Fisher-Price Peek-a-Blocks Barnyard Friends Blocks; This Little Piggy...Soiled Himself?
Written: Jul 25 '04 (Updated Dec 28 '04)
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Pros: Great concept; cute animals; some blocks capture baby's attention; baby loves knocking them over.
Cons: Lousy design; impossible for a small child to operate.
The Bottom Line: While my little girl loves knocking over piles of blocks, I'm sure there are better sets out there than the Peek-A-Blocks Barnyard Friends. Sorry, keep looking...
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| krissingene's Full Review: Fisher Price Peek-a-Blocks Barnyard Friends Blocks |
Have you ever done something you knew you shouldn't? You'd been told that it wasn't a good idea, thought that it probably wasn't, but just had to find out for yourself? Yeah, I've done that - you see, I trust the opinions of mmcphee and pippadaisy implicitly...yet when it came to Fisher-Price Peek-a-Blocks I blatantly ignored their comments and bought them anyway. There are only ten or so varieties of Peek-a-Blocks available, and which set did I end up purchasing? Why, the ones with the lowest Epinions ratings, of course! Will I never learn? And was my faux pas really that bad?
~* Yep, They're Blocks *~
Peek-a-Blocks are sold in sets of three and six (as well as some larger specialty sets) and are available at toy stores and mass merchandisers - I paid $8 for my set of six blocks, and later learned that they are less expensive at Wal-Mart.
The blocks come packaged in a clear box with a small opening in the top so that you can touch and play with one of the blocks. Assuming you manage to open the package and extricate all of the blocks (it's a little tough), you'll find that each block is an approximately 2" cube, clear on each side and, in some cases, on the top as well. Brightly colored plastic forms the base of each block, and a different colored rim seals the top in place; while colors may vary, the hues represented in my set are yellow, orange, pink, blue, purple, green, teal and red.
Inside each block is an animal (of course, the objects vary in sets with different themes) - the Barnyard Friends Blocks come with a chick, a cow, a dog, ducks, a horse and a pig. As you can well imagine, any animal encased in a 2" square pen can't be overly large - oh, but they are. A little too large for their confines, actually, which makes seeing the entire animal with any amount of detail rather difficult. Peeking into any given block is a bit like looking a photograph with the top of someone's head cut off - only with these blocks, you can usually turn it in a different direction to see the missing bits and pieces.
~* More Than Blocks? *~
Each block is supposed to do something different in order to hold baby's attention (and provide some developmental value to the toy as well.) Wondering just how much blocks can do? So did I...and unfortunately, I quickly found out.
The chick has been my daughter's favorite block from the very beginning. This little yellow chick is still sitting inside his opened shell, and when a large blue button is pressed on top of the block, the top of the shell moves up and down and makes a chirping sound. The noise gets her attention every time, if not so much the movement. The only real problem with this block is that my daughter can't make the chick chirp on her own - the button is the sort that must be pressed firmly, quickly and repeatedly in order to make a fair amount of noise, and any clumsy grab by an infant just won't be enough to do the trick.
I wanted very much to love the cow block as he's just so darn cute. As it turns out, he's pretty darn annoying as well. This spotted bovine has a cute bobble-head feature, only...well, when your head is mashed against the ceiling all the time, it's kinda hard to bobble, isn't it? The cow is so large that there's simply not much room for him to move inside the block, and he has to be shaken rather vigorously before the movement is noticeable. And by then, my little girl is paying more attention to Mommy shaking the block than to the miniscule movement within.
I dare say that the dog is the most lame of this collection. Rather like the cow, the dog's tail is set on a spring so it can 'wag' when the block is moved. Ditto the space issues with the cow - only even rapid shaking sometimes doesn't make his tail move much. I've found that I have to forcefully throw the block onto the floor to make his tail wag - and it's so pathetic that I'm rather happy to do so.
I'm a duck lover from way back - my daughter's bedroom was very nearly ceiling-to-floor duckies until I found an equally cute bedding set on sale. Therefore, I'm rather partial to the block containing a mother duck and her duckling 'swimming' on a round circle of 'water', even though it's not my baby's favorite. On the bottom of the block are two small indented circles on a round disc; when turned with your fingertip, the ducks 'swim' in a circle inside the block. Every once in a while, Rachael will stop to watch...but not very often.
The horse is cute, but downright infuriating at the same time. The gray pony has white spots on his back and sweet pink cheeks and just begs to be loved, but his designer was an evil, evil person. There is a green dial on the bottom of the block, comprised of a circle with one thin raised line through the middle that is the only thing to grasp for turning - even too small to grasp with fingertips, I have to use my fingernails to turn the dial and make the pony 'walk' in a circle inside his block. I have to wonder how old my daughter will be before she can maneuver this one on her own - I dare say three or four, if she even cares by then.
And last but not least is the chubby pink pig, who is easily second favorite to the chick. Inside the block with this little porker are a dozen or so little round brown balls of...what? Well I'm guessing they were intended to be clods of mud, although it certainly appears to me (and my husband, and mother, and friends) as though this little piggy just couldn't wait any longer and had to go. There's a lot of static electricity in this block and, when shaken, the balls fly everywhere and stick to everything - sometimes to the pig, but more often than not to the sides of the block. At least they make a clicking sound when shaken that entertains the baby...
~* Humph, Some Farm! *~
So each block has a gimmick - do they work as plain old blocks? In a word, no. Because the tops and bottoms of the blocks are somewhat rounded, they are rather difficult to stack. I have managed a wobbly tower of eight (yes, I actually bought another set, which you'll read about later), but a small child could never manage it. Two or three blocks stack fairly easily, but past that, forget it. Pyramids are somewhat more stable, but who's ever seen barnyard animals in a pyramid?
The redeeming quality of these blocks lies in one simple factor - my little girl, like every child, loves knocking over Mommy's carefully constructed towers. She'll lie on her tummy for twenty minutes or so (eternity to a baby) happily flailing her arms to hear the blocks crash onto the floor and watch them scatter. It is for this reason and this reason only that I've given this set a three-star rating; what makes her happy makes me happy.
Okay, okay, I have learned my lesson. From now on, I will resist the temptation to make my own stupid decisions based on what I know to be true from the experiences of others. Except in the case of the Peek-a-Blocks. I may actually purchase another set or two because...well, the others have to be better, right? And as my little girl gets bigger, one piddly tower to destroy at a time just won't be enough...
~* Care and Cleaning *~
Because the sides of these blocks are plastic, they are rather easily scratched during play - especially of the building-up and knocking-over variety. Don't be surprised when it happens to you.
These blocks are easily wiped down with a damp sponge or baby wipe, although I will definitely take the advice given in mmcphee's review to heart and not attempt to clean them under running water. These poor critters have enough problems without a flood to contend with as well.
~* Contact Information *~
For more information, visit Fisher-Price online at www.fisher-price.com or call 1-800-432-KIDS (1-800-432-5437).
~* Also By Fisher-Price *~
Cradle Swing B0639 * Deluxe Take-Along Swing * Healthy Care Booster Seat * Kick 'N Play Piano * Laugh & Learn Learning Table * Link-a-doos On-the-Go Goldfish * Link-a-doos Teething Ring * Ocean Wonders Aquarium * Ocean Wonders Aquarium Bouncer * Sesame Street Light-Up Pet Pals: Ernie * Sparkling Symphony Twinkle Dancer * Swim 'n Spin Fish Rattle
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 7.99
Type of Toy: Baby Toy
Age Range of Child: 0 to 12 Months
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Epinions.com ID:
krissingene
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Member: Kristin
Location: Southern VA
Reviews written: 267
Trusted by: 119 members
About Me:
The strength of Motherhood is greater than Natural Laws. -Barbara Kingsolver
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