HABA Animal Blocks

Build Your Own Zoo Creations

We received these HABA Zippity Zoo wooden animal blocks as a gift for my firstborn. He loved them. I loved them. We played with them for almost six years, and the only reason we let them go is because we have so many other blocks that I can’t justify keeping them all.

The non-toxic paint holds up very well, in case your dog runs off with one or more pieces after drool or anything more interesting gets on them. They wipe clean with one easy swipe, and despite being jumbled in with a variety of other blocks and hard objects with little to no care, they show no signs of cracking or breaking. Even more impressively, after more than six years of play, I can still find all 25 pieces, which is something of a miracle in and of itself.

We used them to crash towers originally, then for building, as support for wooden train tracks, additional structural components with other wooden block sets, and finally for advanced stacking skills. The bright colors and cute accents drew all three of my kids to them. Despite the resilient wood, they never got hurt when towers crashed or walls crumbled, though I do not recommend getting in the path of one launched by an angry two year old.

The only thing that bothered me were the animal configurations. Not all animals got the required number of blocks. I had a hard time figuring out which ones made what kinds of animals. I could get behind the lion with only two legs. But I never got used to the poor hippo and his head perched precariously on a little stumps for legs. Of course those details don’t bother kids, but I often wondered if pieces went missing even when we had them all in front of us.

Overall, I’m extremely pleased with the blocks and the gift giver.