****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I searched long and hard for the "perfect" easel. This was about as close as I could find without breaking the bank. I bought this for my 6 year old whose 44" tall.The Good:Adjustable height - this size is perfect. She will be able to use this for a long time - even though we do have it at 48".Folds up - I have to be able to fold this up to put it away when we aren't using it. It's not compact by any means but I've seen some where the brace that holds them open is screwed it and you can't fold them.Magnetic white board - amazing that this is not a standard feature on every white board.Large trays - for holding all the paint, pens, and supplies.Standard 18" width paper, and a nice size so you don't run out.Melissa and Doug no spill paint cups fit perfectly in the 4 holes.The quality seems pretty good to me. The legs are solid and the trays are not flimsy. Of course if someone tried to climb it, well, parts might break.The Bad:Missing parts - 10 screws and 2 wooden dowels. Box was intact too. We called them and they shipped up replacements.It only comes with 2 puny little clips. They work ok but I had to add some larger chip clips to hold individual sheets of paper securely for my aggressive painter.Chalk board is not very good. We used liquid chalk pens thinking those would be easier to remove (after I saw bad reviews about the board). Used 1 time and now there are permanent hearts and flowers on it that I can not get off. I'll have to get some of that chalkboard paint and see if I can repaint it.Paint / markers will stain the light wood. I don't really care about that but you might.Overall, I am very happy with the purchase and my daughter loves it. We will be able to use it for many art projects.I purchased this for my kid's birthday after carefully reviewing the different options on Amazon. It was the most expensive easel but the only one that combined white board, black board and magnetic board.There are so many things wrong with this item that I returned it to Amazon after a few weeks.Most of these issues are, in my opinion, related to poor product design. If ALEX TOYS goes back to the drawing board, literally, and fixes these design flaws, they could have a winner on their hands despite the higher price tag.WOOD FRAMEThe whole easel is made of untreated, unstained natural wood. This looked great on paper... but is a horrible idea: any kind of pen or chalk will write on it and the ink from even the most washable pens will stain the wood permanently. Within the first 3 days, the easel was covered in little color marks that are very upsetting considering the price paid. You may not care (after all, it's a drawing easel), but in my opinion this makes it look very dirty and cheap. A workaround could be to coat or stain the whole easel.TRAYSThe easel comes with two trays: a blue and a red one. They are made of relatively sturdy plastic, but there are only two little holes on the red tray used to attach it to the frame and they are too close to the border. As a result, and unless your kid is old enough to never ever push downward on the dray, it's not a question of if, but just when it will break. Mine broke within the first 24 hours.BLACK BOARDEven after having seasoned the black board as indicated several times, I could still not get it to work properly. I'm not sure if it's because it's a low quality board, but the bottom line is that my kid never used it because no amount of chalk will make a drawing contrasted enough to visually stand out.PAPER ROLLThere's a slit at the bottom of the white board to hold the paper from the roll in place . However, it's not flush with the board, which makes it almost impossible to drive the paper inside of it. I've tried four or five times, each time tearing the paper, then I gave up. This is the biggest defect in my opinion, and something so easy to redesign that it can only mean that ALEX TOYS hasn't tested their product in real conditions.ASSEMBLYNot complicated, but very time consuming and frustrating. Depending on the height at which you want to fix the white and black boards, you need to use different size bolts, and the user's manual does a terrible job at clarifying which ones to use.BOTTOM LINEI was willing to pay a higher price for a good looking, high quality easel. What a mistake... Ikea's easel ([...]) is much simpler, much higher quality, doesn't require any assembly, has the same feature (except for the magnetic board) ... and only costs $14.99!I wanted an easel with a dry erase board that was also magnetic surface. I figured my kids (4 & 2 now, 2 & 12 mo when I bought this) wouldn't use the dry erase feature until they were older, but might enjoy a place to play with their plastic magnet letters and other magnet toys. Well, they really haven't done either. No dry erase markers, and no magnets. Instead I attach a big sheet of paper to each side and they paint or color with crayons or markers (both washable.) I won't say they've never used magnets or dry earse markers or chalk, I just mean the vast majority of the times they use the eaasel, they want paper on it. And the paper grasp clips that come with the easel are pitiful, crappy things. I use large sized "chip clips" and the jumbo office binder clips to keep the paper in place. Like other reviewers I've had an issue with the screw peg caps coming off, and never going back on. I guess the threading is stripped, as ridiculous as that seems to me based on the gentle way in which they have been utilized by us. Again, I just think they are really crappy to begin with, like they were a designers last minute decorative touch that lacks any reasonable hardware functionality. Having said all that, I will also say that my kids enjoy the easel. it's a great creative outlet for them, and it is not in danger of collapsing or toppling over or anything similar, as far as I can tell. Also it's aesthetically pleasing, which for me means it's a traditional looking wooden easel instead of a big, unsightly hunk of molded plastic. It's a shame they cut corners on the quality of a few small features.I liked all the different coloured parts to making this awesome easel/chalkboard standout for kids.El producto llegó antes de lo esperado. El producto estaba bien empacado y fue recibido en excelentes condiciones. El producto es de alta calidad.Love this easel and so does my three year old! Great quality!
