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Fisher Price Caterpillar Pop-Up
by Dundunbanza
When my son was first born, I found myself regularly buying toys for him, to keep him amused at about 4 months he got to the stage where he was interested in more than a rattle or teething ring to amuse himself.
I have to admit that there were times when I spent quite a while trawling the internet, reading toy reviews and ... trying to find the ultimate toy that would entertain my son, I soon realised that there is no ultimate toy it's all trial and error with toys, and every child is different. On one of my toy section visits I found the Fisher Prices Caterpillar pop up, I bought this in the toy section of Sainsbury's supermarket.
Packaging
The caterpillar was packaged in the really hard clear packaging that is even hard to get into using a pair of scissors; however I eventually managed to open the packaging using a pair of scissors and without injuring myself. Due to the packaging of the product I wasn't able to completely try out the toy in the store (as I usually do) only the head of the toy was exposed. I was a little apprehensive about whether or not my son would be interested in the caterpillar, as It didn't seem to do much, but I got my toy fix and bought it anyway.
What it consists of
It's a large (for a baby) chunky yellow caterpillar shaped toy made of hard durable plastic, with three pop up sections, each pop up has a different character under the pop up, they look like some sort of insects one is definitely a ladybird, but I'm not sure what the others are supposed to be. A different action is required for each pop up character to appear, there is a push button, a slide button and a twist button. The caterpillar also has a dinky pink nose that when pressed makes a squeaky sound.
My initial reacton
I was expecting more from this toy, I thought it would make lots more noise and actions but its quite a simple toy.
My son's initial reaction
When I first gave him the toy (at about 4 months) he was able to sit up and touch the toy and look at the different colours and shapes but not much else, he didn't seem that interested in it even with its squeaky nose and pop up animals.
Price
I paid about £8 or £9 for this toy definitely less than £10.
Overall
As my son has grown older, played more with this toy and now actually able to use all the functions for push, slide and twist I realise that when I initially bought this toy for him he was much too young to be able to appreciate it he does play with it now and he can work out how to pop up each character and push them back down again. The recommended age for this toy is 9 months plus which I believe is correct. This is a nice sturdy toy which still looks as good as new it was bought approximately 12 months ago.
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Fisher Price Brilliant Basics Chatter Telephone
by Chippytarka
This was a christmas present last year for my daughter. It wasnt supposed to be a main gift but more a stocking filler.At the time when I bought it it was probably around the £4.00 mark which was ideal.
I will be honest, when she opened it she didnt seem to impressed. To be fair she received alot of gifts and probably was ... overwhelmed.So this toy has been slung in one of the many toy boxes in my house, well, up until now....
This toy is pretty much a no brainer. Its a simple idea. All kids love to copy adults with phones and pretending to make calls, and for me this is a better and fun alternative to the toy mobile phones. The phone is more a character as it has a face and moveable eyes on the front. The style of the phone is quite retro. The toy is completely unisex as the main colours are white, blue and red. The child can move the phone along either by pushing or pulling with the string attached to the bottom of it. Theres four wheels on the bottom, so completely mobile. When you do move it along, the eyes close and open ( which to start off with my little girl DID NOT LIKE but loves it now! ). To use the ' dial ', again, think of an old fashion phone, and you have to put your finger in the holes where the numbers are and pull.I think this is a fantastic and quite simple part to it, but the kids love the sound it makes, and also I think the actual action is good for young children to learn how to use small and controlled movements. It promotes and encourages role play which builds childrens imagination and communication skills.The actual telephone receiver/handset bit is connected to the main body of the toy, which is great because it cant be lost.
Alot of people have commented abouth how short the string is that helps the child pull it along. I thought that originally, when I watched my children playing with it.But at the same time if it was longer I would worry that it would be wrapped around one of my kids necks, which would not be good at all and not safe. So it has its plus and minus on that one.
The main thing is my daughter likes it. She role plays with it, bashes it about and even throws it at her brother, and it still is in one piece and fully workable.Not needed to do any major cleaning just quick wipe downs, which is a bonus. But overall this is a good buy.Dont think I would have bought it if it was over the £5.00 but still does the job of entertaining.
Whether you
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Fisher Price Disney My First Winnie the Pooh
by katyj10
My youngest daughter was bought this Winnie the Pooh bear for her first Christmas. Luckily it is suitable from 0+ age which is a rare thing amongst soft toys as we dicovered when our first daughter was born and everyone was gifting her soft toys that were suitable for 3 years plus so we had to put them away for a while. ...
Description
This toy, to be known henceforth as WTP stands around 25cm tall and is dressed in his classic red crop top tshirt which is printed (not embroidered) with his name. The Tshirt is also stitched on to the bear so is not removable. The material is really soft and you can see why he would appeal to a young child for regular snuggles.
My thoughts
To be honest, I'm not a huge WTP fan, and would not choose to buy any WTP branded items as he just doesn't appeal to me. I prefer more muted colours and I know children like bright colours but that's just me. I don't really go for many of the Disney branded items as I find them a bit garish. Never mind this, it doesn't matter what your preferences are when it comes for children, you may vow to never buy plastic toys too but it is inevitable that someone will buy these for them as gifts and you end up with them anyway. I don't mean to sound ungrateful but I had spent a lot of time, effort and money decorating the kids' bedrooms in beautiful colour schemes and then you enter the room and your eye is drawn to the yellow WTP.
Positives
To be fair, this bear has done no one any harm. He is soft and nice to touch and suitable from birth.
He is well made and has no bits that look like they will fall off.
My daughter does like snuggling him.
Downsides
You can only hand wash this bear.
His tshirt is printed on and this will wear off after a bit of child mauling (from the child, not the bear).
I don't like his eyebrows (they give him a permanent surprised look)
Final word
As you can tell, I'm not a huge fan of this bear. We have a WTP noisy book that is his voice and even that annoys me! This would not be a bear I would choose to buy as it is not to my taste but nonetheless we have this toy in our collection along with the noisy book and even a sleepsuit with matching hat and gloves from the WTP range so there are obviously lots of WTP fans out there that I will alienate from ever reading my reviews again... sorry!
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