It's easy to make assumptions about felt "storyboards" that don't hold up. They offer the same play options as the once-ubiquitous Colorforms, but that doesn't mean they're more natural; the fact is that almost all children's products made of "felt," unless they are the three-dimensional products purchased on handmade sites like Etsy, use a synthetic felt that is made primarily, if not entirely, of polyester. (Among other reasons, using real wool felt would be cost-prohibitive.) Felt storyboards help children tell stories, but the last time I checked, kids could tell stories just as easily with stuffed animals, action figures, or paper clips. They allow children to creatively compose scenes of activity, but so do paper and crayons. So what is it, exactly, that make felt storyboards like FeltTales attractive to so many parents?

Babalu makes colorful, attractive felt storyboard sets across a broad range of themes, so we asked the company to send us a couple so we could find out for ourselves. The company sent us samples of their Cinderella and Heroes to the Rescue storyboards for review.

The easiest starting point for a discussion of the value of FeltTales is in contrasting it with the product it seems designed to replace: Colorforms. The big difference between the two turns out not to be materials but the fact that Colorforms, with the exception of the highly-praised back-to-their roots "Original" shape set re-introduced by current Colorforms owner University Games, are overrun by licensed characters, and by overrun I mean that the company has near-zero interest in presenting characters or storytelling opportunity unless it is based on a current media property.

Kids' media watchdogs often complain that licensed-character toys leave less to children's imagination, but that hasn't been our experience; at five, our daughter is stilla far more interested in action - "what happens" - than in characters' personalities or stock motivations, beyond established good-guy/bad-guy distinctions. But we do believe that licensed characters have a couple of disadvantages, namely that they surround a child with characters who exist in a more hyperreal form in videos and TV shows they aren't but could be begging to be watching, and that these characters then confront them to zealously pitch other toys, clothing, breakfast cereals and convenience foods. We avoid licensed character toys because as soon as they step out of the books or television shows that launched them, they tend to go rogue.

Discarding that "imagination" argument against licensed characters while recognizing the capitalist pressures that make them such bad playdates is the only way to appreciate the historic value of "storyboards" in general, which are based literally on the idea of using a two-dimensional space to allow for the visual recreation of scenes from a beloved story. Freed from the requirement of designing an environment or its actors, children can re-enact, alter, and absorb classic stories that have timeless value, especially if we seek out and explore the traditional tales behind the Disney versions of many of these stories. (This line of reasoning also explains why we can get more excited about FeltTales' somewhat generic version of the Cinderella story than one that is infinitely replicable in sippy cup, sleepwear, and Polly Pocket form, without being insufferable snobs.)


FeltTales' Cinderella of "twenty-plus" felt pieces (sorry, we didn't count the exact number) features all of the figures, dresses, and accessories your child needs to do the basic story justice, although it lacks a full-sized coach or the means of setting any exterior scenes. We would have appreciated having all figures in the same pose, and removable clothes for the prince, so that Cinderella could have been the vaguely uniformed figure or the wicked stepmother, the sole character with arms folded, could have more than one dress option. But those are minor quibbles with a well-designed play set. Distinctions between Cinderella's home and the palace are cleverly represented by two window options, one of which shows a view of the castle, the other looking out on the pumpkin carriage. The set even includes a clock with a printed hour hand but a separate minute hand, to encourage the countdown to midnight:



FeltTales boards are sturdy and, at 11x14", big enough to set a scene but convenient for travel.


This is the only aspect of FeltTales' design that had us wondering what they were thinking. The pieces simply do not fit in the provided carrying pouch.

We didn't open the Heroes to the Rescue set, but would observe that it needs more fire. Waaaay more fire. There is also no credible way for the police officer to ride his or her own motorcycle.

There are environmental arguments for felt boards over Colorforms - the latter are made of PVC, after all, a plastic which (even in its phthalate-free form, as Colorforms are declared to be) is produced at a significant cost to the environment and to the health of workers - but if felt were the only criterion, Colorforms could still serve your needs, as they're getting into the felt storyboard market as well. Magnetic storyboards are also an options, from International Playthings and others. But it's FeltTales reliance on unbranded but evocative themes that makes them special. FeltTales makes storyboards with such varied themes as pirates, dinosaurs, ballet, forest fairies, dress-up dogs, the zoo, and the classic, idealized representation of life on the farm.

You may notice that several of these options are really an alternative to paper dolls more than storytelling vehicles, but they are a welcome one. I tend to throw away paper doll clothes as I find them, and I find them all over the place at our house, while FeltTales are "stored" on their board even when they aren't put away in their carrying pouch. This also makes them a nice travel item, although I guess Colorforms meet that requirement, too.

The only two disadvantages I've noticed in comparing FeltTales storyboards with the Colorforms I played with in my own childhood are 1) felt figures don't stick to windows, and 2) fewer sets are cross-compatible, whereas many Colorform sets have figures that are similarly scaled and thus can be introduced into each others' worlds easily. (The latter is perhaps the best example of how eagerly children will break the conventions of licensed characters' scripted stories.) That said, there's something truly special about being able to introduce Cinderella and her sisters into the urban landscape as 25-foot behemoths to be subdued by emergency responders.

You can find the full complement of FeltTales storyboards all on Amazon.com for between $15 and $20.

The FeltTales sets we received from Babalu will be donated - the sealed "Heroes" set to charity, and the gently used Cinderella version to a location that accepts used children's goods - a doctor's waiting room, kids' gathering place, or barring that, a friend or acquantance who can make use of it.