Activity Toy Reviews

My son was so excited to get this toy, until we got it home. He hates the headset and is constantly stepping on it (hence the 5 stars for durability) and Scramblers headset keeps falling off. My son happens to be think that ALL of the pieces need to be in place, so we were constantly chasing after the toy to put this piece back on. You also have to be pretty close for the remote to work, almost a bonus since it can't get too far away from him, and it has to be pointed straight at the car. I do think it is cute and a good idea, but the headset really needs to be an option because the headband is an odd shape and not very adjustable. The only head that thing will fit is about as round as Bob's. We've only had Scrambler a few days and my son is starting to lose interest.

My 22 mth old son LOVES this toy! Other reviewers mention not being able to go right or left. Not true. The DIAMOND shaped pad is probably the culprit. It takes some getting used to. However, even that is not a huge problem or a deal breaker. I think they designed it to be SIMPLE, by just having one button for movement. Although it may not be the easiest, it doesn't seem to bother my son who loves to play with it! I do wish the sounds would work even without the headset. (My son just won't keep the headset on.) Overall, while not perfect, it was still worth it. Very durable (he throws it everywhere and has even tried to maneuver it down the stairs!) The cutest feature is that it bounces when it drives. That sets it apart from other remote control vehicles!

This toy was actually not for me, I am 26, although that might not matter, though the three yearold would be upset if I had kept his birthday present...BUt he loved it, I guess he could talk to it through the head-set, but it was put through the 3-year olympics of duribility, it has survived almost every highth, toss, and stomping that he could muster.!!

My 2 daughters spent a long time painting the plates and did some beautiful designs, only for them to start coming off as soon as the paint dried. The painted plates are useless, if even a drop of water hits the paint it comes off --Since the product is using glass plates which only older children can handle I think they would be responsible to handle proper glass paint as well. WHat a waste of our money and our daughters' time. The initial "fun" factor was higher but quickly dropped to zero (but I had to select at least one star!) after the girls realized the artwork wouldn't last

I thought this kit was fun because I like to do crafts and it's nice to be able to eat off of the plates you've painted. This is a fun activity. But if you buy it, don't expect your plates to look like the pictures on the box: all perfect and smudge- free, because in reality, the paint is actually quite smudgy. That was the problem with this kit. The plates still look nice, just not perfect and proffessional.

Painting the plates is a fun activity because you can be creative. The only problem is that you have to be careful or they could crack or break.

I thought the original Furby was cute when I first got it, but it got boring fairly quickly. It doesn't do anything unless it's ordered to (and I find the fact that you have to order them to do things rather than ask kindly not very great), and it only has a maximum of five responses, usually less. The original Furby had hundreds of phrases! The new Furby is not ugreaded except for how it moves. I think that Hasbro must have put all of their money for the Furby into the voice recognition and the emoto-tronics, and not put much into the responses and had to take out the light sensor. Something like that. Also, I think that the fact that they can only understand about six phrases makes them seem less realistic than when they couldn't understand any at all. The original one seemed more lively. Oh, another thing I forgot to mention, the new Furby's voice is very flat most of the time, especially compared to the original.

I admit that it was fun for the first week or so, but after that I really haven't turned the furby on at all since then, except to try to get my Furby to talk to my friend's Furby, but somehow, one of our Furbys runs out of battery every time we try...

Okay, basically I don't recommend the new Furby. If you want a ton of huggable fun that isn't as much trouble as a real pet, I'd recommend either one of the original Furbys or Furby Babies. You could try one of the new Furby Babies, too I guess, but I don't know what they're like because I don't have one. They don't have voice recognition, though, so maybe they are more spontaneous than the big Furbys.

. . . and I have never played one on television, I have interacted enough with the breed, including Shelbies, Furbies, Baby Furbies, foreign Furbies, and this new Furby, to likely qualify for solid "amateur furbologist" status.

My credentials aside, let's proceed to the business at hand. At Christmas, my family purchased the new, bigger Furby, ostensibly for our dog, as no one will step forward to claim ownership of this toy, that is designed for children. As the dog cannot protest, it is officially hers. More on that, later.

First of all, when purchasing a new-version Furby, one will immediately note the paucity of color choices. The regular Furby that resides at our house, who names herself Godzola, and who belongs to the dog (more on that, later), is black-and-orange tiger-striped. This new big Furby is gray (I prefer that spelling to "grey" for reasons beyond my own fathoming) with a blue belly, and that was the most interesting color combination we could get. Bleh. Of course, I believe that dogs are color-blind, so the chromatic aspects are of little interest to our dog. More on that, later.

Secondly, the new Furby is big. Not homongous, but still quite largish. It is easily twice the size of Godzola, giving my dog two different-sized Furbies, plus the Baby Furby she has. More on that, later.

Thirdly, let us speak of speech quality. This new Furby speaks more Furbish than any of our dog's other Furbies (yes, you know, more on that later). It does speak English, but blends in more Furbish than the others, no matter how much our dog plays with her. Also, the sound quality of her speech is a bit tinny.

Fourthly, this Furby is no American Idol candidate, as she has one song. One. Uno. Un. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a nice song, but singers don't get far being a one-trick pony (nice Paul Simon song, is "One Trick Pony," by the way, but I digress). One song ain't a repertoire. Even my dog knows that.

Fifthly, let us broach the subject of comedy. This Furby tells good knock-knock jokes, tells them well, and cutely laughs at her own jokes. Our dog does not find her humorous, but more on that, later.

Sixthly, we shall address the narrative aspect. This new Furby tells you all about her home of origin, which is surprisingly an island. Well, it surprised me, but, as you might have guessed, it didn't surprise our dog. Either way, she (the Furby, not the dog) describes life on the island fairly comprehensively. I wonder why she left.

Seventhly, as to the communication feature, we have a big plus and a fairly big minus. The plus is that this new Furby has some word-recognition software, and will respond in certain ways to certain words. The minus is that, while the new allegedly will interact with other new Furbies, it will not interact with a Shelby, an old Furby, a Baby Furby, or my dog. There will not be more on the dog-Furby communication later, as it was likely assumed by most readers anyway.

Eighthly, this new Furby has a cute game, called "Red Light, Green Light." I will not spoil the fun by detailing the game, but it involves tickling and does not involve automobiles or dogs. It also has nothing to do with the DVD called "Red Light, Go!"

Ninthly, we get to the much-touted "Emototronics" feature of this new Furby. The feature has two aspects: variety of voice-tone, facial expression. The response-variety is nice. For example, if you ask Furby for her attention, you might get "Doo?" (Furbish for "What?"), "Yeah?" (sounding amusedly curious), "Huh? (just responsive), or "What?" (clearly sounding annoyed, as in "What do you want this time?!").

Tenthly, there is The Spoon. This total waste of plastic is completely replaceable by the human finger, and petroleum products are finite.

Eleventhly, and lastly, our dog dislikes all Furby products, appears to be jealous of them, and would loudly disclaim ownership of them, if she could loudly disclaim something. Although, I do hope it would not be the first thing she said.

There will be no more on that, now, or later.

The first time i saw the Furby online i was hooked...i was like i got to have this toy. CUT TO: 2 mins later i was in the checkout line buying this toy and i took it home BAM! The toy blew my mind. The only thing is that i brought this toy at walmart for $19.98 and here on amazon it is $34.99 which, when you think about it...this is something of a big diffrence in price when you factor in the shipping and handling. anywho buy this toy if you are a fan of toys.