Melissa & Doug 100 Wooden Building Blocks

This is the block set: 100 solid wood blocks in nine shapes and four colors, in a wooden storage crate, from the brand that has made the same toy for decades. A one-year-old knocks the towers down, a three-year-old builds the towers, a five-year-old builds a city around them, and nothing about the blocks changes.

It is the baby shower gift with a long runway, the Christmas present for a toddler who has too many things with batteries, and the set grandparents keep in the corner for every visit. It also stacks with any other wooden block set.

Ages 2 and up on the box; the blocks are too big to swallow and too smooth to splinter. Under fifteen dollars for the toy that gets passed to the next child.