My daughter received the Leap Frog Farm Animal Magnetic Refrigerator set 3 years ago. This is a toy made for 12 month old children and up. My daughter was 2 when she received this and she enjoyed it tremendously. She enjoyed putting the animals on the barn and hearing the cute little voice tell her what the animal was and the sounds they make.

My daughter would see this on the refrigerator and she would play with it briefly. She like making up animals like taking the front half of a horse and the back have of a sheep and hearing the little voice say, “horse” and “sheep” and then the phrase together saying “horse sheep”. She mostly would just make up animals to hear the combination, as they were not the correct matches. I asked her if she enjoyed this toy any longer and she said that she did not. She wanted to give this to a baby that doesn’t know what the animals are and allow them to play and learn like she did the past few years.

The Product

This little “barn” and the animals that come with it are all magnetic. They will not scratch the refrigerator (at least in my experience). I have a white painted refrigerator. Stainless steel, it might be able to show scratches if the child moves the pieces around, but I cannot say for sure. All of the animals and the barn itself are all plastic and the magnets are well tucked into the piece. You cannot see magnets anywhere, as they are completely encapsulated in the plastic.

The barn measures about 7 inches wide by about 6 inches high and is only about 1 ˝ inches deep. Even with the 5 sets of animals, the space it takes up on the refrigerator is small. The animals are as follows:
Horse
Duck
Pig
Cow
Sheep

These animals come in 2 pieces, the front half and the back half. The animals can be put together on the face of the barn to create a correct animal or a miss-matched animal. The toy will tell you what the pieces are and it will make the appropriate sounds for the animal. When you have a miss-matched pair, it will make the sound of both animals in order (front to back). It makes for some silly play time!

The toy doesn’t have to be put on the refrigerator. It can be put on anything magnets will stick to or even just stored in a toy box and played on the floor. All of the animals that come with this toy are able to be stored on the game itself. One animal fits on the front of the barn and all of the other animals pieces will fit perfectly on the magnets on the back of the barn. So, if you don’t want it on the fridge, you don’t have to keep it there!

The little Leap Frog mascot “Tad” is a farmer for this game and he has a view out of the top of the barn from the “hay loft” position. He is a piece that does not remove from the barn, but when pushed, he will play a rotation of 5 different songs. The songs are kind of catchy! I know my daughter loved playing with that even more so than the animals at first!

The thing I love about this unit, it has a volume control. You have Off/Low/High. The high, to me, was too loud considering how close a child is playing with this toy, we always kept it on low and that did not seem to be too bad.

The unit runs on 3 AAA batteries and I have to say, they really have lasted a long time. I don’t believe we have had to change batteries in the 3 years that we have this toy!

The manufacturer states this toy is geared for 12 month olds to 2 years. But, others have stated it is good for 12 months to 5 years. I guess it will really depend on your child. My daughter will be 5 in just a short while and she seemed to be uninterested in this for about the past year. But, she would give it an occasional glance, push Farmer Tad to sing and then be done with it. About two or three weeks later, she would go up to it, put a couple of miss-matched animals together and be done with it. So, it really depends on the child.

The game is very durable, as ours has been thumped around, dropped a short distance to the linoleum floor, carried from room to room and dropped on carpeted floors and honestly we do not have any wear or tear showing on either the pieces or the barn. It still looks brand new! It’s an exceptionally good toy to have.

Overall Impressions

I have yet to be disappointed in any of the Leap Frog toys that we have had. All have lasted well, have been handed down a couple of times to other children and after having gone through 3 sets, the products still look and work great.

With toddlers, every toy gets a work out, regardless of how well you watch the children play with them. This toy does not disappoint. When my daughter was younger, she was enthralled with the animals, the sounds and even Farmer Tad’s musical repertoire. She loved controlling the pieces, the sounds the animals made and then mixing up the sounds with the odd combinations that she would create. I remember plenty of times hearing her giggle like crazy with the latest animal creation that she put together, hearing the animal names be put together and their sounds back to back! Now, she’s more into her V.Tech VSmile learning systems (TV and pocket) and the computer Jump Start games.

This toy has passed on to the next group for play and the little ones that have taken control are enjoying it just like my daughter did way back when. If you have a baby or toddler, this might be a great little toy for you to add to your collection. It will grow with your child briefly, but that brief time, you will likely have a lot of fun like we did playing with the animals. Enjoy!

~Thank you for spending time with me today!~


Recommended: Yes

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