This is a 3 piece train with a conductor and three little zoo animals. My daughter picked this out at isles at Toys-R-Us when we were shopping for her first birthday. This is what I would consider primarily a "boy" toy, but I wanted her to be familiar with both...things that go, "Waaaa" and things that go, "BBbbrrrrruuuumm". She was fascinated with the little animals and pushed the white buttons to hear the animals chatter the whole way through the store. I thought this would be a very entertaining toy.

The price seemed fair at only $15. It looked like it would be a good value (compared to the other selections for babies). This could be played with alone or with other toys, and I thought my older son might play with it with her (which never happened). I thought this would be a toy that she could grow with and enjoy for a few years hence justifying the purchase. Now that I have used it and discovered it's kind of boring, I think it's worth about $5.00 - $7.00.

The age group is for ages 2-5 but she won't touch it now that she's two so I'm glad I got it when she was younger(not that she played with it much when she was one!). It is made by Little Tikes and I have yet to see a Little Tikes toy break so I had no problem getting this for her at an earlier than recommended age. The animals are about the only thing that could go into the mouth. They are 3" long and 1" wide at the smallest. The toy takes batteries and the screw must be removed before you can get to the batteries so that is something else you won't have to worry about. I'm not sure what age would "enjoy" playing with it. Maybe my daughter is just too young to enjoy it. It's already recycled its way out of the toy box to make room for a new batch of toys, so Oh Well!

Parts Are Parts
The first piece is a red engine and it has black wheels (4 total) that really move, a yellow smoke stack, and the front of the engine is green. There are artificial coals behind the Conductor. The Conductor is a white man with chubby cheeks. He is wearing a blue outfit with matching blue Conductor's hat. His accessories to his wardrobe include a red scarf and white gloves. There is a white button that sticks up inside the seat. The Conductor has a whole in the bottom so it will slide on top of the white button (this is the same for the animals). When you seat the Conductor in his seat the train goes, "Woo Woo Chug chug chug chug". It sounds a lot like what you would expect a train to sound like. The speakers are on the bottom and so are 2 batteries for this piece (more batteries to follow).

The cab is dark purple and has a picture of an Elephant, Tiger, and Monkey on both sides of the cab. The sticker is already in place when you buy it and it's very unlikely that it will come off or start to chip. There are four moving wheels. The speaker and batteries for this section are underneath. There are three white buttons inside of three round circles for the animals to sit. When you push the first button you'll hear an elephant roar which corresponds to the elephant sticker on the side. The second is a tiger roar that corresponds with its picture, and finally the monkey that chatters and corresponds with his picture. You can push the button and hear the chatters or you can put the animal on the button and hear it. If the animal is already seated in the cab, you can push the animal's head and hear the chatter again.

The final piece of the train is a yellow caboose. There's a seat for something...who knows what. It does not make a sound. there is one wheel on each side (2 total). There is a sticker that says, "Zoo" with a paw print before and after it. There isn't any speakers or batteries for this section because...well...it doesn't do anything.

The engine, cab, and caboose hook together easily. All wheels roll and can roll forward and backwards only. If you let go of the train while it's moving it will most likely fall apart. If you go fast with the train, it will fall apart. If you try to turn the train, it will fall apart. Even if you are driving it slowly it will fall apart. If you move the train suddenly the animals will fall out...But hey, it looks good!

The four removable people/animal pieces will stand on their own pretty easily on a flat surface. Their head is big and their body and feet are small. They weigh an ounce.

Durability
This holds up nice at the bottom of the toy box. The batteries are over a year old and are still strong. The little people have not lost any of their paint or color. The stickers have not peeled or scratched. The train shows finger smudges and that's about it. The wheels are very sturdy and are not loose.

What My Daughter Thought Of It
My daughter thought the little animals were cool. She carried them everywhere and held them tight. She never let them leave her sight. She had absolutely no interest in the train itself. She pushed the buttons a couple of times and that was the end of that. Eventually the little animals found their way at the bottom of the couch and under the bed and deep in the toy box and never thought of them again. I have assembled this from the toy box grave several times with ABSOLUTELY no interest. Not one little nudge of the engine that thought he could.

My Thoughts
My child really doesn't play with ANY of her toys so it's hard to say if it would be appealing to a kid or not. I didn't play with it much because I don't have a very big imagination I guess. If there were other train-related things to play with I could see this being exciting. But she is a girl, and she really doesn't have much interest with things that have an engine.

What's up with the caboose? Did they run out of funding or out of time? It would have been very easy to make it do something or at least given a person to sit in the seat. (I have the Little Tikes school bus and also the garage so other and all of the people seat just fine although it looks ridiculous.

I haven't found anything "educational" about this. You've got 3 animal sounds but kids pick up on that really fast anyway. If you sit the animal in the wrong seat you get the wrong noise anyway.

Why I'm Not Recommending
I hate to not recommend a toy just because my daughter doesn't like it. This is a great idea that just didn't get the kinks worked out so here's how I have validated my decision.

1. The pieces don't stay together when storing therefore will end up at all corners and most likely not be played with.

2. Very few sound effects and they are always the same. The noises would be hard to incorporate in pretend play.

3. It rolls but doesn't go fast and doesn't have a track. It doesn't roll by itself and doesn't have a remote control therefore eliminates interest for a lot of kids. When it does roll it falls apart.

4. Little Tikes usually makes great toys. This one is not as fun as the other Little Tike toys. Pieces fall apart when its moved causing frustration and stress and we don't need any of that!

5. The little animals take a little finagling to get in and out and if you put them in the wrong seat the noise will be incorrect which isn't normal for a toy and could have easily been prevented with better design.

6. It's over priced. $7.00 this would be a recommended toy.

Where to Find
They still sell these at the local stores or you can find online at:

www.toysrus.com ($15.00)
www.kbtoys.com (17.00)
www.etoys.com ($17.00)
www.walmart.com($18.00)

This weighs 2.5 pounds in the box so will cost more than $5 to ship.




Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 15.00
Type of Toy: Playscene
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months