Alphabet Alley Review

Alphabet Alley is a family owned company seeking to meet the need for faith based toys for young children. They carry a line of card games (like Go Fish), memory matching games, wooden toys, and magnets. All feature original faith-based art work. The toys are high quality and independently certified to be safe for children (no lead paint here!).
This is one review I regret not getting done before Christmas because their products are SUPER and they would have made great presents! They would be a great way to use Christmas gift money though, or make wonderful baby shower or birthday presents. I will fully admit that when I heard they were sending me a Go Fish game and a matching game, I inwardly groaned. If we have one Go Fish game, we have ten, and most of them have bent or torn cards and I find them scattered all over the house, but never actually played with. And with my preschooler being the 4th child, we have at least one other matching game too. I thought I needed more of those games like I needed a hole in my head. Boy, was I wrong!
These games have so many pluses, I don't know where to start. First, the instructions all make sense...no wacky Chinese to English translations to figure out! Second, the illustrations are simple and cute-similar to Precious Moments. Third, the quality is second to none. Really. I took pictures to show you!

Here is one of our many Go Fish games. Note this is a "name brand", not some dollar store cheapo toy. But see how the card is bent? And notice how the picture side of the card is kind-of shiny, but the back is dull? That's because only the picture side has a thin plastic cover, so if you spill something on these cards and the back gets wet, they are ruined. They are also not-too-hard to tear. We know from personal experience.

Here is the Alphabet Alley version. The cards are fully laminated front and back. I wish you could feel the difference in the quality through the vastness of cyberspace because pictures don't do it justice. I don't think even the most determined child could tear these!


Here is our classic matching game. The cards are thin, the pictures okay, and the backs are ho-hum (There is a circus tent card and a flipped-over card sitting on the box-it's a bit hard to see.).

Here is the alphabet Alley version. The pictures are cute, again they are fully laminated, and all the backs feature the same rainbow design.

Here are the memory cards side by side for comparison.

They are printed on heavy, heavy card stock. See how it takes 3 of my classic memory cards to equal one of the Alphabet Alley ones?

If you are waiting for the other shoe to drop, I can honestly say there are no cons for me on this one. The Go Fish game is available for $5.99, which is more expensive than some cheapo off brands I found, and much cheaper than many name brand ones I found, so I'd say it's middle of the road in terms of price. The matching game is $10.99, which is right in line with most other ones I found.

So what's the bottom line? If you can pay the same price for quality, faith based children's toys that you pay for cheaply made secular ones, who wouldn't opt for the better, God glorifying option? This is a no-brainer to me. Go checkout Alphabet Alley's product either on their website or on Amazon.com, etoys.com, or christianbook.com, just to name a few of the many online retailers who carry their products. And then buy them for every young child you know. You won't be disappointed!