Explore the mess (Hasbro PlayDoh Dora the Explorer Fun Factory)

Member Name: abbadabbado

Product:	Hasbro PlayDoh Dora the Explorer Fun Factory
Date:	21/07/09 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: keeps the kids entertained

Disadvantages: not a lot included

My niece has just celebrated a birthday, and she loves to bring her presents over every time she visits which is quite often. One of her presents was a Dora playdoh fun factory. She loves Dora and my 2 year old loves playdoh, so when she spied that, the two of them had hours of fun playing together which was quite nice.
I had also previously bought this for our three year old god daughter last Christmas and had spent a short while investigating it with her when she opened it.

Included in the fun factory set you get a playdoh contraption machine which squeezes the playdoh through and out, making different shapes as it goes, two different shape rulers, a plastic tool, a Dora figure which acts as a shape cutter, and two pots of play doh.
All this tucked into a smallish box will cost around £7. It's on the cheaper end of the play doh fun sets, but the tools you get are limited so this is probably why, and not forgetting of course you are paying for the name.

Whilst the two children were tugging at the pots of play doh, I spent the short while investigating the machine. It's basically two pieces of plastic slotted together that acts as a press, which when you place the lump of play doh inside, it will be forced through the hole at the front. To get different shapes from the hole, you need to slide the shape tool across the front of the machine. This isn't a job for a four year old and definitely not a two year old, so I had the wonderful job of changing the tools each time. It was fairly easy just to slide across the front but I found when the children tried to do it, they didn't manage to line them up properly and a weird mush would arrive from the front of the machine.

Both children loved the Dora figure and fought over it well. I had a few goes with it and found that it acted better as a Dora imprint rather than a shape cutter. Once my niece realised this she was quite happy with a piece of play doh and flattening it out to make Dora shapes for a while in little play doh frames. My two year old was mastering the same effect but by accident bless her.
I found the plastic cutting tool to be rather obsolete in the packet. It was ok to pretend to trim the edges off the shapes being made, but really it isn't needed in this pack. I think with the shapes provided in this play doh set, you will get more fun from making weird shapes and squishing them again before repeating the same process over again.

The actual machine worked well and I found there wasn't too many stray pieces of play doh left inside the holes. The first time we used this, of course both the pots of play doh came out and subsequently the two different colours got a bit mixed together. This is inevitable when two children play with the same toy I think.
You do need to remember to clean the machine after use as I could see that if you left it, despite only small amounts being left, there would be a clog eventually, and then it could become crusty and difficult to remove. The shape rulers can easily be washed up in soapy water to clean.

There were enough different shapes in the rulers to keep both children amused for ages and they were making necklaces and bracelets before making different shaped ones. Compared to some of the bigger sets of play doh you can buy, this is a very basic set and I think you really have to like Dora to get the benefit of the set. My two year old doesn't care at the moment as long as she is mashing play doh between her fingers, but I could tell from the four year old that she would have become bored had she not kept going back for the pretty Dora figure which she could press into the dough.
The actual pots of play doh were quite small, so you might want to have some more on hand, as by the time little bits have been dropped and left in the shapes, you would deplete your supply after a few uses. I did find that the second time she brought it over and we used it; the dough has gone slightly hard due to the air. We obviously hadn't closed one of the lids properly, so a bit of kneading was required to soften it up again.

Overall this is a great set for any Dora fan but if you're buying it for the play doh aspect then buy something else.

Summary: a basic play doh set