worse, a baby will know exactly what to do with the xylophone and shaker set in the Let’s Listen Panda Crate (for babies 6 to 7 months old).

Both Lovevery and KiwiCo toys are designed to hold up well over time, and they both have a high resale demand, though perhaps more so for Lovevery. One Lovevery Facebook resale group, for example, has around 95,000 members, compared with fewer than 3,000 members in this KiwiCo resale group.

Both Lovevery and KiwiCo allow you to pause or cancel your subscription plans if needed—including if your kids, like mine, ultimately find the contents of the junk drawer just as enticing as a mail-order toy box.

This article was edited by Alison Rochford and Kalee Thompson.

Alexandra Frost

Alex Frost is a Cincinnati-based journalist who contributes to Wirecutter's baby and kid section. Outside of writing hours, she spends time hanging out with her five kids, affectionately known as “#4frostyboys” and “#1frostysis” on social media.

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