Last Christmas when I brought out our decorations, I found a set of Russian nesting dolls (don’t ask me why they were mixed in our Christmas decor). J loved them (age 20 months). That same year his grandma got him a cute set of nesting animals in his stocking that he’s played with all that year.
To me, nesting dolls are a step up from the nesting cups all pretoddlers love to play with. Nesting dolls are a little more advanced since they have to open and close each one. They provide great practice with size recognition, help you work on size comparison like smallest/largest, smaller/larger, large, medium, small,…
At 33 months they are still within his developmental level and keep his attention well. Maybe this is a “toy” you have around your home and have overlooked it just like I did.
My little guy will only be 15 months in Dec. Isn’t that a bit young for such little pieces.
I think it definitely depends on the child. J was never one of mouth his toys after after 12 months. Even so, I wouldn’t leave them with this toy and walk away.