Pros: Colorful & Bright, Many Activities For Little Fingers
Cons: Bulky For Little Babies, Spinner On Neck Is Hard To Turn, Durability Issues
The Bottom Line: Our Discover Sounds Guitar hasn't really met the durability test, but it was a fun toy to tinker around with at first... Overall I would not recommend it.
susieq112's Full Review: Little Tikes Discoversounds Guitar
I purchased a Gibson guitar for "Daddy" for Christmas this last year. To my surprise our 7 month old son was just as interested in it as he was. During a shopping trip we bought the Little Tikes Discover Sounds Guitar so he could be a big boy like Daddy.
About The Toy…
The Little tikes guitar is made out of hard plastic. It features an orange body with three strings (they are actually plastic bars built into the body that work like a button). When pushed the guitar plays a song, there are 3 total. The songs are simple beats and rhythms, no words, but they don’t sound like a guitar. The songs are more of a mix of instrument sounds.
There are also four colorful lights that flash while the music is playing at the top of the head stock. The neck of the guitar has a clear spinning cylinder with small colored beads inside when it is turned it makes a clicking noise and you can hear the beads as they move around.
At the top of the guitar is a noise button. This is a round white button with a musical note printed on it. When this button is pressed you get a variety of ’sound effects’ to add to the music triggered by the strings or you can listen to them without the music. On the upper side of the body is a yellow spinner, but it doesn't set off any music or make any sounds.
The toy takes 3 AA batteries and it does pretty good with battery life. In the amount of time we’ve had it (13 months total) we’ve replaced the batteries once.
Our Experience… The First Months…
The Little Tikes guitar is a great toy. My son has had a lot of fun hitting the "strings" making music. He enjoys hitting the noise button while the music is playing. We've even caught him holding it like a real guitar a few times, it is quite cute.
The only problem I've had with this toy is that the spinner on the neck is hard to turn, but my son eventually learned that if he used enough force he could spin it. It is fairly durable and constructed well. Ours was dropped on the floor once while the music was playing and the music stopped, but the lights continued to flash. I was worried that it had broke, but it worked normally on the next push of the strings, so it was fine.
The Little Tikes Discover Sounds Guitar was also a little bulky for my son at first. While the guitar isn’t extremely large, it weighs more than you would think. The side of the body does have a carry handle which has definitely helped my son out with totting this around.
Many Months Later (Update!)…
My son is now 20 months old and the Little Tikes Discover Sounds Guitar is still part of his ever growing toy collection. At this point I can easily say that this toy is far from perfect. At one point, the music went from playing for a couple of minutes to only a few seconds, when it cut itself off.
I took the toy over to my Dad (who’s about 50/50 in fixing toys and electronics, while the other half of the time he destroys them completely). The first thing we did was check the battery compartment and wiped it down, but the music still cut-off only after a few seconds. He then took the screwdriver to it and opened it up completely. Apparently, the toy has a short in it somewhere, but we can’t locate it. Since we closed it back up it now plays through the song, most of the time, and we didn’t really do anything.
Longevity…
This toy is not really ‘interesting’ to my son any longer. There was a number of months, we he initially had the toy at first that he played with it on a regular basis. He would grab the toy, punch the strings, spin the spinners and listen to a tune or two. He never really played with the toy for long amounts of times, but he would be regular with his playing. Now, the guitar stays hidden in the toy box. It is not out of sight out of mind, it is simply not interesting to him any longer.
Overall
The Little Tikes Discover Sounds Guitar has its good and bad points. We have has a few issues with the toy working correctly, so that is a major downfall, but those flaws did come after many months of abuse. The toy was played with quite regularly, at first (a plus), but has been virtually untouched for many months (a minus).
When my son received this toy, it was a time when he did not have tons of toys at his disposal - so it was something nice to start with, but it sure hasn’t lasted...
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 9.99 Type of Toy: Baby Toy
Age Range of Child: 0 to 12 Months
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