Happy GRRRRithday: For my son’s first birthday his uncle got him a HUGE stuffed lion (75” x 14” x 19”).  It was an instant as my son is a bit doggie-crazy right now, and here was one that would sit sit and be pawed on.  The structure of the lion is firm enough that it holds it’s pose, but soft enough that it can still be jumped and climbed on without injury to my son.  In fact, he liked it so much that when he wakes up in the morning the first thing he wants to do is give the lion a hug.

Not just a member: After about a week of having the lion we started to notice that the mane seemed to be shedding quite a bit.  Thinking that this might be a normal part of the break in we decided to brush it out.  However no amount of brushing seemed to put a stop to the shedding, which was becoming a problem because the fibers of the mane were getting stuck between my son’s fingers and even ingested.

I called Melissa and Doug’s customer service number to talk to them about the issue and was stunned when they said that they would send another lion right out as well as a call tag for the one we had.  They were extremely nice and very apologetic.

2nd verse, same as the first:  The second lion showed up in about a week and right out of the bag it had the same problem.  I looked on the tag and both lions were from the same production batch, so I called M&D back.  Again, they were super nice and the woman that I spoke with was even a bit horrified.  After a long conversation she offered to send me another style of animal at no charge and let me keep the lion to see if it ever stopped shedding.  We ended up getting the Cheetah, which site in an upright position and is not as fun for him to play with, but also does not shed.

The bottom line:  At the end of the day we struck out on the M&D stuffed lion twice, but to be fair it was a recommended age of 3+, so maybe if a kid wasn’t grabbing and tugging on the mane the shedding wouldn’t be an issue?  So I guess I give the lion poor marks for craftsmanship, but I can’t say enough about the customer service at M&D.  I really like the design, craftsmanship and material usage in the other (non-plush) toys that we have bought from them and my experience with their customer service department affirmed my fondness for their company.

Mellissa & Doug Stuffed Cheetah

Mellissa & Doug Stuffed Lion