Pley Toy Rental Review

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I was recently approached by Pley, a toy rental company offering me 1 free month of service with no obligation to review although they would appreciate that. I decided to give the service a shot since it is something that I had looking into and considered trying in the past.

As part of the sign up process I got to select which toy we wanted to receive, I was afraid of renting a LEGO set due to our experience with another toy rental company and my kids being heartbroken at having to return them so I chose a different toy that my children had expressed interest in at the store.

Order processing was super fast! I got a shipping notification within minutes of submitting the order but the shipping method used was very slow so the cross country trek took over a week.

The toy pieces arrived in a mesh zipper bag with laminated instructions which I like. There were no pieces missing and the kids were super excited. There was a surprise gift included for my son to keep, a silicon Lego bracelet that he could attach bricks and minifigures to, he loved it!

What I liked:

• Affordable plans
• Quick shipping notification
• Toys are sanitized
• Environmentally friendly- the website keeps track of reduction in CO2 emissions
• No commitments, easy to cancel.
• 500+ toys to choose from including 400 Lego sets
• User friendly website, easy to report problems such as missing pieces
• Free gift- my son was surprised to get a LEGO compatible bracelet to keep
• Laminated instructions
• Customizable wish list, select categories to be suggested toys, x out the ones you are not interested in, star the ones you want to get
• Ability to buy the toy if the child wants to keep it
• Pley donates a toy to underprivileged children for every new member
• Ability to print return label from website if you loose the one included in the box
• As soon as the return tracking is active you can choose next toy that you want which saves time in waiting for the next toy
• Referral program.  You can earn free months of service by telling your friends about it.

 

What I didn’t like:

• No search feature for toys, I have to scroll through pages and pages of Lego sets and can’t search by name
• Some toys are not a good value. I saw several Lego sets that can be purchased for less than the cost of 1 month’s subscription so I recommend using this for bigger Lego sets and fancy toys to make sure that you are getting a good value
• Despite it shipping quickly, it was with a slow method that took over a week to arrive, time is money when you are paying a rental by the month.
• Toy purchase price was a couple of dollars higher than the regular price at several local and online stores

 

About the toy itself

We chose the Nano V2 Helix 180° toy.  This is something that the kids had showed interest in at the store so we decided to try it.

The toy instructions were practically useless, not very user friendly but thankfully the toy wasn’t hard to figure out.  Once assembled the boys had a lot of fun playing with it and customizing the configuration of the tunnels.

The bug would sometimes get stuck on its side and we had to right it before it entered a tunnel otherwise it would get stuck on the tunnel, other than that it was a great toy.  The boys liked it enough to want to keep it but we chose to return it to buy a slightly different version of the toy that offers more configuration options.

 

 

 

Bottom Line

This toy rental service is a great concept and fits a need in the market. This service is good for people that have limited space and don’t want to accumulate toys that don’t get played with after a while. Your child can play with the same toy until the novelty wears off and then choose something different.

It is also good for when your child wants a very expensive toy that you don’t think would be a good value long term. For example, I love building with LEGO but don’t want to spend several hundred dollars on a fancy LEGO set that I will only build once. With Pley I can rent it, build it, take pictures, play with it for a bit and then return it without such a huge hit on my wallet.

 

Disclosure
I received a free toy rental with no obligation for a review. The opinions expressed are my own.