An Eight Legged Furry Beany Squeaky Pal (Boots Shiny Octopull)

Member Name: sersha

Product:	Boots Shiny Octopull
Date:	26/11/05 (120 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: soft, lightweight, lots of fun, aids learning

Disadvantages: not easy to sponge clean

Some toys just never go out of fashion. My mum has some fisher price toys that I played with over 25 years ago, which still work as well as they ever did for my daughter today, and new models of exactly the same things are still being made now. When shopping in Boots yesterday I saw their activity octopus - and recognised it with a funny childhood flashback - I remember actually playing with a similar octopus, and I can't have been more than two years old.

For something to still be around that many years after it was invented is a pretty good indication that's it is a great success. Leah loves her activity octopus and he's been one of her favourites since she was big enough to hold him!

He is soft and squashy as well as having lots of interesting textures and sounds within him, which means she can either cuddle him just like a soft toy, or poke him or throw him across the room instead, depending on her mood! He is nice and light, so was one of the first large toys she was able to pick up by herself and bat about. There is lots to grab and hold onto, and lots to keep her interest - when she was smaller I would just turn him around leg by leg, so he was really 8 toys in one.

He has a kind, smiley face and little button eyes, as well as eight activity legs, all different colours and with different features. There is one beanbag leg, one with with velvet material, a crinkly leg with silk material, two chequered pattern legs with different squeaks, another leg that plays a tune when you press the button, a leg with a bell in it that you can shake, and a nice soft furry leg. Babies love touchy feely things and he is great for exploring new textures and sounds. Her favourite leg is the squeak - at eight months she has finally got the finger control required to squeak him herself (argh!!!)

He isn't supposed to go through the washing machine, which means he needs to be sponge cleaned which is always a bit of a pain, but he has survived being dunked in the sink several times and always comes up smiling. He is obviously at home in the water! Another advantage is that he is VERY easy to hang on the washing line with all those legs!!!

He is a nice light toy for posting, which means he makes a good present - lots of baby toys for this age group are a bit cumbersome to wrap up, but he squashes nicely into a jiffy bag.

I'd recommend him as a gift for a baby from 3-12 months (although toddlers seem to quite like playing with baby toys too, so the chances are he would last even longer than this...)

Price: £15.00

Summary: a tried and tested baby toy that hasn't gone out of fashion