Gearhead Mom

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Elefun

Posted by Missy W. @ 9:11 AM

When I first saw this toy, I thought, enh. That’s about it. Just, enh. Go ahead, call me Scrooge, but all I saw was a blue plastic elephant (blue?), batteries, lots of little fabric butterflies to lose, nets to fight over and a long trunk to break. Whoopee.

But then I watched the kids at our playgroup play with it and I was an Elefun convert. I admit it’s a hokey toy and a bit of a uni-tasker, but it is some good, wholesome fun.

This toy is by no means complicated. You turn on the elephant and hold up the trunk to get the kinks out and watch the fun fly. After a few seconds of air blowing, little fabric butterflies start flying out of its nose (because that’s what normally happens with elephants and their trunks, right?). It’s like a bunch of rabid fans trying to catch a Bonds’ ball. Little toddler paws flying and jumping and squealing, all trying to grab the elusive (and small) butterflies. Once the butterflies have all zoomed out, it’s a good lesson on clean up, because the kids know they have to shove the butterflies back in to keep the fun coming. Once the kids are older, I think the nets will come in handy, but not yet.

And yup, that’s it. A minute of silly, frantic fun and then you start all over again. Doesn’t sound like much, but boy do Sy and her pals dig it.

Snapshot:
• This toy is battery operated and the batteries don’t seem to last that long. I think it would be nice if it had an option to plug the toy in. Of course then the butterfly chasers would trip on it, yadda yadda yadda.
• Kids skills can grow with this toy, starting out by just chasing butterflies, then moving to catching them in the net, by color, etc.
• Fun with a group of four little ones, but you need some more butterflies. You can be creative and find some fabric or paper that will fly but withstand the battery of toddler paws.

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