Children watching commercials on television are often inspired by a new toy that looks like loads of fun. A parent, such as I, often likes to acquire toys such as these, with the intention of spending quality time with their child(ren). ELEFUN, the game that simply has you catching bright-colored butterflies that are blown through a blue elephant with a three-foot vertical snout,looked like the perfect toy for this scenerio..until I brought it home.
ELEFUN was created with eye-hand coordination in mind. In this package you also receive four butterfly nets, only about four inches in width, and about 25 butterflies. The object of the game is to catch as many butterflies as you can in this net and at the end of the game, count how many butterflies you caught. The very first day this was purchased, one of the nets came apart and i have never successfully re-attach it again. On top of this mild problem, i was sent out twice to purchase batteries. This toy has ate up three sets of batteries within the timeline of two hours tops. A $20 purchase became a $30 purchase, and the rate is only heading higher. For best practices on children much younger, the adults need to stand behind the child and guide their net to catch a butterfly, or you will see nothing more than a dissappointed child with no butterflies caught, (which was often the case, while dad has four in his net). not an easy task, but recommended.
PROS
This is a great game to introduce a young child on the ability to use eye-hand coordination, a basic need growing up. This blue elephant is also equipped with a shut-off switch on the base just in case it tips over, (and if you're playing with young children, it will tip over). The blower isn't as loud as one would imagine, just making a slight humming noise while playing. The make-believe butterflies are actually bright-colored silk twisted into bows, making the butterflies easy to see. Set up took about a minute, which is a blessing for us that have overly-anxious children and want to start playing as soon as possible.
CONS.
After nearly $50 in batterries, this toy often brings despair to me as well as the kids, often having to buy MORE batteries often. The blower would only start working half the time, only bringing the butterflies halfway up the snout while the anxious child(ren) waited. The base should've been wider, since the parent usually had to pick it back up off the floor. The fun usually lasted about four seconds, then you had to find lost butterflies all over the room, reinstall them in the snout, then start all over again. This was more work for me than fun. It was like climbing a snowy hill for awhile just to ski down it for a few seconds. Get my meaning? Often the children were fighting over who got the most butterflies, if any. Actually this did help teach kids how to share, sorting out the butterflies on the floor after the catch, and watching the older kids give the younger ones a couple of them just to put a smile on their face.
OVERALL
I would not recommend this toy for the obvious reasons stated. there are other toys out there that can do the same job teaching eye-hand coordination without making battery companies rich. This toy can be improved in SO MANY WAYS. If it wasn't for the fact that I do trust it's safety features, this would've been through in the trash months ago.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 20 Type of Toy: Educational
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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