I'd like to be a buzzzy buzzzy bee!!!! (ELC Honey Bee Tree)

Member Name: mumto3

Product:	ELC Honey Bee Tree
Date:	19/03/09 (298 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good quality - very entertaining

Disadvantages: Fiddly to set up - Small pieces look tasty to younger children

Shortly before Christmas my daughter's school held their annual Christmas Fair. My husband had given our daughter some money to spend at the fair and she wasn't leaving until she had bought something!

Eventually on a stall selling used toys and games my Daughter found this Early Learning Centre (ELC) Honey Bee Tree game and recognising it as something similar to Ker-Plunk, which she enjoys playing with Nanny, she decided this was the thing she wanted most. We paid £1.00 for the Honey Bee Tree, a Steering Wheel and a box of six Dinosaur puzzles.

As soon as we got home we all had to have a game of the Honey Bee Tree and my daughter excitedly emptied the contents of the box. I was really pleased to see that all the pieces where there and appeared to be in an unused condition. What a bargain!

In the box you get a collecting tray base, an old oak tree, a bee hive, 32 leaves on long sticks and 30 little bees. Anyone who has ever played Ker-plunk will work this game out very quickly as it is just the same but just aimed at a younger audience. The recommended age range for this toy is three to eight years and I would say that is about right, any younger and it is too fiddly and difficult to understand and any older and they will think the design is childish.

To play the game you have to put together your 'old oak tree' by fitting the trunk into the base and placing the bee hive on the top. The bee hive has lots of holes in it and you then have to thread your 'leaves' through the hive to make the whole thing look like a tree. This is quite tricky and you cannot just slot the leaves through at random. I found that if you try and fit the sticks through and thread them through the holes opposite and work up a layer at a time you can get all the leaves in. If you just shove the sticks through any old how you tend to get them jammed and they won't all fit. Once you have fitted all your sticks into the hive you can then tip your bees in on top of the sticks and you are ready to play.

The idea of the game is to take turns to remove the sticks without dislodging any bees; the player with the least bees once they have all fallen through is the winner.

The first time we played I just rammed as many sticks in as I could fit as quickly as possible just so we could start the game. My children aged three and four really enjoyed the game and got very excited when the bees came down the trunk. They got a lot of bees when trying to turn the trunk to face them when it was their turn and because I hadn't managed to get all the sticks in. The first game was over very quickly but caused much giggling and squealing.

Since then I have always tried to put the sticks in properly just to make the game last a little longer. Unfortunately this does increase the setting up time which does cause some frustration. I think my children are under the impression that the aim is to get as many bees as possible and as they seem to enjoy this so much I haven't bothered to put them right!

The game is still available (March 09) from the ELC for £8.00 and I don't feel that this is a bad price for such an entertaining game. I am obviously very pleased that I didn't pay that for our game but I don't think that £8.00 is expensive for a children's game. The toy is very good quality and all the pieces are made of hard plastic. The sticks do bend but we haven't had any break yet and we've had the game for four months. The bees are yellow with black stripes painted onto them and they are also all still intact and look like new despite my one year old frequently trying to eat them.

I would recommend this game for any child within the age range and feel it appeals to both boys and girls alike.

Summary: Ker-plunk for beginners!