Mom’s Toy Reviews

I thought it was time for a review of something that I DON’T like so much. It was pretty easy to pick out; I think Water Symphony is the worst toy I’ve ever paid money for. This one probably looks familiar - I can remember actually wanting to play with this after seeing commercials for it as a child myself. So I finally had an excuse, 5 years ago, when my son was old enough to play with toys in the bathtub. Off I headed for the store! Got my plastic dolphins and hurried home to what I imagined was a symphony of sound.

Right?

Wrong.

It’s darn near impossible to get any sound out of these dolphins at all. I tried it for YEARS - with both of my first two kids - and got really proficient at getting a sound about 10% of the time. So that was really disappointing. But it doesn’t stop there. The most annoying thing is that the “floats” that the dolphins sit in, won’t stay linked together like they are supposed to. Forget it!

I think the most value this toy brought was helping to review colors when my children were learning them. And my older daughter enjoyed pretending that the floats were bracelets. I tossed the dolphins and just kept the rings for her, until she outgrew them…at which point I was delighted to chuck them, too.

Approximate Retail: $19.99
Buy it Online (If you want to…)

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Miles the Goose. Miles is the star of my kids’ favorite DVD for car trips, called “Are We There Yet?” It’s a super-annoying-to-adults, but super-engaging-for-kids video. And since we just got back from a road trip from Florida to the Outer Banks, NC - 16 hours each way - I have Miles on the brain. I think they watched it 7 times, if I counted correctly.

When we play movies in the car, it’s quiet, but I worry that my kids’ brains are going to mush. Not so with “Are We There Yet?”, because they are talking the entire time. They play games, such as counting car colors to see who gets to five, first. Or answering questions - mini-quizzes after certain video segments - on things like the nickname of New York City, how far a humpback whale migrates each year, or what a baby kangaroo is called. They learn about constellations and US history. They look for clouds in certain shapes. You get the picture! It’s constant stimulation and it’s educational.

“Are We There Yet?” is an acclaimed DVD by Banyan Productions, the same people that make grownup television shows like “Trading Places”. It’s their only venture into childrens’ video, but it’s superb. It’s educational. And it’s fun.

Approximate Retail: $19.97
Buy It Online

The Pizza Party set is one toy that has stood the test of time in my house. All of the great wooden toys by Melissa and Doug are favorites for my kids, but Pizza Party stands out above the rest. My oldest received it as a gift about 4 years ago. He LOVED putting the toppings on, and pretending to be a pizza chef by “slicing” the pizza and serving it to us. The set contains 6 wooden pizza slices that stick together with Velcro circles (which are made into the wood, not glued on - no sticky mess in hot weather!) It includes a plate, a wooden pizza cutter that really turns, and a wooden server. But the best part are the toppings. It has about 50 little wooden circles, with Velcro on the back, that stick to Velcro spots on the top of each pizza slice. The toppings are designed with mushrooms, green and red peppers, and pepperoni images.

When my second child reached the crawling stage, we had to put it away for awhile, due to the small parts, but we brought it back out during her nap time for her older brother, who continued to enjoy it. Once she as old enough, Pizza Party regained its permanent spot in our playroom. And we had a new surprise with our daughter’s description of the toppings - pickles and marshmallows were the two she named. (We think the pickles were the pepperonis, and the marshmallows were the mushrooms, but I’m still not sure!)

The baby just turned one and has gotten really mobile, so unfortunately it’s time for Pizza Party to go back into the closet until she’s old enough to not pop the toppings into her mouth. But I’m looking forward to the day when she makes this toy her own, just like her sibs have!

Approximate Retail: $19.97
Buy it Online

I think I’m one of few children of the 80s that doesn’t actually remember this toy. Maybe I was too much of a Barbie fanatic to pay attention to a game like this. But those recent truck commercials brought it to mind, and lo and behold, my son got one for Christmas in 2006.

I have to say - Rock Em Sock Em Robots has been a ton of fun! Primarily because I can beat the pants off everyone else in the house, even my DH. And it’s kinda cool to knock their HEADS off, but don’t tell my kids I said that!

The main issue I have with this game is the inability to store it easily. It’s BIG, it has lots of pieces that come off, and you can’t put anything down on top of it. So admittedly, it’s sitting in the garage right now. But hopefully I’ll finish installing those Closetmaid wire shelves in my kids closets this weekend, and we’ll have more room to keep things like this within reach. It’s definitely not going into the upcoming garage sale.

Approximate Retail: $21.97
Buy It Online

Earlier this year, I was introduced to the Bumbo Baby Seat by Lisa, a friend of mine. Her son was 7 months old at the time, and he adored his seat. Although he could already sit unassisted, he really seemed to enjoy the independence of being able to sit unassisted. I literally headed out THAT day to buy one of these neat chairs. Unfortunately, what I found at the local Wal-Mart was a competitor product called BebePod. It looked good enough, so I chucked out $35 or so and bought one.

For the first few days the BebePod was a dream. My 3-month-old enjoyed it as much as Lisa’s son did. But in less than a week, the yellow piece of foam that goes between baby’s legs broke off! The BebePod is made of two separate pieces of foam, and I was entirely disappointed with the lack of quality and longevity. So back I went to the chain store, to Target this time, where I found the original object of desire, the Bumbo chair.

This chair has now been with us for 5 months and hasn’t suffered any damage yet, not even from my 3-year-old taking turns sitting in it. My daughter is now over 9 months and a good sitter, but she still likes the comfort of her Bumbo. She uses it for play and for eating (when I take her to grandma’s house, for instance). This one definitely gets a thumbs up!

Approximate Retail: $39.95
Buy it Online

If your kids are like mine, the three things they want control of in the house are the phone, the TV remote, and the camera. When they were younger, they just wanted to see the digital image of every single snapshot I took. As they’ve gotten a little older, though, they’ve decided they want to take pictures with my camera. That got pretty old, pretty quick, as visions of shattered lenses and scattered electronic parts snuck into my mind. That’s when I decided I wanted them to have their own Kid Tough Digital Camera. My mother-in-law came to the rescue and got one for each of my kids for Christmas in 2006. (I waited a year to write about them, because it’s hard to know if it lives up to its name without putting it through the ringer! Now, nearly 13 months later, they are still ticking.)

My son’s camera is blue, and my daughter’s is pink. I love the fact that they make two colors, just because it saves a lot of fights about which camera belongs to which kid. They also received a memory card for the camera, and there’s tons of storage room with that. (It’s not easy to get in and out of the camera, though - which is a pain, but probably a good thing in the hands of preschoolers.) The quality of the pictures isn’t PERFECT, but it’s quite good given that we’re talking about a toy, here. And getting to see the world through my kids eyes is a wonderful thing. At least, most of the time…every now and then we do end up with pictures of people’s knees and rear ends. But I guess that’s what is at eye-level for small children!

There’s also a matching carrying case for the cameras. To my knowledge, it only comes in blue, but my mother-in-law painted some flowers on my daughter’s to give it a feminine flair. This has definitely been one of the best presents ever.

Approximate Retail: $69.95
Buy it Online

The newest attraction on my kitchen counter is a small plastic “aquarium”, which doesn’t house fish, but instead is home to 3 small Aquasaurs. That’s the “toy name” for a critter called a Triops, which apparently dates all the way back to the dinosaur era. They are related to crabs, according to the instruction sheet.

The Aquasaurs are another Christmas present, this time for my 5-year-old son. The nice thing about this toy is that, unlike other creature toy habitats, this one actually comes with the animals. Aquasaurs lay eggs in temporary pools of water, and when they dry up, the eggs can lie dormant for up to 20 years. So you just drop them back in a new puddle (or plastic tub filled with spring water, in our case!) and out they come. Kinda like those old capsules that dissolved in water and produced a foam outline of an animal, except the Aquasaurs are real.

So last Saturday we set everything up. I went to the grocery store and picked up two gallons of spring water, since you can’t use tap water without risking Aquasauricide. Rinsed everything out, filled the aquarium, dumped in 1/2 of the Aquasaur eggs, and waited.

36 hours later we were able to find two VERY small Aquasaurs swimming around. We’ve been checking them each day, until yesterday when it was finally time to start feeding them. I crushed up two food pellets and let my son dump them into the water. We watched for awhile, which is more fun now that the Aquasaurs are bigger and easier to see. We finally discovered that we have 3 of them, not just 2! One is about 20% bigger than the other two…maybe he’s the Alpha Aquasaur.

Tonight I get to go home and change out the water. What fun… but it’s better than cleaning a kitty litter box, and it sounds pretty easy, because we only have to empty 1/2 the water and replace it with fresh water. Hopefully I can keep all 3 of the little guys safe, and not accidentally wash them down the garbage disposal.

Approximate Retail: $19.95
Buy it Online

Play-Doh has always been one of my favorite activities for the kids. They can immerse themselves in it, and can often entertain themselves for over an hour. Sure, there’s always a mess to clean up afterwards, but it gives me a good chance to straighten the house or write an entry here.

So when my sister in law gave us the Play-Doh EZ2DO Silly Friends for Christmas, I was pretty excited. It looked especially fun for my middle child, who, at 3 years old, isn’t quite ready for some of the trickier Play-Doh contraptions. This set features 3 large tubs of Doh, and about 30 body parts - plastic eyes, arms, mouths, ears, etc. Think Play-Doh meets Mr. Potato Head.

The first thing I noticed was that nearly EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL PIECE was INDIVIDUALLY silver-twisty-wired onto the plastic backing. You know what I mean…those silver twisties are the bane of every mom’s existance, especially around Christmas! I think there were roughly 20 wires. When we finally got them all done, the kids started playing with the pieces.

What I thought were the beauty and simplicity of this toy was pretty much ignored by the kids. My 5-year-old son keyed on the “injector” and its ability to mold feet by squeezing a tube of Doh through the top of the shoes (which is actually a pretty neat double-feature). He also made some hats. My daughter was just happy to have some fresh Doh to play with…she’s content with a few colors and a plastic knife to cut the Doh into tiny messy pieces.

Overall I think this is a nice addition, and I’m glad we got it as a gift - but I probably wouldn’t spend my own money on it. I’d go for a new basic set of fresh Doh and a box of plastic knives from the picnic section.

Approximate Retail: $17.95
Buy It Online