Gearhead Mom

Monday, February 25, 2008

Ball Popper Madness

Posted by Missy W. @ 7:53 AM

So it was a big week in our house, at least before we got the plague. Sy got to borrow Kara’s illustrious and much coveted ball popper. She literally squealed with excitement when Micky carried that thing through the door. Micky placed it on the coffee table while Kara and Sy started dancing, clapping and shrieking a chorus of YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! We just stood back and watched the chaos ensue.

The premise of this toy is pretty simple. Put the plastic balls on the spiral popper track, turn on, push down plunger button thing, have ears assaulted by noise level, watch balls fly out, squeal a lot, try to catch them, repeat.

My favorite line on the Hasbro site about this toy is that “Sometimes they spill over, for even more drop and-take play!” By “they,” Hasbro means the five plastic balls and by “sometimes,” they mean EVERY SINGLE TIME. So basically, as the one with the longer arms, the parent spends much of the time reaching into the abyss under the sofa to grab the balls, dust bunnies and some dried fruit. I think it would be best to play this game in a cave where the balls don’t have that far to fly. Sy and her pals do try to gather as many of the balls as they can, mainly in a race to hoard the prized possessions, but often they’ve just rolled way too far out of reach for them. Micky and I both like the toy more when the batteries start to wane because then the balls don’t fly as far.

Sometimes the balls sort of hover in the machine and don’t come flying out of the shoot. Micky figured if she put her hand on the top and created some suction, once you remove your hand, out they fly. This is especially true if the batteries are low. The kids of course watch us do that and attempt the same. Since their hands are smaller, they don’t quite create the same seal, but it works well enough and they always look pretty proud of themselves for fixing the very dire emergency.

And let’s talk about the noise level, shall we? Also according to the site, there are “Silly sound effects and 8 lively songs add to the fun!” Wow. Eight songs? Honestly, the ruckus that machine creates with the combination of those zany sound effects, the motor/blower and the music make it nearly impossible for my withering eardrums to discern eight different melodies. But hey, if they say so. Who am I to go up against the masterminds over at Hasbro Playskool? I mean, look, they spell skool so very well. They must know what they are talking about.

Be forewarned! These balls are small enough to get shoved in the back of speakers, stolen by the pet dog, or even being hidden in dirty diaper storage devices - just to name a few. They are easily chewed up or punctured. You can order replacement balls for four bucks on the Hasbro customer service page. Actually, it seems that you can replace just about every part of this toy. Makes me wonder how simple it is to break this fine piece of plastic. Aside from missing a ball (stolen by dog or thrown into bushes by overzealous two year old), Kara’s ball popper is still in fine form after a year and a half of abuse by all the kids.

Snapshot:
• This toy is literally a parent-crazy-maker if you don’t like toys that make noise. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner with a built-in stereo system.
• My daughter and her posse have loved this hunk of battery operated noise unconditionally since she was about 15 months old.
• It makes sense to me that Hasbro also makes the Elefun toy, since the premise of that game is so similar to this: things fly out, kids squeal, mom and dad get a lot of exercise while retrieving teeny, tiny butterflies from folds in the curtains.
• Don’t tell anyone, but I actually think it’s kind of fun, especially if you just sit and watch how happy the kids are trying to catch the balls as they fly out of the popper. But don’t get comfortable, you have balls to retrieve! I mean, just look title of the ball popper - it includes the word BUSY twice. They really want to remind us that the parents are the ones that stay busy!
-Missy

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