6 best wooden toy workbenches: on legs or for on the table
Always something to do for the holidays or rainy day?
Play Choice now has the ultimate activity book collection, with over 60 pages of fun coloring pages and educational puzzles.
When you look at toy tools, the workbench is the ultimate big gift to get.
There are nice sets, such as this sturdy Melissa & Doug workbench made of wood. A lot of tools and building material such as screws and nuts make it a complete set to play with.
That's also what you want to get out of toys like this. In this buying guide I go through what you should pay attention to when purchasing and discuss the 6 best wooden workbenches.
Let's take a quick look at all the top picks. Then I'll take a closer look at each of these options.
Overall best wooden workbench
This toy consists of many nuts, bolts, blocks and of course the workbench with which they can build a lot of things.
Best toy workbench with gears
Gears are always fun to pin on something. Especially on your workbench if you can fix them with your own tools.
Best toy workbench with table saw
This worktop has a flatbed circular saw. Something I have not seen in any other set.
Best cheap toy workbench
This one is built a bit cheaper, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun to play with.
Best small workbench for the table
You can even saw the wood apart because they stick together. This also gives it a fun game element that I haven't seen with any of the others.
Best educational wooden workbench
There are 79 pieces for 15 experiments and your own creations, such as an excavator, gravity vehicle, flashing light and wind maker.
A play theme in your mailbox every month?
Fun play tips, activity books and more, with the first email being our free mini-guide "educational toys"
We will only use your email address for this newsletter and respect your privacy
What we discuss in this comprehensive post:
Wooden toy workbenches buying guide
When buying a toy workbench you have to pay attention to a number of things.
Age
Are the toys appropriate for their age, but also fun for their developmental level? That is sometimes difficult to see from the box.
I therefore looked at all the sets and ranked them according to their age level.
Please note that all sets contain some small pieces, so for children under 3 you should stick with them or take them out of the set until they are a bit older.
Of course you don't want them to swallow pieces.
 Age from |  Best age |  Age to |
Replayability
Is it fun to play with? That has to do with the ease of play without frustration and the accessories that come with it.
I've rated each set for replayability on a scale of 1 to 5 to give you an idea.
Sustainability
Once you have a set that your child likes and is age appropriate, you want them to be able to play with it for a while.
That's why we've rated each set for durability. How long will it last without breaking.
Some sets, such as those from Melissa & Doug and Small Foot, are quite sturdy, but not sturdy enough to handle 6-year-old children's hands.
Other sets are made to last a little longer like Le Toy Van or use plastic for the parts like the 2 sets from Hape.
Sustainability is also rated on a 5-point scale.
Best Wooden Toy Workbenches Reviewed
Melissa & Doug Workbench
- Complete set with tools, bolts, nuts and screws
- Good wooden set where many of this kind are made of plastic
- Pushing too hard quickly leads to screw threads becoming paralyzed
-
From 2 years
-
Best: 3 – 5 years
-
Until: 5 years
- Material: Wood, MDF
- Theme: Building and construction, Tools
- Play Mode: Solo
- Price at time of writing: €69,62 – $99
- Sustainability: Sustainable production
- Production: Manufacturing
- Storage: Storage compartments
- Safety components: Non-toxic materials
- Playing Time: Longer (10 – 30 min)
- Gender inclusiveness: Gender neutral
This toy consists of nuts, bolts, blocks and of course the workbench that gives your child a variety of items they can build things with. Due to the open-ended game and the different ways to use it, the play value is very high.
My son was the first to build robots from it…
sigh.
With the vise you can clamp the wooden pieces to attach nuts or pretend you are sawing a piece of wood with notches.
There are holes on top of the worktop where you can hammer wooden nails in and then loosen them with the back of the hammer.
The replayability could have been higher if it had been easier to combine. For example, the creations made are not very sturdy and cannot be played with properly. Despite that, the hammer, screwdriver and saw are often involved in other imaginative play when we have another imaginative job in and around the house.
The lifespan is decent, the white wood keeps it looking good as new, but the durability could have been a little better. The build quality makes it really only suitable for up to 5 years. For example, a slightly older neighbor boy came by and turned the vise so far that it burst off. My son also tried to hammer the bolts into the wooden blocks instead of turning them, which caused the screw thread to break.
Hape Master Wooden Workbench
- Solidly built
- Fun activities with the gears
- Parts are made of plastic
- Difficult to assemble
Gears are always fun to pin on something. Especially on your workbench if you can fix them with your own tools.
You get 35 parts with this Hape workbench.
- Tools such as a hammer, saw, screwdriver, wrench, vise and angle.
- But also screws, nuts, bolts, gears, links and more
The Melissa & Doug workbench is very nice because it comes with so much, but unfortunately not adjustable in height. This one is so that he can also grow a bit from 3 years to 6.
Many parents also give it to them at the age of 2 and indicate that hammering is perfect and screwing is successful with good practice.
It doesn't come with a lot of material, but it's a lot of fun to play with because of the gears, vise and more.
It's a pity that the parts that come with it are made of plastic, but I don't think the gears made of wood would be strong enough either.
Le Toy Van Alex's Wooden Workbench
Yes, it is an expensive set, but this is well made. Very sturdy wood and built to last.
This worktop has a flatbed circular saw. Something I have not seen in any other set.
There is also a measuring rod and a vice on the worktop and you can store your tools on the shelf at the back of the wall.
That is perhaps a bit of a shame. In many of the other sets, each tool has its own compartment, here they hang a bit on the back wall and you also have to put a lot in the compartments.
But you get a fully functioning worksheet in return.
It can be used from 3 years old. Where some of these tables can best be used earlier, this is a bit more difficult because the screws are really stuck in the wood.
That is frustrating to play with for a smaller child.
There isn't much to build with either, so it's fantasy play with the tools.
Small foot Wooden Nordic
- Cheap yet very nice
- Easy to play with for small children
- Very small (low)
- Not very stable
This one is built a bit cheaper than, for example, the workbench from Melissa & Doug or Le Toy Van, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun to play with.
It is also stuck with the building material that comes with it. The same big wooden nuts and bolts. This in itself makes it fun to put it together yourself first.
It's just not the most sturdy construction. And you run the risk of them breaking it up again. Or maybe that's part of the fun?
This one is standing. Not like the Melissa & Doug table model, but still very small.
This makes it somewhat less suitable for children older than 4 years. I would say he is the cutest from 2 to 4 yrs., not the 3 to 6 yrs on the box.
There are 21 accessories: 5 nuts, 5 bolts, 3 nails, 3 wooden planks with holes in them and 5 tools.
Nice as a first cheap set for your small child, but for a 3-year-old I would actually rather buy one of the other sets so that they don't grow out of it too quickly.
Melissa & Doug 32 Piece Tool Bench
- Real sawing of wooden planks
- Nice and small and handy. Can be set up anywhere
- Nuts can only go in the bolts, not in the workbench
- Construction is not suitable for 5+
A very nice set. The workbench itself is very small, but you can use it on the table or we put it on our wooden dining room bench.
The Small Foot workbench is just so small and your child probably has to work on it sitting down. You can place this where you want, so that gives you more options.
Because it also has no legs, it has also remained fairly cheap. Yet there are 26 building parts with 5 tools.
With this set it is also nice that you can saw the wood apart because they stick together. This also gives it a fun game element that I haven't seen with any of the others.
There are also enough pieces to build fun small projects, such as a car or robot.
The fact that it is so small can be a big advantage. Not everyone has room for such a large workbench and you can easily store it when they are done with it.
As with all Melissa & Doug tool toys, it is fairly sturdy but not strong enough to handle older children. It is therefore suitable from 2 years (if you leave out the small pieces) up to a maximum of 5 years.
Hape Deluxe Scientific Workbench
What a wonderfully comprehensive set this is. I already have such a Science Kit from Hape rated among the best toolboxes, and they also fit together.
There are 79 pieces with which you can do 15 experiments. And of course make your own creations.
The experiments include an excavator, gravity vehicle, flashing light and wind maker.
What makes it especially nice is that it teaches the science behind building, also using a handy app.
Super fun to do with your child. It says suitable from 4 years, but I think it will be especially fun with 5 years and up to about 8 years old.
A disadvantage is that there are not enough parts to keep several projects intact at the same time.
For example, we couldn't leave a large project for a while to review later without breaking it off.
The workbench is also quite low for children from 5 years old, but they can play with it sitting down like I do. The toolbox is then a more logical choice for this age category.
Conclusion
There are a lot of workbenches for sale, and not even just for small children. Before I started researching I didn't know about the Hape Scientific series at all, but they are also great fun!
I hope you now have an idea of what is possible and you can make a good choice for your child.
Always something to do for the holidays or rainy day?
Play Choice now has the ultimate activity book collection, with over 60 pages of fun coloring pages and educational puzzles.
Joost Nusselder, the founder of Speelkeuze.nl is a content marketer, father and loves trying out new toys. As a child he came into contact with everything related to games when his mother started the Tinnen Soldaat in Ede. Now he and his team create helpful blog articles to help loyal readers with fun play ideas.
