Toyologist Review: Twirlin' Tumblin' Fun Park

There are 3 children in our house (four if you count the semi-adopted boy from next door). They're aged 5, almost-5, almost-3, and getting-on-for-1.

Guess who's been playing with this toy the most?

You probably guessed the answer wouldn't be what you (/the manufacturer) would expect - why would I have asked otherwise? Of course it's been everyone except the getting-on-for-1 year old who's been using this. She's had barely any interest, beyond playing with the little ball-men on the carpet as though they were, well, balls.  Occasionally she'll go and bat the turney-thing at the front of the Park, but when that activates the music she wanders off. She's not scared by everything suddenly activating, she just has no interest in it.

Maybe if she was a tad older. At the moment she spends most of her playing time crawling around and not sitting up (that would require remaining in one place and make life far too easy for her parents) so hasn't really seen the higher-up bits.

Almost-3 spent ages playing with the Park while his bigger brother was at school. He loved rolling the ball-men down the slide and watching as they jumped up the steps. He even started dancing round to the music, which I sadly failed to capture on video.

School ended, the bigger boys arrived, and a new way of playing was introduced.

With Power Rangers.

(apologies for the slightly messy house)

So now it's turned into some kind of Power Rangers funfair.  The Rangers go down the slide (with a bit of assistance - it's not like it was designed for them to go down) and have fun riding round the Ferris Wheel. The three boys have loads of fun playing with it, while Getting-On-For sits and chews the Power Rangers when the others aren't looking.

It's not exactly how it was intended to be used, but it's getting a lot of use so who am I to argue?

The Park comes in pieces but takes about 20 seconds to clip together. It's a solid piece of kit and will take some bashing. The music, thankfully, isn't too annoying although the THUD THUD THUD of the coloured steps does start doing your head in after a while. If it wasn't so impractical, I'd recommend playing with it in the dark - the Wheel looks fantastic lit up.

The box states 9 months+ but, as I said earlier, I don't think Getting-on-for-1 is quite ready yet (having now worked it out in my head, it turns out she's a week or two over 9 months old). She'll likely get more use in a month or so. That is if she can get if off her bigger brothers...

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