Half the fun of a train ride is getting to the destination. The different places and people you meet along the way help to make travel memories that will last forever. This fall, when kids play with their BRIO trains, they’ll get to experience this sensation with its new line of play sets.
This year, BRIO will expand their BRIO World line with the Village—the first character-based play theme within BRIO World—which features the BRIO Family Home Playset. The Family Home comes with 46 pieces, which include two different male figures and two different female figures, along with a few common house accessories. The pieces are either plastic, wood, or both, and kids can easily snap or slide them into place. The house is made up of splashes of green, yellow, and red. The color scheme and the equal amount of male and female characters—as well as all the accessories within the entire Village theme—makes it a gender-neutral play set that all siblings and friends can enjoy during playtime.
Once kids follow the steps to create their house, it stands 10 inches tall and 17 inches long. Overall, the pieces connect pretty easily, and most kids won’t have trouble with the assembly. With that said, some of the youngest conductors, may need some initial assistance since the assortment of pieces could lead to a little chaos (and a messy living room) at first. A fun feature about the house is that while the manual includes step-by-step instructions on how to build the house as it is displayed on the box, it can also be built in a number of different ways. The booklet includes pictures of three different layouts and encourages kids to get creative.
The house has a modern look and contains different rooms that can be the living room, bedroom, or wherever their imagination takes them. Where as some rooms have floors that characterize it as a specific room, such as the checkered floor that makes a great kitchen, other rooms are open for interpretation to whoever is playing. For example, the red, green, and blue-striped floors can become whatever room that kids may want them to be. Additionally, while the back of the house does not have any walls so that it’s simple for kids to play with their characters inside, there are also tons of windows, a balcony, and a wide door that opens and closes, so it’s even easier for kids to maneuver their figures in, out, and around the home.
The Village theme is inspired from experiences that kids live through on a day-to-day basis. For example, in addition to the Family Home, a school, an ice cream shop, and a market stand are also sets that kids can collect. Children can use everyday events as a basis for role play and friendly interactions. An added bonus is that all the pieces within the line are built on the same scale as the railway sets, which allow kids to expand their railways with new characters, places, and activities. Now, when kids make railway systems, their trains’ passengers will have tons of new adventures to experience along the way.
The countdown begins to this fall, when the BRIO Family Home Playset will make its journey to stores. For now, kids will have to start planning and remodeling their BRIO World in anticipation of the new expansion.
