Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm not a paranoid mother by any means! I don't follow my daughter around worried about every little potential danger. I let my kiddo explore and get dirty. And so I don't think I've EVER complained here about anything I've bought her being potentially dangerous. It might sound silly but I do feel the need to warn about these crayons! They look so very safe. What damage could non-toxic Crayola (the brand we all grew up with!) toddler crayons do, right? Well, these crayons are hollow and easily breakable. How did I find this out? We learned this within five minutes of my daughter opening them up on Christmas morning. She dropped one onto our tile floor and it shattered into a hundred shards. I honestly didn't expect that. Even being hollow these crayons are big and heavy - heavy enough to break thin glass if thrown. My daughter's new easel was set up in the living room on Christmas morning near an antique lawyer's bookshelf (w/ glass panes.) One of these cracked the glass! Yep. We had these for not five minutes and all it took was my daughter dropping one from a height of less than 2 ft for us to experience a shattered crayon and broken glass pane. Obviously we moved these crayons after that. But they break when dropped on concrete or tile. We live in the Southwest and don't have carpeting - so these all broke and were utterly useless. Frankly, they're a bit too big for toddler hands, in my opinion. My daughter isn't quite 2 years old but she's big for her age (the size of a typical 3 yo - wears a size 3t - and she has huge hands!) and had a hard time grasping these. We ended up buying her regular sized washable Crayola crayons. They're a little thin so she ends up snapping them in half occasionally but at least they aren't colored wax grenades like these! I love Crayola and still trust the brand but these were a total waste of money. Addendum: I'd like to add that I agree w/ another reviewer here - the fact that these are shaped the way they are certainly doesn't help dissuade our daughter from throwing these! The minute she saw these my toddler squealed "ball! ball! ball!" and started trying to throw them. Just another strike against these IMO. They look like a great idea but are fraught w/ problems. Crayola's "Ultra-Clean Washable" line of crayons are great and half the price for a pack of 48 colors. We love them - and they truly do wash off everything easily. I've washed their marks off of walls, windows, furniture, wood toys, doors, wicker baskets, appliances, and even a flat screen tv w/ one swipe of a baby wipe (sigh...looking quite forward to the end of the "terrible two's!) :-)