marytara's Full Review: Fisher-Price Kid Tough Fp3 Player Case Blue
My son received the Fisher-Price Kid-Tough FP3 Player for his birthday. Since his birthday is near the holidays and this was one of the 'hot holiday' products of course all the accessories were sold out. A few months later I happened upon a full display of these (of course) and picked him up this matching case. I don't know why I do this but whenever I get a toy I end up buying the matching case, and often end up using a plastic storage tote instead.
My "Need" for this case
In the case of the FP3 Player, you don't have tons of cartridges or anything to keep track of (as with Leap Frog products) so the storage case needs are pretty straightforward. A place for my son to store his player and headphones when its not in use. Otherwise he'd leave them laying around and his little sister would drag the unit around by the headphones, or vice versa. I also thought that the case would come in handy for times when we are 'on the go' to take the player along with us, say if he was going for an overnight to his grandparents or other day trip.
Depending on how you use the FP3 Player your needs for a case vary. My son largely uses his FP3 Player to listen to books on CD that we've transferred to the player. He'll listen to the stories alone but he loves most of all to follow along with the text in the book. So, if he's taking the player along with him then it also would make sense for him to take a few of the books too. Any backpack suits this need just fine.
The Price
The FP3 Player Case comes in coordinating colors to the FP3 players - in either blue or pink. We have the blue player and so I picked up the blue case. The case sells for $15, which is too much. And of course I paid it being the sucker that I am. They know that people will buy it because it 'matches' the player and pay whatever price they put on it - as proven by suckers like me.
The Design
The FP3 Case is in no way compact or really all that portable. Its huge and bulky, shaped like a big wheel or a donut. Its circular shaped because the FP3 is a circle and its meant the hold the FP3 with the headphones positioned around it. If you have ever seen the FP3 headphones then you'll know that they are larger than standard headphones and almost as big as some of the noise reducing closed type of systems out there. The headphones don't fold up or anything and are plastic plastic and more plastic, so they take up a lot of space. The FP3 player case accomodates them plus the player with no problem since the case itself is a donut shape that is nearly 8 or 9 inches in diameter and probably about 4 inches thick. Its made of stiff foam, not plastic so while its protective its not as protective as say a hardshell would be. Since the FP3 Player is coated in plastic and rubber the case is less for protecting purposes and more for storing or toting.
For Storage Purposes
The FP3 Player securely holds your player, the headphones, and a few extras. The case zips shut and so when the case is closed everything is safe and sound within. There is a small flap inside the case with a snap on it that you are supposed to snap around your actual unit, though it really doesn't matter as long as the FP3 player is inside whether it is snapped in or not. With the FP3 Player and the Fisher-Price headphones in the case there isn't much extra wiggle room (if any at all) so snapping the player down or not doesn't make much a difference.
The small pouch inside has a 2 small compartments which are sized for SD memory cards and another larger pouch which is intended for your USB cable. I don't know about you, but I'm not letting my child have free access to either the SD cards or the USB cable so those are kept in my desk drawer and not in his case! The USB connector is only used when you are downloading content onto the player so my son doesn't need access to that on his own. As for the SD cards we don't use extras since we have loaded in a 1GB one into the player and that has enough storage on it for now. Instead what I have stored in the case (when we've taken it with us) is an extra set of AAA batteries.
For On The Go use
The FP3 Player Case lacks what I see as the most important thing that a carrying/travel case should have and that is a handle of some sort. There's only but a small loop near the zipper that allows you to pick this up by a few fingers. Its not the most secure, nor comfortable for either a child or an adult to carry the case around with. For such a big case, the tiny loop is laughable. To top it off, my 2 year old daughter thought the loop was for her wrist and she proceeded to get her hand stuck in it. Not the best design, at all.
Overall
If I had to make the decision to buy this again, I wouldn't buy it. Paying $15 for a bulky non-protective case with no carry handle just isn't worth it. The only good thing about this case is that its a place to put the FP3 and headphones away in when they aren't in use. Everything else about it is over-rated.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 15 Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years
The case provides plenty of space for the player & headphones and even includes a separate storage compartment inside to organize The Kid-Tough FP3 Pl...More at Amazon Marketplace
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