Are Toy Subscription Boxes Worth It?
After vetting eight toy subscription box services, I ultimately tested the KiwiCo Panda Crates, Lalo Play Boxes, and Lovevery Play Kits, trying multiple boxes from each company over a period of five months.
All five of my children found the Lovevery Play Kits and the KiwiCo Panda Crates enticing — even my older kids, who are triple the intended age range for the toys inside. Each box had its own pros, cons, and questionable aspects, however.
I ultimately dismissed Lalo Play Boxes because the toy quantities and types weren’t as robust and exciting for my kids as those in the other boxes. And they didn’t seem worth the price — a sentiment echoed by parents in the few reviews available online.
These thoughtfully designed boxes, for kids from birth to age 4, come with ample guidance and educational materials for parents, including an app.
Focusing on a distinct thematic milestone with every box — counting, sorting, and listening, for example — these play kits are meant to encourage play-based learning for kids from birth to age 3.
Both Lovevery Play Kits and KiwiCo Panda Crates feature similarly styled toys designed for children in a comparable age range, but Lovevery may appeal more to parents who want deeper insight into the “why” behind every stage of play.
And both companies’ boxes come with guides to help parents make the most of the toys in each kit. But Lovevery also comes with an app that shows different ways to use the toys, alongside educational information about child development. Some families may find comfort in this approach to parenting, but others may find it overwhelming. I found the app to be a potentially helpful tool for tired and busy parents who may appreciate having information about their child’s development distilled and delivered right to their phones.
Lovevery offers one box for each specific age. And KiwiCo allows parents to pick from three subscription options — Essentials, Plus, and Deluxe — with each one offering more items than the last. All KiwiCo Panda Crates are designed to focus on a single developmental theme, such as listening, speaking, and pretending. Lovevery’s kits are organized around more-amorphous concepts, such as The Charmer, The Realist, and The Free Spirit.
Because there are different subscription tiers and age ranges for each service, comparing the prices of Lovevery Play Kits and KiwiCo Panda Crates is not entirely straightforward. It was not possible to make a one-off purchase of either type of box at the time of our testing, but Lovevery now has the option to buy a single play kit (and both companies offer individual toy purchases on their websites). Individual toys and mini kits from both Lovevery and KiwiCo are also available à la carte at Target.
Although Lovevery Play Kits are available for babies and children up to age 4, the equivalent kits from KiwiCo go up to only age 3. (KiwiCo also makes great craft and activity subscription boxes for kids as young as 3, and they could theoretically transition to these when they outgrow the Panda Crates.)
| Toy box | Price | Frequency | Number of items inside |
| Lovevery Play Kit, ages 0 to 1 | $80 per box, delivered every two months | two-month increments | nine to 11 |
| Lovevery Play Kit, ages 1 to 4 | $120 per box, delivered every three months | three-month increments | six to 10 |
|
KiwiCo Panda Crate–Essentials ages 0 to 3 |
$50 per box; $44 per box for annual subscription billed bimonthly; $42 per box for annual subscription if prepaid in full. They also offer non-renewing 3- and 6-crate subscriptions that work out to slightly more per box. | two-month increments | five to seven |
|
KiwiCo Panda Crate–Plus ages 0 to 3 |
$80 per box; $72 per box for annual subscription billed bimonthly; $70 per box for annual subscription if prepaid in full. They also offer non-renewing 3- and 6-crate subscriptions that work out to slightly more per box. | two-month increments | six to nine |
|
KiwiCo Panda Crate–Deluxe ages 0 to 3 |
$92 per box; $84 per box for annual subscription billed bimonthly; $82 per box for annual subscription if prepaid in full. They also offer non-renewing 3- and 6-crate subscriptions that work out to slightly more per box. | two-month increments | six to nine, plus a book |
Both Lovevery and KiwiCo kits come with quality, Montessori-style toys and other items that are often made of wood and feature relatively muted colors. Some toys — like a colorful wooden toy that KiwiCo calls the Double Spinning Drum and Lovevery calls the Spinning Rainbow — even appear across both subscription lines.
For all of the overlap between the two services, there are also key differences. Lovevery’s Play Kits feature toys with color blocking and basic geometric shapes. Its kits for the youngest babies (weeks 0 to 12 and months 3 to 4) include high-contrast images and soft toys, while the rest of the line relies, for the most part, on wooden blocks in muted colors. The minimalist design of the toys may spark imagination or result in boredom, depending on the child.
KiwiCo’s Panda Crates similarly offer softer, high-contrast toys for the youngest customers, but there are brighter colors throughout the rest of the subscription line. I found the toys in the KiwiCo Panda Crates more straightforward in their design than those in the Lovevery Play Kits; for better or worse, a baby will know exactly what to do with the xylophone and shaker set in the Let’s Listen Panda Crate (for babies 6 to 7 months old).
Both Lovevery and KiwiCo toys are designed to hold up well over time, and they both have a high resale demand, though perhaps more so for Lovevery. One Lovevery Facebook resale group, for example, has over 90,000 members, compared with around 3,000 members in this KiwiCo resale group.
Both Lovevery and KiwiCo allow you to pause or cancel your subscription plans if needed — including if your kids, like mine, ultimately find the contents of the junk drawer just as enticing as a mail-order toy box.
This article was edited by Alison Rochford and Kalee Thompson.
