Beep, Beep!!
Written: May 15 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Colorful, makes noise, entertaining, has a couple of lights
Cons: No volume control, gets annoying
The Bottom Line: Keeps interest for periods of time, but it is annoying for parents or anyone else within ear-shot.
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| LisaDo's Full Review: Sesame Street - Elmo's Talking Driver |
Our son received this for Christmas last year. At the time he didn't care what was on the toy, as long as it made noise. If it lights up it is an "A+" toy, and this does have turn signals that light up, so this one was a winner!
Grandma and Grandpa picked this toy out. They had bought one for my nephew the year before and he loved it, so they thought Zack would, too. They were right, as long as it was in short doses. He tended to tired of it fairly quickly.
Sesame Street Elmo's Talking Driver is a cute toy. At least it is cute the first 30 minutes or so. After that it tends to annoy you. As I said, it makes noise. Lots of noise! It has several buttons and and knobs that activate some kind of noise.
The toy itself is white with a blue base. The first thing you notice is a large yellow steering wheel with a blue button for the horn with Elmo's face on it. The horn doesn't honk. Instead it says, " Beep, beep! Coming thru!". Cute, huh? Well, it is for a while. This was the button hit the most as it is easiest to get to and is in the center of the bright yellow wheel. Over and over this button was pushed until I wanted to tear my hair out.
Toward the top left of the steering wheel is the green turn signal lever. It goes up and down both, but when it is moved both turn signals light up, not just one. The turn signals are above the steering wheel. Left light is red, right light is green. They are the shape of arrows pointing left and right. When the lever is pulled, they flash, and there is also a ding-ding noise. It goes off twice for each pull of the lever. The turn signals flash when any of the buttons are pressed.
To the right of the steering wheel at the bottom is the "ignition switch" complete with a blue "key" that can not be removed. It will only turn to the right and when it is turned, it sounds like a car starting. It makes about a 1/4 turn.
Above that is a small green speaker. It doesn't do much, just lets the noise out to annoy all except the child that is playing with it.
To the right of the speaker is a red gear shift. It goes up or down and sounds like a car revving it's engine. This is fairly large and also was a main attraction for our son.
Above that are three buttons. The red button has Big Bird's picture on it and when it is pushed he says, "Buckle Up!" In the middle is a yellow button with Cookie Monster on it. when this button is pushed Cookie Monster says, "Me drive car!" The third button is blue with Ernie's picture on it. When it is pushed he says, "Driving is fun!"
What car would be complete without a radio?! We can't have that, and neither can our children! Above the three prior mentioned buttons, and last but not least, it the yellow radio button. It is yellow and covers about the space of the three buttons below it. It also has a blue music note on each end of the oblong button. The Sesame Street sticker logo is right in the middle. When pressed you get a short tune that plays. It is one of the most annoying noises, in my opinion, on this toy. I can tune the rest of it out, but this is almost impossible.
Sesame Street Elmo's Talking Driver requires 3 "AA" batteries and a Phillips Screwdriver to change them out. We have had this toy since Christmas and we have yet to change the batteries. He does play with it, so they are either great batteries or it just doesn't seem to take much juice to run this toy.
This toy has been beat around, stepped on, and dropped and it is still going. One thing I did notice was you have to watch it in the toy box. One misplaced toy and this thing will go on and on until the weight is taken off of it. If it lands upside-down, the weight of the toy with press the Elmo horn or the radio buttons and keep going until someone turns it back over.
How do I rate this toy? Well, I am giving it a 4 star. It could actually be a five, as our son loved it, but it has a rather high annoyance factor that must be figured in. I will suffer thru about anything to keep my son happy and this toy has about proved it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): Gift
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months
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Epinions.com ID:
LisaDo
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Member: Lisa D
Location: Back home in Indiana!
Reviews written: 552
Trusted by: 273 members
About Me:
Proud SAHM, Navy wife and member of SHLEPS!
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