We recently came across Quut Alto, and it made quite a statement during playtime!! My children love playing in the sand, and so this Easter, despite not having a holiday as such, I was keen to enable the kids to build a sandcastle or two, even if it was only on UK shores! With the nearest beach being almost 2 hours away, we decided to head down to Stafford Park and their mammoth outdoor sandpit, and the kids got stuck in, using their new beach toy from Quut.
About Quut
Quut was built by Pars Pro Toto, a Belgian Design agency with more than 20 years experience in designing and engineering innovative products and attractive brands. Their integrated team have 24 kids between them, and therefore have first hand experience of the existing poor quality beach toys on the market, that offered no emotional commection or excitement. They decided to create their own – a range of real, durable and clever designs that offer fun and beauty for both kids and parents to enjoy.
Quut are committed to designing and developing new beach toys for families to enjoy, launching one new product each and every year.
There are currently 6 toys in the range, each one offering a unique, fun and interactive approach to playing in the sand (or snow!). Yes, Quut toys not only make great beach toys, but also offer an alternative approach for playing the snow, making them a great product for all seasons!
All Quut products are BPA, Phthalates and latex free and are recyclable.
The Alto product from Quut retails for £14.99 – read on for our full verdict!
Our Experience
I road tested the Quut Alto with my two children Lucy, 8 and Charlie aged 5.
The Alto is a three part toy inspired by professional sand builders. It consists of three brightly coloured containers that slot inside each other, making them compact and easy to pop into the car, whilst taking up limited space. The containers can be filled and stacked on top of each other, before removing them all in one swift motion by pulling the bottom container upwards. The three containers all then stack in to each other, leaving behind an impressive and firm structure that even the most competitive of sandcastle builders would be proud of!
Having watched the video online on Quut’s website, I was keen to see how easy it would be for my children to figure it out, and what they would make of this alternative building experience!
Lucy, being slightly older, understood the concept and appreciated the importance of packing the sand in tightly to achieve a better result, whereas Charlie, being 5 wanted to go a bit quicker and therefore his result wasn’t as good – when he rushed and lifted the 3 pieces up, some of the sand crumbled.
They found the various steps in the building process relatively easy to follow, as per the photo below:
Whilst Lucy probably could have lifted them up on her own, Charlie would have struggled, so it was nice to watch them both working together to remove the product and see their anticipation when revealing their sand tower underneath!
The Quut Alto caused a bit of a stir at the sandpit, with other mums watching my children play, and showing an interest, having never seen anything quite like it before. They too felt it was a really good idea and felt for the older children Quut Alto could make a model with more pieces to make an even higher tower. A real conversation starter, it ended up with my children playing with the Alto with a group of other younger children whilst I chatted to the parents! Lucy enjoyed showing some of the younger ones how to do it, feeling like a bit of a pro!
If we had to suggest an improvement, we felt it would have been good if each part had a number written on it, so that younger children could pay attention to which order they should use them. The reason for this is when I watched 2 younger boys (about 4yrs old) playing, they kept trying to put the smallest piece straight on top of the biggest, missing out the middle one, which obviously didn’t work quite so well!
Overall we had lots of fun with the Quut Alto, and think it would go down well with any children who love playing in the sand. Where as a bucket does have other uses, the Alto is somewhat limited to castle building, however we loved the fact it can be used in the snow as well, so that when Winter arrives, the igloo and castle building can continue in cooler climates!
Pros:
- Takes up limited space in the car as fully stackable, unlike the more traditional individual sand buckets (great for family holidays where space is likely to be very limited!)
- Bright colours and fun design appealing to children and adults!
- Really works – quickly and easily creates some quite impressive structures!
- Allows children to work together with friends or siblings to remove the alto and reveal their masterpiece!
- Made sandcastle building a lot faster than having to continually fill and turn, fill and turn. As such, this means that children will have time to build an impressive castle even during a limited time visit to the beach!
- We love that it can be used for snow building too, meaning it doesn’t just have value during the summer months!
- Unlike traditional buckets it doesn’t have a bottom, so no relentless tapping and patting required to remove the sand!
- Can also be used in smaller sandpits – anywhere where there is sand!
Cons:
- Younger children may struggle to get to grips with the Alto straight away.
- For younger children, or children that are an only child, they may need adult support to remove the Alto structure from their sandcastle creation. In our opinion the Alto works best for siblings or groups of friends to play together.
- At £14.99 it is obviously more expensive than some basic bucket and spade toys which can be bought on a lower budget – however, we felt that for the uniqueness of the item, and the fact that it was a fun gadget for those who love playing on the beach, it was worth paying a little extra.
You can learn more about the Quut Alto and see their full range of beach toys on the Quut website here
