Melissa & Doug Fire Chief Role Play Costume Set REVIEW!
The Melissa & Doug Fire Chief Role Play Costume Set is one of the top selling costume sets by this top-selling world-wide toy manufacturer. Is this a good buy? Should you be purchasing it for your child’s dress up collection, Halloween costume, or Christmas gift?
Dress up dramatic play is a fantastic part of childhood, and there are many children, both boys and girls who love to pretend they are brave and heroic fire fighters. Having a quality fire fighter outfit and hat, as well as some fun accessories is a great help in sparking their imaginations.
My husband and I purchased this exact fire chief role play set for our son for Christmas – so this review is an actual, hands-on, “here’s what it’s like” truth.
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Is THIS the fire chief outfit to buy? Let’s take a look at it.
What’s Included: jacket, helmet, badge, fire extinguisher, bullhorn and reusable name tag.
Pricing: runs between $20-30, depending on sales and shipping deals.
Target Gender: Neutral
Target Age: 3-6
Size: This is a “One Size Fits Most” costume set, but in the “Q&A”s you can see that it is usually a bit big for a normal 2 year old, and even many 3 year olds.
Looking At The Fine Details
The Jacket
- Size is approximately 4T-6. It is a “One Size Fits Most” type costume set, available only in this size.
- It is machine washable (!!!)
- Closes in the front with three Velcro tabs
- Red with yellow highlights and silver reflective trim
- Says “Fire Chief” on the back
- It’s made from flexible and soft material… it’s NOT plastic. (It’s actually a blend of 80% Polyester and 20% Cotton.)
- There’s an attached black utility belt with spots for the tools
- According to a reviewer, the coat is 19 1/2″ long and arm length is 13″ from shoulder to cuff
The Fire Chief Hat
- Has a plastic sizer strap inside so you can adjust it to fit your child’s head
- The opening (not including the adjustable strap) is 7 1/2″ by 8 1/2″
- It’s a hard plastic material, not floppy. Good quality and sturdy, but still a toy hat.
- Has a fire department emblem on the front.
Extra Accessories (that all come with the set).
- All accessories are made of sturdy but light weight plastic
- Shiny silver “Fire Chief” badge and a name-tag you can personalize both add some “flair”
- Bullhorn: Does NOT amplify your child’s voice, but rather just makes a repeating siren noise. 2 AA batteries are required (not included)
- Fire Extinguisher: Just for play – does not shoot water.
Looking at Customer Reviews
Over 2,900 people had reviewed this product at Amazon.com at the time of writing, and had given it an average of 4.8/5 stars!! That’s pretty great!
I dug through the comments to get the real scoop, and I must say, the reviews are rather glowing. “He wears it all day!” “Like all Melissa and Doug costume sets, this one did not disappoint!” “My child loves it! Great, authentic looking fireman’s uniform!” Etc., etc. etc.
But you’re probably reading this review to see what kind of negative stuff there is, right? To make sure if you buy it, it’s worth the price.
So, at time of writing, there were 46 negative reviews (just 46, out of over 2,900… that’s about 4%). I read through them all – so that you don’t have to.
Some of the negative reviewers had this to say:
- The plastic sizer piece inside the hat doesn’t always stay put or work as well as it should, so the hat is sometimes too loose and falls off a lot. (Oddly enough, there were several of these complaints, BUT in the “positive reviews” side, lots of “It’s a great hat!” comments…)
- The set doesn’t come with pants. “My son thinks his set is missing the pants!”, one reviewer said. (Cute, huh?) Others said they just use black splash pants.
- The bullhorn and fire extinguisher do tend to fall out of the utility belt during very boisterous play.
- The bullhorn broke quickly.
- If you get the fire extinguisher wet, the sticker falls off quickly.
- The reflective bands frayed and came loose for a few of the reviewers.
- There were some packaging and shipping issues as well.
Overall Thoughts
I definitely give this product 5 stars! The Melissa & Doug Fire Chief Role Play Costume Set is a good purchase. It’s a great dress up set built by a reliably good company. A good price for a role play costume set that will give them lots of play time and opportunities for imaginative play. Check it out for yourself!
Any questions or comments on this outfit or the post in general, I’d love to hear from you! I’d be happy to be of service! I can EASILY pull out our costume and answer any questions you might have!
Cheers,
Marlaine
Related Posts:
The Melissa & Doug Train Engineer Role Play Costume Set Review
The Melissa & Doug Doctor Role Play Costume Set Review
Hi there, Thanks for a great review. My kids are really getting into the whole role play adventure and I find the costumes really come out when they have play dates and they tend to take turns being whoever during the course of the play date.
The one thing that I really dont like and you have mentioned it with this product also is that there is usually only one size for all.
There are 3 years between my kids and they both love dressing up as much as eachother. I would love to see a few more sizes coming to the market.
Thanks
I hear you! I have two kids who thankfully can both squeeze into the same sizes, but that’s only for now – I’m dreading the day when only one child can fit the jacket! One size fits all is a tough one sometimes.
Thanks for commenting!
We have this costume set and my sons LOVE IT. I love the Melissa and Doug toys in general. The quality of this set is so good and the bull horn and fire extinguisher really make it. We’ve had no problems with the reflective bands fraying. I do agree that the plastic sizer inside the hat doesn’t stay put but that doesn’t prevent my kids from wearing the fire helmet. I highly recommend this outfit – thanks for the review!
Awesome! Thanks for chiming in with your own review! Melissa and Doug costume sets are pretty much plain ol’ fabulous. If you’re interested in more along the same line for your boys, maybe you’d be interested in my Role Play Costume for Boys page! Have a great day!
This can be a very nice gift for Christmas. What a cute little fire chief costume that my little boy would surely love. This can be very useful in schools where role playing is often times part of the training.
The product is safe, the price is affordable and the customers’ reviews are great. This is a highly recommended product.
We actually have one stored away in our crawl space for Christmas this year – but we don’t know which child to give it too. Both our daughter and our son will no doubt spend HOURS playing with it, as yes, it’s great!!
My husband and I were thrilled when it came in the mail, by the way… It is SOOO cute!
I agree that role playing costumes like this one are awesome tools for teachers to make use of for little ones! Great point! Thanks for commenting!
This is a great review page. I was looking for one of these costumes for my niece and it is really great that I found this page which has all the details and information in one place.
I think this costume would look pretty good and it is easy to buy as well.
We got it for my 2 year old son for Christmas this year… I can’t WAIT to see his face. It looks like GREAT quality stuff! 🙂 Glad you found the review helpful.
Wow! Amazing you read through all of those reviews. I have seen those costumes advertised while I was looking for Christmas gifts for my granddaughters. I hadn’t given it much thought as right now they are more into the Princesses. Sounds like it would be a great gift for the future. Thanks for sharing.
My 3.5 year old daughter was a fire-fighter for Halloween this past year… and she’s a girly girl. 🙂 Firefighting can be pretty exciting for both genders, I think!
We gave this set to our 2 year old son for Christmas this year and it’s seriously AMAZING!!!!! I recommend it to everyone LOL.
You might be interested in checking out some of these great role playing costume sets for girls if you aren’t sure firefighter dress up is the perfect choice for your granddaughters. We gave our daughter the Doctor costume set – also a HUGE hit. Loads of fun play time there!
Have a great day, Elaine!
Wow! This sounds like a great buy for my child! She’s just turned four, so I’m relieved that they run large. This way she can play with outfit for a few years. Thanks for the heads up, by the way, that it’s not plastic. So many dress-up clothes are, and I really hate to put her in that.
I’m sure your daughter would love it! And yeah, she’d get a lot of play out of it, I’d imagine. My own 4 year old daughter is above the charts height wise and she’ll easily be able to fit in it for a long time! And yeah, the Melissa and Doug costumes are awesome quality fabrics… and WASHABLE! 🙂
Thanks for chiming in, and have a lovely day!