Lamaze octotunes was kindly brought for our little girl for her first Christmas when she was 7months old. It was brought for her as Lamaze as a company is very well known for the cleverly designed toys to aid child development, they liked the fact it had big bright bold colours and you could make tunes with it.

****the product****
so what is the product? Well octotunes is an octopus who's tentacles are designed in tubes that when squeezed the let out a note, so if pressed in the correct order they will sing "Mary had a little lamb" "twinkle twinkle little star" and so on. The legs all have different colour ends so they arecolour coded making it easy to follow the note book to play the tune. (I hope you areable to follow what I am saying). Ghost his very complicated for a baby toy.

Octotunes is a fabric make unsure of the exact materials but has a felty feel to the legs and body. The head has a happy smiley face with a sensory feel to it. The tenticles have a silky feel to the bottom. The product is made to a very high specification and that you could not fault. It comes in a variety of colours our is yellow but I have seen them in red and blue.

Octotunes is quite a big toy and heavy fir age it is designed for. The legs are thick and very difficult to squeeze. It comes with a little note book (in paper) that has the colour coded notes to play in order to play the tunes. Unfortunately my little girl managed to chew it off within the first day so we have not been able to play the tunes very well for her.

The idea of this toy is good, it is designed to encourage young children to interact in musical activities and begin to make there own tunes, the reality is the legs are too thick for young children to squeeze and definitely to heavy to play with. I think once she gets to an age where she could squeeze the legs she will be too old to want to do it.

****costing****
This was brought for us but having done some research it is on the market for approximately £22.99-£30. This is about average for the size and make of the toy as it is made to a very high standard. Octotunes will last a long time as it is hardly aged, it is as good as new yet we have had it 18months that could be because it is hardly played with though. I am unsure whether you can put it in the washing machine.

**** summary*****
I have only given this one star as I think I have enjoyed it more than my little girl and I definitely would not recommend this product to anyone as it is surplus to requirement.