pitfaltina's Full Review: Hasbro Littlest Pet Shop Portable Pets On The Go B...
This pet was released at just the right moment in my daughter's life. Her kindergarten class was raising butterflies as a science project and what better way to reinforce those lessons than to get her a butterfly to keep at home? Well, I didn't want to have to deal with a REAL butterfly, so I took the easy route and went hotfoot to Walmart to get the pretend one. Yeah, I'm pretty lazy sometimes!
This set consists of a butterfly, a caterpillar, and a tank with a base. The butterfly is about an inch and a half long and features a bobblehead and a magnet under its first two sets of legs. The butterfly has long curly antennae, a lavender body, and pink wings with darker pink molded patterns. The caterpillar is just three-quarters of an inch long and gets lost VERY easily, so be careful with the vacuum! The caterpillar is light green and lavender and features tiny little molded antennae. The caterpillar does not have a magnet, so if you want to attach it to any playset, you must do so by the legs.
The tank is made of clear plastic with a lime green top with molded flower details. A blue flexible plastic tag that reads "LPS" hangs off the handle. Why? I don't know. It has absolutely no play value. In fact, my daughter pulled the tag off the tank and threw it away because it was "annoying". The base of the tank is lime green and has molded flower details. The base fits very tightly to the tank and is very difficult even for me to get off, so we never push the tank all the way into the base. Inside the base is a stem that rises upward and has two leaves. On the bigger leaf is a big peg, and on the smaller leaf is a small peg. The pegs are used to hold the butterfly and caterpillar. It's a nice thought in theory but it doesn't work well in practice. To put the butterfly on her leaf, you have to insert the big peg in the space between her first two sets of legs and her last set of legs. My daughter finds this task to be difficult and irksome, and the butterfly usually finds someplace else to perch. The caterpillar is supposed to sit on the small peg, which gets inserted in the space between her first three sets of legs and her last two sets of legs. Even I find this task to be a chore. Making this even more cumbersome is trying to put both the butterfly and the caterpillar on their perches at the same time. The pegs do not hold their respective critters very well, so when you are trying to put the caterpillar on her perch, chances are pretty high that you'll knock the butterfly off. My daughter has completely given up on using the tank to hold her butterflies.
The butterfly is often to be found dangling from the hanging bar of the Twirlaround Treehouse by an antenna. The butterfly also likes to hang from swings on the various sets in the same manner. Hey, it's easier and less frustrating than those stupid pegs!
The play value of this set has been extraordinary. My daughter came home every day buzzing with some new butterfly facts, which she then used the toy to demonstrate. "Mom, this caterpillar is going to go to sleep in a 'chrysalist' "--represented by a tissue--"and it is going to 'metamorposit' into a butterfly!" "Mom, the butterfly tastes with its feet!", she proclaimed, after which she deposited the poor insect into the pretend kitty litter box, after which ensued much kindergarten-level hilarity. "Mom, the butterfly smells with its 'antenners'", she would crow, and then the pitiful butterfly's antennae would be placed in uncomfortable proximity to the pet shop's skunk. "Mom, you can't hold a butterfly by its wings!" she screeched, near tears when I plucked the butterfly off the refrigerator. "If you touch a butterfly on its wings, it loses its scales and you KILL it!", she bawled, highly offended. Mom now picks up the butterfly by the antennae, let me assure you!
This toy is not only super cute, but also helped to reinforce lessons learned in school. That makes it more than worth the $4.00 I paid.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 4.00 Type of Toy: Playscene
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years
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