Very Cute, But Sadly It Has Some Flaws...
Written: Jun 03 '09 (Updated Jun 03 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very cute. 5 separate toys or 1 big toy. Teaches colors/shapes.
Cons: Pop-up characters too hard to trigger. Limited playability on other pieces.
The Bottom Line: Very cute. Good idea, but somewhat poorly executed.
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| mizgnomer's Full Review: Baby Einstein Connect and Play Zone |
When son #3 came along, we already had a house full of toys and baby gear left over from sons #1 and #2, so we told everyone that we had plenty of baby stuff and really didn't need more. My parents took it upon themselves to comb the toy store shelves in search of a unique toy for our littlest tot that was unlike anything he already had at home -- and that's how we ended up with the Baby Einstein Connect and Play Zone.
Product Description:
The Baby Einstein Connect and Play Zone is a cute segmented toy based upon the catepillar character from the very popular Baby Einstein series of videos. The main toy consists of 5 pieces that can be attached together to make one long arc or can be separated and each piece played with individually.
Each piece is made of a semi-soft plastic and is fairly lightweight and easy for baby to move around. The pieces can be attached in any order (with the exception of the "head" piece, which can only be attached on its left side), and each piece has a built-in handle, so when baby becomes a toddler they can carry their favorite segments around as they toddle.
The five segments are:
1) The "head" or caterpillar face - this is a round piece with a mirrored surface and a large smiling face. Its main use is as a (distorted) mirror for baby.
2) A character pop-up piece. On the top of each of the 3 circular doors is a photo of a puppy, duckling, and a red-eyed tree frog, and the character that pops up is more of a puppet version (except made from hard plastic) as seen on the Baby Einstein DVDs. There is a blue handle at the front of the toy that controls the popping-up of each character (move the handle to the right, left, or up and the corresponding door opens). The handle is far too hard for a baby to operate, but baby can close the doors easily.
3) A ball-drop piece. Toward the back of the piece is another cute caterpillar face, but this one is a tube you can drop balls into. The balls fall down and travel right-then-left through a mini-maze, stopping at the bottom/front of the piece (nearest to baby). There are 3 balls included, colored red, green, and orange.
4) Shapes/Colors piece. This is the only piece that takes batteries. There are 5 colored buttons, and each is a different shape. There is a star (similar to the Baby Einstein star character from the videos) that lights up whenever a button is pressed. When a button is pressed the voice will state either the color or the shape of the button and a short snippit of music will play as the star lights up. There are 2 volume settings (as well as an "off" setting), and you can choose between 3 languages (English, Spanish, and French)
5) Bead-bar piece. This piece has a very, very simple bead-bar maze - just 2 simple bars that cross to make an "X", with 3 colorful tokens that can be moved along each bar.
The Baby Einstein Connect and Play Zone is recommended for babies starting at 6 months of age. It takes 3 "AAA" batteries (not included).
Our Thoughts and Experiences:
The Baby Einstein Connect and Play Zone is a really adorable toy, and the concept itself is a good one, however I find the execution to be seriously lacking.
My baby likes the character-pop-up piece the most. Sadly, there's no way baby could trigger the popping-up action himself. To be honest, my 4 year old has a very hard time doing it, and sometimes I have difficulty with it as well! The handle that triggers the doors is very stiff and stubborn, so I always have to make the characters pop up for baby. My son adores watching the characters pop up and loves closing the doors himself, but the fact that he cannot (and will not until he's much older) trigger the animals is my biggest complaint. I find it downright silly that anyone would put a mechanism that difficult to use on a baby toy.
Baby's second favorite section would be the ball-drop, but only because he likes playing with the balls and banging them together. The little "maze" at the bottom of the ball drop really isn't entertaining enough to keep him interested (there's just a short little path that goes to the right then back to the left). He has other ball-drop type toys that do more interesting things that he enjoys much more.
The shapes/colors star does entertain him a bit, which is nice. He went through a short phase of looking at the mirror and smiling at the happy smiling caterpillar face, but now that he's a bit older (he 10 months old) and more mobile that piece doesn't interest him at all any more. The "bead bar" piece has never interested him in the slightest. Perhaps that's because we've got other toys with more interesting/complex bars for the beads to travel along, but this piece by itself has never piqued his interest at all.
I like the fact that when the segments are all put together the pieces form an arc around baby. When my youngest first mastered "sitting" he really liked being able to sit with this toy around him. It made it easy for him to reach out and play with one section, then turn slightly and play with another section. My son isn't quite a toddler yet (although he can crawl at turbo-speed), but I like the built-in handles and could easily see him toddling around with the character pop-up piece in the near future.
Quickie Summary:
Pros:
+) It is a VERY cute toy
+) I like the ability to put it all together to make one toy or break it apart into 5 separate toys for portability/storage/travel
+) When put together the toy is configured in an arc around baby
+) Each segment (except the head) has a built-in handle so your toddler can carry their favorite around easily
+) Identifies 5 shapes and colors in 3 different languages (English, Spanish, French)
+) The plastic is both lightweight and durable
+) On/off switch and volume control on the 1 piece with lights/sounds
Cons:
-) The pop-up characters are WAY too hard for babies to trigger by themselves
-) The "bead bar" piece is not entertaining/too simple
-) The "ball drop" piece does not have much of a "maze" for the balls to roll through
Final Thoughts:
I really wanted to love this toy because the concept seems very clever and the appearance is so cute. I can't get over the difficulty in triggering those pop-up characters though. It really bothers me because that's my baby's favorite part of the toy (as long as Mommy is there to make the characters pop up), and he just can't work it himself.
My son does like his Baby Einstein Connect and Play Zone, even with its faults. I can't give it too low a score since he does enjoy it in brief bursts, but I do see the various flaws and think of it as a missed opportunity for a really great toy. In an effort to make the individual pieces small/portable, a few of them have become just too uninteresting. It's a good idea and cute design, and with a few adjustments it would probably be a great toy, but as it stands now it is too expensive for what you get and has limited playability/entertainment value.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): gift
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Epinions.com ID:
mizgnomer
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Location: Tennessee
Reviews written: 306
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About Me:
Don't meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you're crunchy and taste good with ketchup
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