Need a tune-up?
Written: Jan 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: uses imagination, durable, easily cleaned
Cons: requires batteries, the arm on the car wash falls off easily
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| Talisman's Full Review: Little People Fun Sounds Garage |
Need a tune-up? A car wash? A fill-up? A snack? Well you have come to the right place with the Fisher Price Little People Fun Sounds Garage. My 2.5 year old received this toy as a gift a few weeks ago for Chanukah. I wasn't sure he was going to enjoy this toy because he really didn't "pretend" with things, he mostly did things that had obvious goals such as puzzles or legos.
Putting It Together
I waited until he wasn't home to put this toy together. He often enjoys "helping" me put things together and I end up losing parts. In order to put this toy together the only tool required was a philips head screw driver. Construction, overall, was fairly easy. However most of the pieces snapped into the place they fit in, and some of the pieces took a lot of force. I ended up having to ask my husband for some help because I couldn't get the pieces to snap together. After you put it together the stickers go on. There were about ten stickers to put on the toy. Overall it took me about half an hour to put together. It wasn't the most difficult thing in the world but it wasn't the easiest either.
The Garage
The garage is a three level high rise. There is a car elevator to move the car up to the second and third level. There is also a car lift to move it from the ground to the second, depending on what work needs to be done on the car.
Ground Floor
The ground floor is fairly simple. You can enter one of two ways. If you enter from right side of the building the car will get an oil change. There is no real equipment to give the car an oil change, but if you look on the ground and the walls there are pictures of the tools used to give a car an oil change imprinted into the plastic. If you enter from the front you go into the car elevator. You can either drive through the elevator and get an oil change or you can park the car and have it lifted to one of the next levels.
Second Floor
The second floor has the computer where your receipts are printed out. When you push the computer button it makes the sound of a printing receipt. The second floor also has the car wash. What is neat about this is that where the car wash begins looks like what you would see at the car wash. It has one of the blue hanging rag strips. You can "wash" the car by turning a small lever on the side which causes the strips to move. To exit the 2nd floor you can go three ways. The first would be to use the car lift that takes you from the ground floor to the second floor. The second way would be to use the elevator and go either to the ground floor or up to the third floor. The final way is by driving down a red ramp.
Third Floor
The third floor is just a place to drive around. However if you need to use the phone, there is a pay phone on the third floor. The pay phone rings three times when pushed. No work gets done on the car on the third floor. The exit from the third floor is either the elevator or a very steep red ramp. My son prefers to drive the car down the ramp because it really does pick up some speed.
The Extra's
Not attached to the floor, but also on the ground are a few little extras. There is a gas pump that actually will fit into the car. When you push the button on the gas pump it makes a noise similar to that of the old gas pumps that had the dials on it that clicked when you pumped gas. There is also a cluster of four buttons. The first is a button that has a sticker of a car on it. When that button is pushed your car starts. Sometimes your car hesitates when it starts or sometimes it starts right up. The second button is the horn. When you push that button it sounds like a car horn. The third button has the sticker of a hammer on it. When you push that it sounds like someone is hammering (or working) on your car. The final button has a wrench on it. When you push that button is sounds like a power drill.
Durability
The durability of this toy is good. Overall we have only had one problem is response to the durability. The only problem I have had is that by the car wash there is a little arm gate. The arm gate goes up and down
by your child moving it up or down. The thing will just NOT stay in place. I must have put the arm gate back into its' place at least four or five times the very first day my son played with it. Currently we have no arm gate because I got tired of putting it back every 10 minutes because it fell out.
Washing the toy is pretty easy, I just wipe it down with a damp cloth. I only use a very lightly damp cloth because I do not want to get the stickers wet and have them peel off.
My 2.5 Year Old
My 2.5 year old enjoys this toy. He interacts with it a lot more than I thought he would. He drives the car up and pushes the buttons. He enjoys letting the car go whizzing down the ramp. He plays with it, but I am sure that when he gets older he will really play with the toy and take advantage of all the aspects of it.
Overall
Overall I wouldn't recommend this toy for someone under three unless they really use their imagination already. For a child over three this is a great toy because it is very durable and easily cleaned. Much like every other Little People's toy all of the people/cars are interchangeable. If your child has other Little People toys the people it came with can also drive the car or work at the Garage. This makes it nice because you don't have to go out and buy a lot of extras. The only other thing I was a little disappointed with is that it only came with one car. I have not seen any other cars at the toy store, so I am not sure what one would do if you lost this car or it got broken.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Talisman
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Member: Talisman
Location: South Bend, IN
Reviews written: 83
Trusted by: 42 members
About Me:
Mom of 3 boys, working on PhD in Chemistry at University of Notre Dame.
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