I bought the Mega blocks Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl for my son for his third Birthday. It came in a huge box so it looked very impressive all wrapped up when he got up. It took a long time to assemble it, which I had to do myself as my son is three and my husband is an academic and not remotely practical. It took me a few hours the next evening to build the ship and the extras that came with it, it took my son a few minutes, the following day, to destroy all my hard work.

It was quite a surprise to open the box and pull out everything that was featured on the box and more. I wasn't really expecting this as when you normally see a scene on a box you only get the main part of the scene and the extras are for illustration only. With the ship there was also two kind of islands, a rowing boat, a giant squid and various figures and barrels, skulls and general pirate trappings.

The ship is simple to build, I think I spent most of the time finding the parts in all the other stuff that was there. It can be fiddly at times but the instructions are clear and easy to understand. It's not that sturdy once built, well not for a three year old, but for a six or seven year old it may be better, although I think it would still come apart fairly easily. I might glue it together before I get it out next time and use it as a toy rather than a lego type toy. The detail on the ship id very good and it looks hugely impressive.

The islands are a quick build but they too come apart easily, I think these could do with gluing.

The squid is brilliant, it's made out of rubber but put together the same way as lego, there are lego attachments on it's tentacles so that the little figures and various other stuff can be attached to it in preparation of being dragged into the depths.

The other stuff that came with it the figure and such are very good likenesses to the characters in the film. There are a few Jack Sparrows in the figures and I think more than twenty figures, although I haven't counted, My son had fun role playing with these and the treasure chest and the rowing boat after he had destroyed the ship. The cannons were really good fun as they actually fire cannon balls out and can be used in a battle with a noahs ark (this is the nearest we had to another ship).

All in all an impressive looking thing once built with very good details on it but fragile and easily disassembled during the course of play so this is a little disappointing. There were a lot of extras with the ship which were more fun for my three year old than the actual ship. The squid scared a few of his friends when they came to visit so maybe it's not for timid children. I don't think it's really suitable for the under sixes due to the ease of the ship breaking up during play but if glued together it would be better. I paid £15 for it in the sale I think it should have been about £40. Once the main ship is glued together I think it will represent really good value at the moment though it's hidden in a drawer having frustrated my son so much by continuously breaking up.