When my little ones were approaching 6 months old I started looking round for some new toys for them and this VTech Crawl and Learn Bright Lights Ball caught my eye. They already had a couple of VTech toys they really liked so I was hoping they would like this one too. I managed to get a nearly new one from Ebay so saved a few pounds on the RRP.

The Toy
It is a fairly heavy plastic ball at approx 1kg weight and so at 6 months old my little ones weren't able to pick it up. I wasn't expecting it to be as heavy as it was, this is definitely a floor toy! The ball is brightly coloured in orange, white and blue with multicoloured buttons and ribbons.

-The ribbons
The 6 ribbons are soft to the touch for baby, they are about 3 cm long and about 1.5 cm wide. My little ones have never shown any interest in these ribbons and they don't really add anything to the toy in my opinion as they are too small.

-The Ladybird
There is a Ladybird that is fixed to the top of the ball that moves round in circles. The top of the ball is a big orange light with a white swirling pattern that all moves with the Ladybird. It activates the music when baby moves it and my little ones really like it and is probably their favourite part of the toy.

-The Numbers and Shapes
The ball has 3 numbered and shaped buttons in green, red and purple. Each have pictures of insects on them and flashing lights behind them. When pressed they say either the number and insects eg, 2 snails or the colour and shape eg, green circle. These buttons are big and easy for little fingers to press, at 6 months my little ones could manage to press these buttons.

-Animals
The ball also has 3 animal buttons, a cat, a dog and a monkey. When pressed they make the sound of the animal and say what it is. These buttons are also easy to press. With a total of 6 buttons this toy introduces baby to lots of different things which I like.

- Moving ball
The ball is motorised and moves around, but not much. I'm not sure if this is because we use it on carpet but I was expecting it to move along a little way as after all it is meant to encourage baby to crawl after it.

Volume
There are 2 volume levels and an off position, I'm always glad to see an off switch as toys without one always seem to activate when you do't want them to.

Batteries
It takes 3 x AA batteries which are included. The motorised unit of this toy is quite greedy on the power and I found they needed changing fairly frequently.

Age
This toy is suitable from 6 months to 2 years, I think the lower age is right but by 18 months they had lost interest. Also by 18 months they could pick it up and drop it and it's heavy if it falls on anything.

Price and Availability
As I said earlier in the review I bought mine on Ebay and I'm glad I didn't pay full price. It is currently only £12.79 on Amazon and Kiddicare but it is widely available from other places such as Tesco, Argos and Mothercare.

Recommendation
I would recommend this toy if your floors don't have carpet as I'm sure it would work much better on a surface like laminate. It has lots of good features to keep baby amused and is easy to keep clean.