==Availability==

I bought this toy from Argos on their 2 for £15 offer and gave it to my 15 month old for one of her Christmas presents or at least Santa did! The toy is available in many places such as Tesco and Amazon and costs about £10 when bought on it's own.

==The Packaging==

The microphone came packaged in a bright blue box which was open at the front allowing you to have a play with the toy before buying it. The box displays the Vtech logo as this is the maker of the toy, the box was sealed with tape at the edges and once open it was easy to remove the microphone by untwisting the plastic covered wires.

==The Toy==

The toy is available in orange, yellow and blue or pink, purple and yellow, I bought the pink version for my daughter. The microphone looks like just that a microphone, the main part is pink and is curved to make it easy for your child to hold it, there is a slider to turn it on on the front and there are two different plays options that can be selected microphone or music. On the main part of the microphone there are 4 different buttons and then at the top of the stem before the top of the microphone there is a circle right round with different pictures of animals on it which slides around. The top is the bright yellow and green in colour and has the part for your child to speak into just like a real microphone.

==The Music Setting==

When you first turn the microphone to the music setting the toy immediately launches into the song Old Macdonald, the purple button on the front when pressed replays the song and the button itself flashes whenever there is any sound coming from the toy. The toy keeps playing different little tunes and asking your child to join in if you don't press anything on the toy but then does shut off after a couple of minutes which I like as it isn't constantly playing to itself and wasting the batteries but it plays little things to get your childs attention. One of the side buttons has a picture on it of a little cat and dog and when you press the button there are numerous different animal noise and whichever one you select the microphone plays a song as that animal, have you ever heard a pig sing Old Macdonald! The button on the other side when pressed names different music styles such as classical and rock and roll but I can't hear any difference between the settings to be honest. The slider around the top has 12 different animals drawn on it and when it is twisted around the microphone names each animal. I like this setting as there a numerous different tunes to attract your child to play and it teaches different animals although the pictures of the animals are quite small so I am not sure that my daughter will actually learn animals from there.

==The Microphone Setting==

When in this setting you get a few more sound effects from the toy such as applause and giggling, all of the buttons on the main part of the toy simply set off different tunes when they are pressed in this mode and it doesn't seem that they have any other function, the microphone asks your child to place the microphone and sing along but doesn't tell your child where to place it although my daughter has worked out what she is meant to do with a little encouragement. The slider at the top of the toy provides your child with the noise each of the animals would make and my daughter enjoys this as myself and her sister sit and imitate the animals to her which she giggles at.

==Our Thoughts==

This doesn't seem to be one of my daughters favourites but she does play with the toy for short periods so i would have to say it doesn't hold a childs attention for very long. The toy is meant for ages 12 months up and my daughter is 15 months old so the toy is for her age range. My daughter likes when we sing along with the toy and she likes when we make the animal noises so she is learning what animals make what noises from this toy but there isn't much else to learn from this. The toy would be better if there were more flashing lights and if there were more recognisable tunes that we could sing to. I would rate this toy 4 stars as it is a good toy and she does get some enjoyment out of it I just think there are ways this could be improved. The toy needs 3 AAA batteries and these comes included with the toy when you but it which is great especially on Christmas morning when all your child wants is to play with their new toys.