When my son turned 9 months old he started getting into eveything and took a very keen interest in our sky remote control, house telephone and our mobile telephones. Knowing that anything we told him not to touch, naturally he would want to try and grab hold of it so one day when I was out shopping with my mum we spotted the Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics flip phone and as I took it off the shelf to have a look, my son stared up from his pram and his eyes opened so wide I knew he like the look of this toy.

The phone itself is secured into a cardboard box and the open is front to allow you to "try before you buy". I have to say I am very disappointed with the packaging as it is very difficult to buy this item and get it out of the packaging easy and pass it to your child as it is held tightly to a cardboard insert with strong plastic ties which are not the easiest to remove.

The phone is relatively chunky and robust in a white plastic with the trademark red and white fisher price logo and bright yellow buttons.

When you open the phone an american voice cheerful calls "Hello" and upon pressing the yellow note button a short melody will play or you can hear various sound effects.

There is no volume adjuster on this toy but thankfully it is not too noisy and just loud enough for your child to play with it happily without disturbing people around you.

There is a keypad for baby to press although I did notice that 0 was missing how important this is I am not to sure as we are only teaching him from 1 upwards anyway but it doesn't really represent a traditional phone for when your child is older and a bit more aware but saying that the phone is suitable for 6-36 months.

The phone as I mentioned is quite chunky when closed but is easy enough for small hands to handle and easily open the phone up to display 1 of 3 images from either a mouse, cat or dog. Each time the phone is opened and closed the image rotates so that baby is greeted by a different character each time they open and close the phone.

The phone is easy to keep clean and I just wipe with a milton wipe to keep it clean and germ free and it looks like new even a few months on.

The little red aerial on the phone is great for baby to try and gnaw when teething although it shows no sign of teeth marks from my little one despite him having a good old chomp down on it.

I purchased this phone from Tesco for £4.97 which is pretty good value considering it has been dropped, chewed, bashed and waved about in the air and still looks as good as new and my baby still loves playing with it.

The toy is operated via 3 LR44 batteries and to replace them you need to use a phillips screwdriver to loosen the cover, remove the old batteries and reaplace with the new and secure the panel back.

Overall this is a great value toy that will keep baby entertained and we are able to have a good time playing pretending that various characters from cbeebies are on the other end of his play phone!!