Our grandson is big into Cars right now (he is 18 months old and it is one of the two videos he will watch - the other is Thomas the Train) and we have had him playing with Duplo since he was a year old. He can just now put the blocks together, so getting a set that has the characters he loves in it made a lot of sense. His two favorites are Mater and Lightning McQueen, so the set is perfect. We also purchased the separate green floor board from Duplo that lets you build on it and that really helps with little ones. We are hoping that Duplo will bring out additional new sets as they have for the "Planes" series.We put these together and then he plays Cars with them, complete with "vroom" sounds as his cars pick up speed. He also loves the box, and we hold it and say the names of the characters and look at it to see how blocks can be put together. As we have a number of other sets, we have mixed them all together. If he wants his toy to look like the box (about half the time), we have to look for each piece. That helps refine visual skills. The blocks themselves are great for tuning fine motor skills in addition to being so much fun.I always had Legos for my kids and found out about Duplo when they were young, too. At that time, you could only get building blocks, but I wisely held onto all of my old Duplo and Lego blocks and now we are using them for the next generation. There aren't that many toys available that can hold up that well and be as much fun to play year after year. Lego/Duplo are a great investment - both in your children and as a durable and lasting toy.