Happy Hoovering! (Dyson Toy Vacuum Cleaner)

Member Name: mreyre

Product:	Dyson Toy Vacuum Cleaner
Date:	01/12/02 (2365 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great role-play opportunity, realistic noises, only takes 1 battery

Disadvantages: fiddly to replace batteries, doesn't actually hoover up the dust, bits keep falling off it

This is a great little product for helpful boys and girls around the house, and just so realistic, it’s unbelievable. When I was a lad, we used to have to make do with empty cardboard boxes stuck together and the insides of loo rolls to represent what we wanted to, and actually use our imagination. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your viewpoints, children no longer need to use as much imagination as we once did, as there are so many of these “realistic” items in the stores these days.

Take this Dyson toy Vacuum cleaner for example. It’s just like Mummy’s (or to be politically correct; Daddy’s) “proper” one, except about three times smaller. It looks and (almost) behaves like a real Dyson, with one obvious exception. Unfortunately it doesn’t actually hoover the dust off your carpet like a real hoover, though I have read somewhere that there are toy hoovers that do actually do this (sounds like a great invention to me!!)

That aside, the hoover has a flexible hose on the back, which lifts out of the housing, which the child can pretend to wave around the floor, hoovering up. It also has what I call the “kick” function – if you kick the bottom bit with your foot, this remains on the carpet, whilst you are angling the rest of the hoover around the room. My daughter had obviously watched me do this with our real Dyson, and that was the very first thing she did upon receiving this present for her birthday, and has since had hours of endless fun.

Although not actually functional, this is a great educational role-play type toy, which all girls (and boys) would love to play with. Lucy also has a very realistic washing machine, along with iron and ironing board. My theory is that if we teach her at a young age, she’ll be ironing my shirts for me by the time she gets to school. (not really, otherwise Social Services will be round here in a flash!!)

Final
ly, inside the front see-through casing of the hoover there are lots of little plastic bobbles, which are supposed to simulate the collected dust. This is much more appealing to the eye than looking at the contents of my actual Dyson, perhaps they should have included a few pretend dead spiders in the toy one to add a bit of realism. When a LR6 battery is added to the hoover (make sure you have plenty in for Christmas, folks!) and switched on, the toy makes very realistic “hoover-type” noises. When the switch is turned further, as well as the noise, the plastic bobbly things whirl round frantically inside the hoover, to simulate the cyclone power of the real thing.

I can only think of three disadvantages of this toy, the advantages far outweigh them however;

1. It doesn’t actually hoover up (unfortunately)
2. It is very fiddly to change the battery
3. The connecting hose attachment frequently falls out of the bottom of the unit (perhaps real Dysons do this and mine is the only one that doesn’t?)

Also I would say that this toy has limited potential on its own, but when coupled with many of the other “realistic” toys such as this, it really does enhance children’s roleplay opportunities. Failing that, give your child a couple of loo roll innards, a piece of hosepipe and a cardboard box and see if they have just as much fun.

Summary: