Blue's Clues Solar System Skidoo 'n' Learn is one of the toys my daughter received for her birthday this month. This was actually purchased off of eBay and while you don't normally buy used toys for someone's birthday, a lot of these Blue's Clues toys can no longer be found in stores. Since my daughter is such a huge Blue's Clues fan and the Blue's Clues Solar System Skidoo 'n' Learn was in like new condition, my friend bought it for Courtney. Her son also has one and loves his, so she knew Courtney would like one too.

About Blue's Clues Solar System Skidoo 'n' Learn

Blue's Clues Solar System Skidoo 'n' Learn is a toy featuring the famous Planet Song from the television show Blue's Clues. This toy is about 5 1/2 inches high by about 6 1/2 inches long. It's a good size to bring in the car or throw in the diaper bag on the way out the door. Blue's Clues Solar System Skidoo 'n' Learn is mostly yellow with the center of the toy being blue with the planets displayed on it. Steve and Blue adorn the outside border.

There are 2 modes of play on this toy. The music mode and the identify mode. In the music mode, Steve will ask you to press a specific planet to hear that part of the Planet Song being played, for example he'll ask you to press Pluto and when you do you will hear "And Pluto's really small" which is how it's sung in the song. On the identify mode, Steve will give you a hint and you find the correct planet. An example of this is that Steve will ask you to find the one that spins on it's side. The correct answer would be Uranus and if you press it Steve will say "You sure are smart!" and then that part of the planet song will be played.

One of the things that I like about Blue's Clues Solar System Skidoo 'n' Learn is that it will turn itself off after a few minutes of inactivity. This greatly saves on battery usage! Speaking of batteries, this toy requires 3 AA batteries and the battery compartment is found on the back and is secured with a phillips head screw, so little ones can't get their hands on the batteries and possibly choke on them.

The only con I can think of is that there is no volume control on Blue's Clues Solar System Skidoo 'n' Learn. Now, if this toy is laying down on the carpet or on a table, the volume isn't too loud at all. However, if your child is playing with this toy while holding it upright, then the volume is quite loud and without volume control, there is no way to lower the noise. But really, that is such a small con that it no way impacts the enjoyablility of this very cute toy.

All in all, I find Blue's Clues Solar System Skidoo 'n' Learn to be an excellent tool in helping your child learn about the planets in our solar system and because it's a Blue's Clues toy, any fan of the show Blue's Clues will like it even more!

The Planet Song

For those that don't have children and have no idea what the Planet Song is all about, here it is so that you have some idea of what this toy is all about in case you need to buy a gift for a niece or nephew:

Well the Sun's a hot star
And Mercury's hot too
Venus is the brightest planet
And Earth's home to me and you
Mar's is the red one
And Jupiter's most wide
Saturn's got those icy rings
And Uranus spins on it's side
Neptune's really windy
And Pluto's really small
Well, we wanted to name the planets and now we've named them all.

As you can see, Blue's Clues Solar System Skidoo 'n' Learn is a very educational toy and would fit a child in the age range of probably 2 to 5 years old, although even a baby might like to pound on the buttons to hear the song.

Websites

Blue's Clues on Nick Jr. :

http://www.nickjr.com/grownups/home/shows/blue/

Clue Into Safety :

http://www.clueintosafety.com/cis/www/asp/neighborhood.asp


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): gift
Type of Toy: Educational
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months