If you know me fairly well, you know that I am pretty frugal and love a good deal or value.  Sometimes my mind is warped and it does not make a lot of sense.  I will drive 18 miles out of my way to get the gas that is two cents lower a gallon.  I will trim and dye my own hair but spend money on Botox and manicures.   I will only order off the dollar menu when I go to McDonalds but have no problem getting the Surf and Turf when we go out to dinner.  I get it from my dad – I think they call it penny-wise and dollar foolish.  I still remember going to Shopko when we were little after church to buy White Rain shampoo.  They were 2 for one dollar and there was a limit of two.  So my dad gave us all $1.05 and handed us each a shampoo and conditioner and we each stood in line and bought our own.  There were 7 of us in church clothes in line at Shopko buying White Rain shampoo.  If my pals would actually stand in line and not run off with their pants down, I would totally do this today.

So I have spent a lot of money on dumb crappy toys for my pals and the thought of spending 150 bucks on some toy was really hard for me to wrap my brain around.  (I must disclose it is for the giant 100 piece pack).  My dear friend Kaila introduced me to Magna-tiles and told me I had to get them for my pals.  I checked them out and thought they looked pretty lame.  A bunch of plastic shapes with magnets in the end.  What is the big whoop?  The don’t light up.  They don’t have lasers.  Better yet, they cost 150 bucks.

I caved and listened to Miss Kaila, because she is pretty wise and knows her shit.  I ordered the Magna-tiles for my pals for xmas.  I shuddered when I added them to my cart on-line.  When they arrived in some crappy little cardboard box that appeared to be holding a pair of Reeboks I was thought it was a joke.  I wrapped them up and gave them to my pals for Christmas.  That was 43 days ago and those Magna-tiles have logged about 376 hours of play time.

They. Are. Awesome.

The best part is that it is not TV.  It is good old-fashioned fun.  They build stuff all day long and actually get along and work together to build stuff. They build houses and boats and rocket ships.  The other day L.A. built a toilet.  It actually looked like one too.  That was pretty good.  Then he put a tiny Buzz Lightyear in it and told me he was pretending to be the poop.  That sounds about right.

Of course they do cause tears once in a while.  Sometimes they build a super tall tower and the giant baby comes over and knocks it down.  Well, not sometimes, more like ALL the time.

Sometimes we fight because we have to have all the purple squares…..or green triangles but overall we have no complaints.  Well I complain about picking them up and the fact that we are down about 8 tiles.

So if you are looking for an awesome toy for your kids, Magna-tiles it is.  Even if my pals never played with them again I have gotten my money’s worth…..well, that might be pushing it because I am a miser but still…..

Just beware if you have a giant baby who pretends to be Godzilla with the tile towers.