Activity Toy Reviews

I received this for Christmas. I was not overly enthused when I first saw it. I am more used to the 1000 piece flat jigsaw puzzles. However, this was a lot of fun to put together and a lot easier than the flat puzzles. I managed it easily in about 8 hours over 3 days. The pieces go together easily, for the most part. The upper dome is a challenge, however.

The pieces are foam backed instead of cardboard. When you open the box you will find that many of them are still attached. So the first thing you will need to do is carefully separate those that are still attached. This puzzle requires a lot of room to construct. And this is a construction job. I built it on the coffee table, but room was at a premium.

Now be aware that it comes with instructions of a sort and they are required, in my oppinion, to sucessfuly complete the project. Also you need to be aware that even though many of the walls once they are constructed appear interchangable, they are not. Everything fits but only if they are in the correct location and that is not obvious. If everything does not properly mesh, it is because either the scrap has not been cleared out of all the mesh points or the walls are in the wrong locations. I had 3 or 4 walls in the wrong locations and the walls were not fitting together. So be patient and move them around until they do fit.

Now, the box says 12+ in age. This would be a great puzzle for a budding civil engineer. But a 12 year old will perhaps need more patience than I had when I was 12. Dad or mom should be handy to offer insite into why the walls are not fitting together. Actually, I think with help and encouragement a 10 can do it.

My almost-3-year old daughter loves this toy. She also has the Maid Marian set and loves having 2 princesses to ride in the carriage. She likes putting the knight from another set into the horse, and she can tell they all "go" together, versus her FP house. Because my daughter is a princess fantatic, this set was a huge hit: especially since Cinderella was re-released and *this* set has a carriage. Who knew a 3 year old would know what a carriage for a ball was? I think it's delightful she actually pretends to go to a ball and carries on conversations between the princesses.

For imaginative play, I gave this toy a 5 star rating. Our princess is a bit well-loved (some paint missing), but who wouldn't be after continual living in a little girl's pocket?

Definitely a recommended toy!

This is an additional set for the Lil Kingdom. It includes a pink carriage, Princess Sonya Lee, Prince Michael and a horse that can either be connected to the carriage or the horse can be ridden all by itself. Also included is a dance area so that your Little People can dance and spin the morning away!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, imagination and play are so important for your child! Any Little People set or additional set can create hours of fun for both you and your child!

The reason we got this set vs the Maid Marrion set (that comes with two unicorns, one big & 1 little) is that you can ride the horse! A great addition to our Little People toys, my daughter nows asks us to get ther the casstle (but we already have the house, garden accessories, airport and farm accessories).

Since we have so many people already, two can ride the coach while one rides the horse and the prince and princess can dance.

Great fun for your horse/princess/Renn Faire/little people fan.

If you bought the first kit and this one then you'll have two wands and no fighting! This kit has the "Polyjuice Potion" (iron fillings and magnetic wand to make herminone's image in a petri dish look "hairy", "Swelling Solution" (nose absorbs water to "grow", and "Skele-Gro" (tape, tongue depressors, and sticky hand) experiments. You get to make a binder with the kit too. Loads of fun!

The concept seems so deceptively simple - use just five 3-dimensional puzzle pieces shaped like stacked bricks and arrange them into 60 different symmetrical configurations as shown on the supplied deck of cards.

The puzzles to match are on one side of each numbered card and the solutions are on the back.

The little game is a welcome distraction and nicely takes your mind off other things. I'm middle aged and I enjoy it. My little boy likes it and I would bet that seniors would like it too if they have enjoyed puzzles all their lives. I just recommended to my brother for his 20 year old who is recuperating from leg surgery.

This game is so much fun! I purchased it years ago, and raced through it! I am 23 years old, and still like to pick it up once in a while - it challenges me to this day. The cards you are given look easy, but as you work your way through the deck you realize it's not as easy as you think. People of any age group will find it fun, but addictive. As you play, you learn to visualize things in a new way, which is useful in real life. The back of the cards have hints in case you get stuck - one hint shows where a few pieces go; the other hint shows the rest. You can use whichever hint you feel you need more. All around, this is a fun game that doesn't take long to learn and can be enjoyed by everyone!

Being a school grade teacher, I am often looking for games that will challenge the mind. My children and I found this game both challenging and fun. It does cause younger children a bit of frustration, but they don't want to give up. They just keep trying harder!

My daughter liked this toy, but when we thought she had gone through a set of batteries it turned out it just wasn't working anymore. It's possible she's responsible for the malfunction but I can't find any signs of spills or things of that nature.

I purchased this dance mat for my one year old son who is a huge JoJo fan. He has The Wiggles dance mat and just loves it. When he steps on The Wiggle dance mat, it actually plays The Wiggles songs. I rate this product only one star because it really isn't a dance mat. It doesn't play a single JoJo tune-just some brief instrumental generic children's songs. My son loves to hear JoJo music and since it doesn't play any, he had no interest in it! They should call it a game mat since that is what it mostly is. I returned it to Amazon!

We got this for Christmas. It doesn't work that well with larger feet. My child can answer the questions, but in trying to reach the correct picture inadvertantly steps on a space set for another picture. She doesn't actually step on the wrong picture itself. It is frustrating to be told you are wrong when you never answered the question. My child was so excited for this toy, but it has fallen by the wayside because of this problem. It would have been a better toy if it had more "dead" space between the pictures.

I bought the pop-onz for my grandson who will be 2 years old
in July. He absolutely loves it. He loves to turn it on and
then stop it to hear the sound it makes while he holds the
turntable. While its on he puts the pieces on and watches how
they go around. I would recommend the toy without any hestatation. Thank you for making such a wonderful product.
Joan Levy

I bought this for my son and got another set for my nephew as a gift so the price was so good. My son, 1 year, absolutely loves it. In the morning I bring him down and that is the first toy he goes to. The colors, music and shapes keep him busy for a good hour. I would suggest this to my friends and family!

We got this for my daughter for Christmas and she was 15 months. She liked watching us play with it and she liked rocking the swing but she wasn't too interested in it then. At 18 months she would sit and play for at least 30 minutes at a time with it. Now at 19 months she still loves playing with it. She is strong enough to pop the pieces on now and she likes to push the button and play with the swing.

To begin with . . . this thing is ENORMOUS! Where on earth am I going to store it? Second; this requires 6 size D batteries! At $6 for a pack of four, that starts to add up (seeing as my child NEVER remembers to shut it off). Third; the markers don't wash off (BTW, *what* is the point of markers combined with lite-brite?). Fourth; little pegs all over the place! And Last; the novelty of sticking pegs into little holes wears off fast. I can't wait to dump this one in the trash.

My daughter picked this out herself for her fourth birthday, in the My Little Pony Version. She quickly mastered the letter identification/match to peg color concept and really enjoyed coloring and making pegged pictures. She likes the tracing concept, but much prefers to ask her older sister to do the tracing.

Flaws:
1) The storage bin for the pegs needs to snap shut. Moving this monster from one part of the house to another is an exercise in frustration because the peg bins pop open and spill all over. Those puppies HURT when you step on them, and you quickly reach the point where you don't have adequate pegs to complete a design.

2) WHERE do you get refills? I can't find them anywhere. I suppose the upside to this is that we haven't yet had to replace the batteries. See the next item.

3) No AC adapter. Replacing batteries for this thing, assuming I can ever find refills and use it again, is going to be beastly expensive.

This toy seemed like a nice, multi-purpose art and educational activity. Five stars for how much fun she had while it lasted. Five stars for how quickly she figured out the letter/color matching. one star for durability because of refills and peg storage, one star overall because we can't use it until we get refills.

A toy that can only be used for 2 days because there is no after-market support from the manufacturer just isn't a good toy. I wish I'd encouraged her to select something else. Anything else.

This was given as a Christmas gift to my 4 1/2 year old. We also have a 2 year old that likes to play with her sister and all her toys. Of course, we watch her with the small pegs, however, that was not the problem. I walked out of the room for, no kidding, 30 seconds, came back to my 2 year old colored BLUE! She had taken one of the markers and drew all over herself. OK, I take blame for that given I was out of the room, however, THE MARKS DO NOT COME OFF HER SKIN!!!!! I tried EVERYTHING (hairspray, vaseline, plain soap and warm water, alcohol based products, fingernail polish remover, scrubbing, etc. etc.) NOTHING WORKED. Nothing. It just has to wear off. PLEASE toy manufacturers - PLEASE - use washable markers when making products like this.