My mum recently bought this toy for my 8 month old son. The minimum age recommended for this toy was 6 months so he was well above this and it is ideal for babies that can sit independently and play. The toy currently retails at around £12.99.
This is a really lovely toy that does so much and is educational too. The toy is made of plastic and features four different animals on the base, each a different colour. The base is blue to represent the sea and there is a green turtle, red crab, pink octopus and grey dolphin. In the middle of the toy there is a bright yellow starfish plunger which can be pushed down to make the toy spin. There are also three coloured buttons on the base that can be pressed as well as a flick switch to turn on/off and select between music and learning modes.

When in music mode, the plunger can be pushed and the toy spins and plays a melody - various nursery rhymes, for example twinkle twinkle little star. The lights on the coloured buttons also light up so that the toy flashes. My son really enjoys watching this and listening to the music, clapping his hands in appreciation.
In learning mode, the buttons can be pressed and a voice will speak. It asks questions like 'which animal is pink?' This encourages baby to touch the pink octopus, and if they do so it plays a round of applause. There are also questions like 'where is the turtle?', again waiting for baby to touch the turtle. There is also another mode that says 'count the animals with me' and as baby touches each animal, the voice counts 'one, two, three, four'. The animals also make a noise when the baby touches them, a clip clip of the pincers for the crab and a clicking noise for the dolphin (the octopus and turtle sounds are somewhat indescribable!). Therefore this toy is a great, fun, way of introducing animals, colours and counting. My baby is too young to benefit fully from this feature but, once he is older, this will be a great learning aid. Therefore, I expect the toy to have a long life span and prove really good value for money!

When my son first got this toy, he seemed a little intimidated by it. I'm still not completely sure why this was - whether the movement bothered him, the animals or if the music was just too loud (there is no low or high volume settings and it does seem rather loud to me!). We ended up playing with it for a while with no noise (it can still be spun whilst switched off) and he gradually gained the confidence to explore it and touch the animals. He now plays with this a lot and, although he does not quite have the strength and co-ordination to push the plunger down himself, he knows what he has to do to make it spin. The toy is also encouraging him to improve his motor skills as there is a lot on it to touch, push and explore.
The toy takes 2 AA batteries, which are included. We've only had the toy a few weeks so I can't really comment on how long they last, but they are still going strong and we have used it quite a lot (no slowing down of the music yet!). âEurof
This is a really lovely, well thought out toy which teaches children so much. I'm really impressed with it and will definitely keep an eye out for other VTech toys in the future. I hope that it will teach my son in a fun way in the future but at the moment, he is just enjoying the music and movement of the toy. The only negative thing I can say about it is that it could do with a low volume setting!