Finally Found It!

I remember this blue and red shape toy from my childhood.  I remember EVERYONE having one.    I'd been looking for it high and low, on every used toy website and in garage sales everywhere with no success.

Yesterday, I finally found it- it's called the Shape-O Toy from Tupperware.

Figures that it's Tupperware since it was so successful in the 1970s.

What I love about this toy beyond the shape toys available from Fisher Price or Playskool or Melissa and Doug is this:

1. This toy is three-dimensional; not only does the child need to know where to match the shape, but they need to know how to orient the toy in three dimensions to the shape in the hole.
2. It's round, so no sharp corners to scratch baby.
3. This toy has simple (triangle, square, circle) and advanced shapes (plus signs, stars, trapezoids).  
4. All the pieces fit inside for easy storage.
5. They can roll the ball around for a different game.
6. It has lovely handles on both ends that you can use to carry the thing.

My daughter loved the toy on site.  She spent a good 30 minutes putting the shapes in, which is something for a 16-month-old.  She knew immediately how to rotate the ball to find the right shape and the actual shapes fit perfectly in her hands.

There were only a couple of issues that seem surround the new toy that didn't happen in the old:

1. To open the ball, you grab the handles on both ends and pull the ball gently open.  In the original design, this was a twist open and close.  In the new design, it's spring loaded, so you have to watch your kid to make sure that they don't try to open the ball themselves and pinch their arms.
2. The price- I got this toy on-sale, but I thought it was expensive then.  The price on the Tupperware site is $30.  
3. And, finally, the Tupperware site does not work in the Chrome browser; it does work in Firefox and Explorer, but I'm betting with the lack of support of Chrome, the site isn't mobile-enabled or responsive, either.

I still love this toy, but I think I'd still recommend looking for an original one from the 70s.