Reviewing Toys

The hubby recently came home with a surprise for our 4 month old little boy, it was a really weird ball called a Clutch & Crinkle Ball. At least that was my opinion when I first saw it. Honeslty I didn’t think he’d play with it just yet, he’d only recently started playing with his mirror. I was wrong….VERY wrong.

This little ball has become his favorite play toy, he pushes it above him and chews on the links it has. When he’s not playing with it and hears the crunching sounds it makes, he immediately turns his attention to the direction that is making the noise.

Unlike most balls, the Clutch & Crinkle Ball is one your child can grasp, chew on, hold the edges and smack himself in the face with. The sides are all sorts of colors and the inside of it has the black and white patterns for them to watch. It really is a great ball!

Infantino Hippo Gymis made for infants 0-6 months and is brightly colored with three sets of toys on a toy bar that goes over the baby’s lap when they are laying down. Padded mat for baby to lay on, in the shape of a hippo’s face.

Toys included:
Pull Toy (makes music) Smiling Flower
Bumble Bee Rattle Maker
Blue Mirror (they’ll spend hours watching themselves

It is very colorful and looks like a lot of fun, however it can harm your baby if you aren’t right there. If your child learns to pull on a toy they can easily slip off, or worse the toy bar can come out of their holder and fly across the room or hit your infant. Honestly, I’m surprised this toy hasn’t been recalled yet. Another problem for me is the area where the toy bar goes into is hard around it, which I’m not sure but I would think your infant can feel that while they lay on it. So while it may look colorful and fun, it’s a product ya might want to think twice about. However, the toys on it seem to be of great interest to the little ones.

The few things I did like about this is it is easy to take with ya because the sides zip it up into this half arch shape. Keeps everything secure and ready to play with it when it opens. The toys are great for the infants to play with and the mat is really soft, except the area around the holes to place the toy bar.

Source

reviews, toy review, Infantino, Infantino Happy Hippo Gym, baby mat, toy mat

Fisher-Price has called for a large toy recall of just about 1 million toys and 83 different products. Toys such as Big Bird, Elmo, Diego and of course Dora. It seems the toys were being made by a chinese vendor that somehow made them with lead paint in them.

Toy List: (I hope ya’ll don’t have these, but something tells me many of you will)

33662 Elmo Light Up Musical Pal
33663 Ernie Light Up Musical Pal
33664 Big Bird Light Up Musical Pal
34658 Elmo Stacking Rings
39038 Elmo Tub Sub
39054 Sesame Street Shape Sorter
87946 Elmo Keyboard
90267 Ernie Splashin’ Fun Trike
90609 Elmo Collectible
90611 Cookie Collectible
90612 Zoe Collectible
90613 Ernie Collectible
90614 Big Bird Collectible
90745 Construction Playset
93068 Elmo Boom Box
93107 Action Fire Engine
93307 Press N Go Elmo
93308 Rev & Go Cookie Monster
93492 Cookie Saxophone
93493 Elmo’s Guitar
93615 Splash Tub Puzzle
93780 Music And Lights Phone
B7554 Count To Beat Elmo
B7888 Shake, Giggle & Roll
B7987 Elmo in the Giggle Box
B7989 Silly Parts Talking Elmo
B9620 Dora’s Talking House
C6908 Dora, Backpack, Perrito Figure Pack
C6909 Diego Figure Pack
C6910 Swiper Figure Pack
C6911 Boots, Tico Figure Pack
G3825 Dora Talking Vamonos Van
G5112 Sing With Elmo’s Greatest Hits
G9717 Giggle Doodler
H2943 Grow with Me Elmo Sprinkler
H3343 Cousin Daisy
H3344 Birthday Dora
H5569 Elmo & Pals (Elmo, Cookie, Ernie)
H5570 Elmo & Pals (Elmo, Zoe, Big Bird)
H4187 Dora Figures in Tube
H4628 Water Fun Tote
H8236 Dora 3 Pack Figures in Tube
H8237 Blue 3 Pack Figures in Tube
H8238 Sponge Bob 3 Pack Figures in Tube
H9124 Chef Dora
H9125 Bedtime Dora
H9186 Giggle Grabber Ernie
H9188 Giggle Grabber Oscar the Grouch
J0338 Diego Talking Field Journal
J0343 Go Diego Go Antarctic Rescue
J0344 Go Diego Go Deep Sea Rescue
J0345 Go Diego Go Mountain Rescue
J0346 Go Diego Go Talking Rescue 4 X 4
J5935 Giggle Grabber Soccer Elmo
J5936 Giggle Grabber Chef Cookie Monster
J6537 Sesame Street Giggle Toolbelt
J6762 Queen Mami
J6763 Royal Boots and Tico
J6765 Prince Diego
J7983 Sesame Street Tub Pots & Pans
J9518 Sesame Street Giggle Drill
J9692 Dora’s Talking Pony Place
K0617 Twins Nursery
K3414 Diego - Talking Gadget Belt
K3571 Go Diego Go Mobile Rescue Unit
K3580 Fairytale Adventure Dora
K4139 Go Diego Go Dinosaur Rescue
K4140 Toucan Motorcycle Rescue
L0305 Dora Figure
L3194 Surprise Inside Diego Eggs
L3215 Sesame Street Elmo Jack-In-The-Box
L3488 Sesame Street Birthday Figure Pack
L3507 Sesame Street - Super Boom Box
L5202 Birthday Dora
L5813 Diego Tub Trike
L8905 Pablo & Pals
M0351 Dora Figures Dora & Kitty
M0352 Dora Figures Diego & Bear
M0524 Go Diego Go Talking Gadget
M0527 Sesame Street Giggle Doodler
M0732 Dora’s Talking House
M2051 Let’s Go Rescue Center
M2052 Fairytale Castle

If you have one of the recalled toy, you can exchange it for a voucher for another product of the same value. To see pictures of the recalled toys, visit http://www.service.mattel.com. For more information, call Mattel’s recall hot line at 800-916-4498.

toy recall, Fisher Price, recall, elmo, dora, diego, cookie monster, sesame street, lead paint

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If I had $300 dollars I would buy________.

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A Voluntary Toy Recall for Soldier Bear Products, this is an AAFES brand toy (military stores):

Hazard Reason: Paint used on toys has high level of lead in it.

Instructions: Take the toy back to get a refund, or call AAFES at (800) 866-3605.

Description of Toys: various action figures, dinosaurs, animals and vehicles created by Toy Soldier that was sold between 2005-2007

Toy Style UPC
H.E.R.O.E.S. Dino Mega Cruiser - 00047 4 98567 00047 4

Read the rest of this entry »

Howdy ya’ll, this is Eliza and I’m going to be taking over this blog. You are probably wondering who I am and why do I think I can review toys for ya. Right?

I’m an at-home (yes, WAH, SAH) mother to four children. My oldest is 10, youngest is 4 months, both are boys. I have two daughters as well, they are 7 years old and about to turn 4 years old. This of course means I’m always getting sent toys from family or buying toys. I know I hate to get toys that break after saving money for them or whatever and I’m sure you do too.

There have been several times where I just wish I knew the toy would break ahead of time. I wouldn’t go through the hassle of buying it. Know what I mean?

For this blog I’ll be reviewing toys I have in my house, have bought in the past and plan to buy. There may be toy recalls, after all, parents/relatives need to know about these little things. Last, I’ll have a section for book reviews, new books out and new toys coming out. This should give everyone a little helping hand.

What are some products you like?

This site is currently in need of a writer. If you have any interest in writing on the topic this site covers, feel free to submit an application at 451 Press. Thank you.

451 Press, Toy Reviewing, Writers Needed

I thought I might give an update on how the Wii-ing went whilst on holiday. My brother did bring it down with him from London and Alex and I both spent a fair amount of time on it. Alex more to be honest. Both my sister-in-law and him are both pretty competitive where as I tend to have no enthusiasm at all in terms of beating my opponent. Suffice to say, I can be pretty boring to play with sometimes. At the end of the 4 day aways, everyone, excluding me, had a sore right shoulder because of the non-stop tennis competitions they were having.

Bea actually found it quite amusing watching everyone jump around the living room and yell at the television. I kept telling Alex that we had to get rid of our slowly dying XBox and just get a Wii until I found out that it doesn’t play DVDs at which point I became very upset and disapointed and promptly declared that the XBox was my favorite again and I loved it and would never give it away.

I’m not even going to try and pretend that these game consoles have appropriate games for children….

Last week was hell. Bea had her first real cold, Alex’s parents were here. Of course Bea picked up the cold from me, which meant that I was run down, having to look after a sick baby and play hostess to a family of four, two of them being teenagers. So you can imagine how wonderful everything was. But then mid-week, after Alex’s parents had left, we drove over to see my dad in Burgundy and Bea went in the pool for the first time!

In terms of toys, I didn’t buy anything specifically for the pool. I took her bath fish and Mr Turtle thing (basically a form fitter toy in the shape of a turtle…) because they both are made of plastic and wouldn’t sink. She didn’t really play with any of them in the pool though, I used them mainly as a distraction for when she was first getting in and didn’t really know what was going on. Obviously as she gets older and gets used to being in a pool, she can start engaging with water toys more. But for the moment, the water was a good enough toy and kept her occupied just long enough for me to start worrying about sun burns….

Whilst I am living in France, I haven’t really noticed that I am buying any toys that are specifically French. Bea’s been given some lovely French baby books but other than that most of her toys have come from the UK or the USA. Having said that, as she gets a bit older and hopefully our budget increases, I do intend on buying her some adorable Frenchified stuff that takes me back to my childhood in Paris:

Every French tot has one of these, to cart around, you know, all there French stuff, like snails and horse meat.

Sophie La Giraffe is another one. These are sold all over the place, including your local supermarket. I used to have one when I was a kid and I have yet to buy one but it’s on the list.

(Basic French is a good site for all these sort of things and it’s pretty well priced too.)

Basic French, French toys