We bought this, along with other Happyland products, for my daughter's 1st birthday. Although she hadn't reached the recommended age of 18 months, she still enjoyed playing with it. There are no small parts so it's safe for all ages. It required no assembly and was ready to use straight from the box.

This has been one of her favourites from all the Happyland toys she has and she's had over 3 years of fun out of it. I think back then it was £35, and I used a Big Birthday Club 20% off voucher. But it now retails at £40 which is quite overpriced in my opinion.

The set consists of:

- A carousel featuring 4 horses around a mirrored centre. The Happyland characters are supposed to fit into the horses, secured by fitting onto a small bump, but have a tendency to fly off when the carousel is moving - annoying at times, amusing at others! In fact we've been known to not even try and secure the figures in just so they'll fly out once the carousel starts rotating. Pressing the large button on this battery (2 x AAA) operated toy makes the carousel move round, and play fairground type music. One good press and it does around 2 rotations, whilst the music plays. If it stops rotating before the music stops you can keep pressing to make it rotate. As it's been used so much the batteries recently ran out, although they lasted a fair amount of time given how much it's been played with. Not all characters from Happyland will fit properly into the horses, those with larger bottoms won't go in, which is frustrating for little ones. The detail is nice on the carousel, with little "lights" around the edge, and the mirrors in the centre, just like a real carousel. There are two horses of each colour. The top of the carousel collects dust and other bits easily due to its shape.

- The spinning rockets ride has two rocket ships which the figures fit into, again they're not that secure and fall out easily. No batteries here, you need to spin it around yourself. It's fairly sturdy, although pushing it round too fast can sometimes lead to it falling over.

- A pirate boat ride, is basically just that. A pirate ship that swings back and forth, seating a figure in each. It can be used as a swing-type toy, or if you hold down the base you can get the ship to do a full 360 rotation!

- A train completes the ride elements of the set, and seats 3 figures. It can be tricky to get one in the front seat due to the overhang on the front carriage. This is a nice addition and a good way for the figures to get around the fairground, plus it's an extra ride for them to go on. This gets played with outside of the fairground set in our house, and used as a general get around vehicle for the other Happyland figures.

- Four figures are provided: A fairground man, a clown, a boy and a girl. The fairground man looks quite traditional and stereotypical, with a straw boater, bow tie and striped trousers. It would have been nice to have an adult figure provided, i.e. a parent for the children, as it would be good to teach children that it's best to go to the fairground on their own, especially with a clown on the prowl!

Overall this is a great toy set which encourages kids to use their imaginations and develop social skills. It's also good for teaching cause and effect, with buttons to press and things to spin round. Kids can take the Happyland figures from other sets on a day out to the fairground, or maybe the fairground could come to town. If you have the Happyland airport set and plane, they could all go on a Disney-type holiday to the fair. And as I said above my girls have got lots and lots of use out of this and keep returning to it on a daily basis.

It's well built, especially compared to some of the other Happyland range, no bits have fallen off, although paint does scratch off over time.

A musical ferris wheel is available from ELC and would complement this set well.

ELC have sales every so often on Happyland items, so I'd recommend waiting for it to be on sale rather than paying full price, or use a 20% off voucher (via Big Birthday Club or occasionally available on food packs).