Well thank goodness he is wearing armbands! (Tomy Splashy The Penguin)

Member Name: karalouk

Product:	Tomy Splashy The Penguin
Date:	16/09/09 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: his humming and gargling, cute cute cute, has 2 features, fairly inexpensive

Disadvantages: doesn't swim well, hard for small fingers to operate, very quiet when in water

Splashy The Penguin is a bath toy made by Tomy. It is recommended for children 12 months onwards and is unisex.

The penguin is around 9 inches tall and is made from plastic. He is purple with a white face and white belly. He has a yellow beak, pink 'mohawk', big yellow feet and wears orange armbands. He's a cute little fella, I think you'll agree.

My daughter was given Splashy The Penguin as a present when she was around 9 months old. Almost 2 years on and Splashy has been used during most bath times. He is very durable and shows no signs of wear and tear.

The penguin has a pink wind-up on his back. When the wind-up is wound up and released the penguins flippers spin around and make him appear as though he is swimming. My daughter loves winding him up and watching his flippers spin around when he's out of water (on the side of the bath, etc) - it always makes her giggle. It took my daughter a while to grasp how to wind the penguin up and isn't the easiest task for tiny fingers to perform (under 2's may struggle). His spinning flippers are supposed to allow him to swim around the bath but sadly this isn't the case. His flippers don't seem strong enough in the water and he doesn't actually move very far at all. I would call it bobbing around rather than swimming. As the flippers do not require batteries it means they will never run out or need replacing, which I think is great.

The penguin also sings (for me this is the highlight of the toy!). The penguins pink 'mohawk' doubles up as a button - when you press it forward he starts humming the tune to 'row row row your boat'. The choice of song is great as it is a nursery rhyme that my daughter knows very well and is a nursery rhyme that most young children know and can sing along to. When the penguin is tipped onto his back or front he gargles the song as if he is underwater! I love the fact that he can change from humming to gargling midway through the song too, it seems very clever indeed - I was and still am slightly baffled by it if I'm to be completley honest! Needless to say my daughter loves tipping him over in the bath and hearing him sing underwater. The only downside is that he is quite quiet when he sings underwater and can be hard to hear if there is a lot of noise going on in and around the bath. The button/mohawk is also very hard for tiny fingers to push and will almost always need an adult to work it - major downfall. The penguin requires 3 x LR44 batteries (the stupid little round ones which nobody keeps in the house) which are included - ours run out after around 18 months.

Splashy has flat feet which means he is easily balanced on flat surfaces, such as on the side of the bath. He also floats very well and hasn't sank once.

Splashy The Penguin retails in most good toy shops and can cost between £6.99 - £9.99, which isn't too bad really.

Overall this is a good but not great bath toy (get it sorted Tomy!!). He certainly is cute and may brighten up a lot of childrens bath times, but don't expect too much of him.

Summary: Splish splash I was taking a bath.