Stephanie Garrett, a mother of four from Tigard, Ore., was in a similar predicament. Her three boys -- ages four, seven and ten -- all wanted popular building block sets, yet Garrett wanted to stick to her toy-buying budget. She found the solution with Best-Lock building blocks, whose sets retail at about half the price of other top-selling brands. See http://www.best-lock.com.

"It's wonderful that I can still buy my children something they will enjoy and that uses their imagination, but that costs less," Garrett says. "It keeps them occupied all day!"

"Especially now, parents are trying to make their toy-buying dollars go further," says Stephen Minsk, Best-Lock's global vice-president of sales and marketing. "And our value-priced Best-Lock blocks -- including our extensive military line of authentic-looking attack helicopters, tanks, aircraft carrier and battleship -- are interchangeable with other brands of building block toys."

The bonus for parents? Experts say building blocks are great for a child's development, meeting standards for toys that encourage thinking, problem solving and creativity; involve hand-eye coordination; and are conducive for parent interaction.

"Playing with blocks fosters creativity because children can invent different kinds of objects, like a car that flies or a helicopter with wheels," says Maria Sera, a professor at the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development. "By building together, children and their parents develop stronger bonds and share in a sense of accomplishment."

Best-Lock's well-made toys are priced to be easy on the wallet -- a 55-piece set retails for $2.99 or less, a 175-piece set is $9.99, 350 pieces cost $19.99, while an enormous 800-piece set is priced at only $29.99.

Best-Lock products are available at stores such as Target, Wal-Mart, K-B Toys, J.C. Penney, AAFES (on U.S. military bases worldwide), Sears, FAO Schwarz and H-E-B Grocery Stores. Browse Best-Lock's online catalog at http://www.best-lock.com.