Reviews (61)

Volume Solution
I do understand how this guitar can be unnervingly loud, however I have also found out a way to limit the volume on this and many other childrens toys that do not have a mute (as I have done to many of my sons toys.) I usually put clear packaging tape (3M brand) over the speaker and slowly poke out some of the holes until I find my personal volume preference. Usually if you apply the tape clearly and tightly the child doesn't realize the volume difference or tape. Hope that helps...I am sure that this might work a little better than just hiding it somewhere out of sight when you finally fed up listening to it.

It's got her singing and me grinning!
I bought this for my 3 year old daughter after I noticed that everytime we visited my cousin she always ran for the Wiggles Guitar. I also noticed that it was motivating her to sing along. We are a bilingual family and her speaking has been a bit delayed, but listening to the Wiggles and using this guitar have actually helped her become more vocal! I think that is pretty AMAZING for a toy!!

The only drawback is that the buttons play such short clips of the songs. Plus, for some reason my daughter likes to keep pressing the buttons over and over before the whole clip has played. If you thought Yummy Yummy Fruit Salad was a bit annoying before - try listening to just the first two notes played over and over and over and over!

I have not noticed that this guitar is particularly loud. And if things do get too noisy (i.e. too many repetitions of Wake Up Jeff!) we can always turn it off and my little Elvis-wannabee plays air-guitar to her heart's content.

I would definitely buy this toy again for my daughter. My daughter and I like it so much that I am planning on getting the microphone as well.

fun, fun, fun!
I have a son that just turned 2. He loves the Wiggles and love this guitar. He will play with it for hours. It is a great toy for a Wiggles fan.

Most Popular Toy at our House!!!
My 2 1/2 year old got this for Christmas because she LOVES the Wiggles. She plays with it everyday and likes to play it when they are on TV singing. Now my 10 month old loves it too and they fight over it. Yes, it is loud and can get annoying, but my girls LOVE it!

No, seriously, it's TOO LOUD!
My 3-year-old loves the Wiggles, and this guitar, but I wholeheartedly agree with the others who have noted that it's WAY too loud--this can't be good for toddlers' tender ears, let alone the parents' nerves. I'm really surprised that more parents haven't complained. It's obnoxiously (and I think, dangerously) loud, and for this reason alone, I wouldn't buy it again, even though she loves the toy. I will definitely be trying to find a way to modify it so we don't all go deaf or suffer permanent damage! ... Read more

Editorial Review

James the Red Engine is one of the Thomas the Tank Engine series of train cars and is made of real wood. James has a cheery, smiling face on the front of the engine, promising an adventure as soon as the train leaves the station. James the Red Engine pulls his own coal car, so he won't run out of fuel. The cars attach to each other with magnets. This is a toy that encourages imaginative play and requires no batteries. Engine with attached coal car measures 5.75 inches in length. --Margaret Quinn ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Better than Thomas
Although my 3 year old loves Thomas on TV, for some reason he loves the James toy more than the Thomas one. The coal car is a big deal to him. His 18 month old brother loves it too. These toys withstand two boys playing with them better than any other I can find. I bought the tracks & engine at Christmas & they still play with it EVERY day!

Hooray for James
James does a great job pulling the coaches along the track. He can pull pretty much anything at a fast pace. I've had my Jame sfor 9 years and it looks almost new. He's a great engine and you can live the episodes with these trains.

Grandma's Magic Accident
I purchased Thomas the engine without realizing that it was not battery operated. I gave it to my 2 year old grandson for his birthday because I had nothing else to give, and the twinkle in his eyes let me know I had hit upon a winner. The adventures for Thomas and his friends have not ended. I have since purchsed, Skarloey, Ben & Bill, Douglas, Percy, Toby and Bertie. The adventures just don't seem to end for my grandson. He plays with this toy for hours. His vocabulary has increased at the same pace as his adventures. The fact that this is not battery operated is the joy of the toy. I need not turn on the television to keep him occupied, he has Thomas and his many friends and that is good enough for me.

JAMES IS GREAT!!!!!!!!
James is one of my favorite engines he is a big engine and the same length as duke edward and mike and he is in a lot of stories like james goes buzz buzz.

Best Investment I Have Ever Made
My 2 year old son loves his James. He likes him best because of the bright red color. His Thomas the Tank train set is the only toy he plays with period and he plays with it everyday. Other than Thomas Trains, he plays outside. When we have guests, he takes them all to play with his train set. To any first time buyer of Thomas trains you will notice the prices seem high for a toy of this size but you have to remember that these toys are not plastic but are made of solid maple and have a lifetime warranty. People have asked me why I buy these trains when they most of the set is not battery powered. The reason is because it has been my experience that children get pretty bored just watching a train go around a track. With Thomas the Tank Trains your little loved one gets to actually participate by moving the trains. All the trains have different colors, numbers and names which help promote memory skills and recognition while having fun. The Thomas Tank Engine books and DVD's teach lessons and morals on hard work, kindness, accepting responsibility, etc, etc, etc...... As your child ages they can begin to build their own track layouts so the toy grows with them. The makers of this series have also included items in the series that are good for people with a tighter budget. If your child likes the trains but you can't buy a full track set, you can always buy a play mat that has track printed on them or you can get Thomas the Tank engine felt boards and stick-ups. I hope this review helps!!!!!!! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Elmo has certainly sold out. The fuzzy red Muppet is dressed up in a chicken suit, with only his red face and hands showing. The fuzzy suit is bright yellow with a white chest, orange feet, and a red comb on the hood. Push the button on Elmo's left foot and his high-pitched voice encourages little ones to do the Chicken Dance with him. His arms flap and his knees bounce up and down as he sings the lines, "Elmo wants to be a chicken, Elmo wants to be a duck" to the familiar, but annoying, tune. Press the button on his right foot and Elmo will cluck like a chicken and move his head. Note that these two actions are the only ones Elmo does; there is no volume control, repeatedly hitting a button will cause a "rap effect," and the body under the chicken suit is hard plastic, which hurts his huggability factor. --Pam Lauer ... Read more

Reviews (111)

Chicken Dance Elmo
I read some of the other reviews, and I disagree with alot of them. Some of these people say that the toy is loud and obnoxious, but I think that it's fun for kids. My nephew is 4 now, and he's had it since his third birthday, and he still loves it and plays with it all the time.

Deafening
I recently bought a chicken dance Elmo for my daughter, but it is too loud (and there is no way to adjust the volume). I actually really like Elmo and his songs but this is just earsplitting. Also, Elmo is not cuddly at all. His body is hard plastic with a thin "fur" covering.

I'm dissapointed in how long the toy worked!
This is one of my son's favorite toys. He also loves the Elmo piano. He received the Elmo piano in 12-02 and has played it constantly. We have only just changed the batteries in 3-04. We gave him the Chicken Dance Elmo when Toys R Us was out of Tickle Me Elmo (even though their commercial said they'd never run out, they did). Anyways, he absolutely loved Chicken Dance Elmo and unfortunately it stopped working on 3-29-04, a little over 90 days of use, that's all he got out of it. For the price I am really disappointed at how poorly it held up.

A love/hate relationship
We purchased Chicken Dance Elmo when our son was about 12 months old because he loved it in the store. For about 2 months, my son liked and and would flap his arms and try to chicken dance. We have taught my son sign language and whenever he saw Elmo anywhere, he would flap his arms like a chicken.
Then, at about 14 months, my son became terrified of this toy. I hid Elmo in my son's closet thinking this would solve the problem, but then he saw it in there and then would point to the closet and shriek while making his sign for Elmo. I put it in our closet and then made the mistake of leaving the closet door open while my son was in there. More shrieking! While not having Elmo around was a bit of a relief to us (he's a bit noisy), we thought it best to try some deprogramming. My husband took Elmo out of the closet, hugged him in front of my son, and told him that Elmo is our friend (hilarious). After several days of this, Elmo was welcomed back in the family. NOW, my son adores him, and gets very upset if he falls over (which he often does). It really is too cute to see him chicken dance. Still, Elmo is loud, not at all cuddly, and likely pretty scary for kids under 18 months. Additionally, all he does is the dance. Amusingly, while my son now loves the Chicken Dance Elmo, he is still terrified of the Limbo Elmo.

Holds up well
We got this for my step son Christmas of 2002. He was 11mos old then but we decided to get it since he adores Elmo. When he was opening gifts he unwrapped this one and had no interest in any of the others. He still loves to play with this one and hokey pokey...at the same time and combines the two dances. He holds it so it won't move all the time and it still dances. This toy has held up so well to a very curious toddler, a stuffed toy box, and 2 moves. This Elmo also has 2 buttons, one on each foot, that can play at the same time! When he's singing and dancing you can press the other foot and he will balk like a chicken and roll his head and the song doesnt reset it will breifly pause do the head roll then pick up right where it left off. All in all I recommend this toy to any one. My 7mo old daughter also gets a kick outta this toy too! ... Read more

Reviews (23)

rescue heros mission select
i just bought this toy for my friend and he love it. it is a nice toy and looks like it is made well,you have to use mission select figures though ,whitch are kind of hard to find since this is an old model toy, but i managed to locate a few whitch is enough to work with this toy and so other pieces that add on like the car and fire truck. i really like the fact that this toy will keep a child occupied for a couple of hours and tweaches them to use imagination.its a real fun toy for the child and his dad a 5 star for fisherprice and 5 stars for targets great price,and extreamly fast shipping. happy holidays.

What's the fuss!! Great toy!!
I've read a lot of the reviews some negative. Parents whine about how long it took to put together, the crane, spotlight and Radar coming off. Let me point something out that explains why they did this. The reason why these parts come off easy is because kids can be rough with parts that move. Imagine if the spotlight was fixed on and a kid leaned on it or yanked it to get a figure off. It would snap right off and you wouldn't be able to get it back on. As far as the crane, well, put a figure on it and hold it with one hand and use the free hand to work the winch. Simple as that. Okay, before you say, its easy for us adults to expect this from kids, but you teach a kid how to do this and from then on they do it. My son was 3 when he got this toy and he's now 4.5 and never cries or complains about what I read these other reviewers mention.

The toy is great. Hook up your mission select figures to it and they talk about the mission. It's great. My son loves to have his characters "Talk about the mission" as he puts it. And my 1.5 year old comes and pushes the button to hear them talk. There are a lot of pieces, just take your time putting it together and play with your kids. It's a lot of fun!

Disappointed in the durability of this toy.
I bought this for my nephew's 3rd birthday. He was so suprised when he saw it and he wouldn't stop playing with it. He was using the "cat condo" for the Heroe's to run their missions before he got the MACC. I know the cats are thankful for this gift. I think it's a great toy if you have a Rescue Hero fanatic in your house. However, like others have stated, the crane is not very sturdy, and that's my nephew's favorite part of the toy. Whenever he tries to use it the whole thing pops off of the top of the command center. I was having to hold it on while he played with it. Hopefully his grandpa can rig it so it works for him.

Luckily I got this on sale at Toys R Us for $29.99 so I'm not so put out by this designing flaw since grandpa will find a way to make it work. But I do feel for those who spent $69.99 on this toy. I would not recomment paying that kind of price for this type of quality.

All in all its a fun toy for the Rescue Hero's fan in your house but it does require a little aftermarket repair on your part for it to function properly.

We love this toy
Bought this for our son for his 5th birthday. He loves it. It did take an hour or so to put together. But we did it the night before. We also bought the Mission Firetruck to go with it. Yes you do have to by the Mission Rescue Heroes so it will talk, but it was well worth it. Our eight year old daughter plays with him, she likes it also. We also have a one year old daughter and it is nice to have out, because the pieces are not to small for her. All in all we are pleased with the toy and would recommend it to others.

This is awful
As a parent of a 4 yr old, I must say this is his and my least liked toy. It was a gift from his grandparents, so I didn't pay for it, but I personally would not buy it for even less than $5. It took forever to set up, is awkward to play with and the 'missions' are jumbled and uninspired. I wish I had kept the box, I would have returned it. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

My daughter loves it!
We got this for our daughter on her 2nd birthday and she loved it. Now she is almost 4 and still loves to ride on it. At first she didn't look where she was driving, but it didn't take long for her to master driving it. It's also much easier to steer than the jeep type that has the round steering wheel. It's held up fine over 2 years with lots of use even when the kids purposefully run into each other. The only negative thing I have to say is that it does go quite slow in the grass. It's not going to be a good choice if you want your child to ride around in the backyard on it. But we live on a cul-de-sac so it's easy for the kids to ride around in the road. I would recommend getting a second battery so you can always make sure one is charged since they do take awhile to charge (or you may end up with a temper tantrum on your hands).

Barbie Trailrider
We purchased this Barbie quad for our 4 yr. old daugher and were very unhappy with the performance. With a 6 volt battery it hardly pulled her through the grass (she is an average 40lb. 4 year old). Our two year old son was the perfect size for this toy. It had enough power to pull our daughter on the driveway, but anymore than 25-30lbs. is too much for the voltage of this particular ride-on. If you're looking for a ride-on for a child over 3yrs. of age I strongly recommend spending the extra money to get one with a 12-volt battery. It makes all the difference!!
Ours was ridden (mostly by our son) for only one summer and it will hopefully be sold in a garage sale soon. Live and learn!!!

Way underpowered
The barbie quad is way underpowered even for my 3 year old. If you want to use this off any hard surface, forget about it. It will bearly go. You're better off buying the 12 volt Kawasaki Ninja quad instead. I'm not sure why they made the girls Barbie quad 6 volt and the boys Ninja 12.

This is an excelent ride!!!!
My little girls is know 5 years, but when she was 3 Santa brought her a Power Wheels Barbie, like I said she's 5 and she still rids it I think she can use it 2 years more, she rides her brother 3 year old, this is a very good present!!!!!

she loves it............
My daugthers uncle bought this for her first birthday we did not assemble it until she was 14 months and the first time she rode it she had so much fun, I was even able to ride behind her with my legsin the air. We opted for this one because the smaller ones are such a waste of money. You just need to supervise, but it's worthevery bit of the money. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

A Great Starter for Little Minds.
I purchased this item for my neice approx. one year ago, for her birthday, and she loves it. She turned three then, and I was suprised at how often she played with it. She takes it with her everywhere. What impressed me even more, is how much she has learned and acomplished in one years time. I recomend this to any parent who wants to introduce their child to computers and learning with the joy of watching how much fun they are going to share with you while doing so.

This is extremely dissapointing
I bought this for my 5 year old daughter. She loved for the short time it worked. It is so not worth the money if Mattel makes them last for a few weeks.

It started by Barbie repeating the same thing over and over again, no matter what button she pushed, then it was humming and then finally started to make an awful noise.

We tried to fix it for her, in the end we pulled the batteries out to stop the noise. Toys R Us was not even going to listen to my complaint and Mattel could not care less. I guess Made in China should have clued me in on the quality of this product.

Pretty cool for a 4-yr. old girl
My daughter got this for her 4th birthday and she loves it. Her twin brother got a different one (obviously) and he doesn't like it as much. The B-bright is very simple and can be easily operated by pre-schoolers without help from adults. I love the menu slide on the side because my daughter can go from one activity to another without having to enter a game code. It's very cute too and entertaining. Recommended highly for kids under 6.

Very entertining for your kids
My littler girl loves this laptop. One because its Barbie and the other she has her on computer and she doest'n use my. And she has learn a lot in very littler time.

Well Worth Your Money
I bought this for my 5 year old granddaughter last Christmas.
It was the one present that she has used time and time again.
It is durable, entertaining and educational, a pretty good
package to give a child you love. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Gordon is a long, blue express locomotive who supplies water for Thomas and tows a coal tender.

Based on the award-winning PBS television series Shining Time Station by the Rev. W. Awdry, the Thomas the Tank train system is the perfect child's train set. Each wooden vehicle has a different name, character, and face. The magnetic bumpers make linking up easy. Friendly characters will engage your child in hours of imaginary play. Designed to support your child's development, the system encourages the use of new motor and cognitive skills. --Sandy Hirsch ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Gordon sure can pull a lot of coaches at once
When my sister plays express with Gordon and all the coaches she sometimes has a hard time pulling them. Then when I help her I realize how many coaches Gordon can pull. It amazes me how strong gordon really is. Like all Thomas trains the magnet is very durable and it can be used for hours of use.

Express Engines
Gordon is a big express engine who is fast. He is the same size as He is in some story stops like Gordon takes a dip and Henry and the elephant. He has a tender with the number 4 on it.

Perfect
This huge toy is loved by many; you can roll it around, make a train, play games, and lots of other stuff with it.

Also, it is very durable.

This toy is great!

Here Comes the Express!!
Gordon is the large express engine. He's bigger than the other Thomas the Tank Engine toys. His bright blue paint and smiling face make him a joy to play with. My son just recently got Gordon, and he has quickly become one of his favorites. He likes to attach all of his other cars to Gordon and have him pull them. As with other trains in this family, Gordon is strong and durable and will provide hours of fun, interactive play. Pick Gordon up today for your child; they will thank you for it.

Great toys from a wonderful set of stories.
My 2 1/2 year old son loves the Thomas and Friends trains (and all trains in general). He received a starter set for his second birthday, and since then I've added a number of track expansions, cars, buildings, and a couple of storage boxes to his set. He now has so much that we've filled a large Rubbermaid plastic storage box. His train set is easily his favorite toy; his large collection of "Little People" toys from Fisher-Price are now a distant second.

They have been very durable, surviving many accidental falls off the coffee table in our living room, (now officially the "Train Table"), suffering only a few minor dings and some chips in the paint. (I reduced my rating for durability by a star because of the tendency of the paint to chip from a fall, but we have a hardwood floor, however a vinyl floor, and certainly a carpet, may not cause this.) Even with my son's vigorous, energetic play, not one car, or piece of track has broken in almost two years now of frequent play. The only exception to this is our "Wellsworth Station", where the internal mechanism that moves the passenger and sets the stop sign finally failed, although this was due to my son's zealous pounding on the tower of the station which engages the mechanism. The tracks and buildings are solid wood, very durable, and seem like they will last for years. With the exception of this one failure, all of the parts have been exceptionally durable.

These toys have been wonderful for my son, helping his imagination and creativity, his learning to sequence and order things, the properties of objects as he puts pieces of track together, and using numbers in learning the characters and building trains for playing out his ideas. Many of the buildings have a mechanical action feature that indirectly teaches him about mechanics and physics, such as when he plays with the turntable, Cranky the Crane, or the Coal loader.

We have the new 'improved' track with rails on one side and road on the other, allowing us many options in building tracks and roads for play. We cover our table with a large piece of brown felt, and use other small pieces of different shapes and colors to add roads, fields and crops, mountains, lakes, and rivers to our scenarios. This adds a great deal of extra depth and possibilities to our play, and more opportunities for imagination, creativity, and learning. Playing out scenarios from the stories and inventing our own has provided us many, many hours of quality time together as Dad and son. I feel good knowing that I'm buying good quality toys for him that will last and provide a constructive and positive learning environment, rather than the typical lousy and cheap plastic action figures that glorify conflict and violence. I especially like it when we play out scenarios from the stories that have morals about cooperation, friendship, responsibility, and hard work, etc.

I would not recommend these toys for a child less than 2 years of age as they require more developmental ability than even an older infant possesses, but they are perfect for toddlers. The individual toys and buildings themselves have age ratings on them, varying between 2 to 3+ years, making it easy to pick ones appropriate for your child, and allowing the toy to grow and expand as your child does. As my son has developed new skills and abilities, I've been able to increase the complexity of the layouts we build, and in the choices I make in what new items to add to his set. From my experience with my son, even a small Thomas set and a little bit of imagination will go a long way with a child, and provide hours of good wholesome fun. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Magical Castle Dollhouse! a dream come true!
Don't listen to the bad reviews for this dollhouse, it is AMAZING! It has AMAZING detailing that ive never seen in one of those ole' Barbie houses! Its also got great furniture and a staircase! It is a gorgeous dollhouse, definetly worth the price!

Don't bother
I purchased this for my (nearly) four-year-old daughter. It is really, really flimsy. She is not a rough player; on the contrary, she is quite gentle. However, this castle's parts continually fall apart. I have finally been reduced to taking it all apart (storing the staircase, railings, etc, in a box in the garage)while she plays with the main structure that remains. Just a head's up -- I have purchased several items now under the "Disney" label -- and disappointingly, they all have been very cheaply made. Not at all on par with their pricing.

terrific toy
This princess dollhouse is awesome.It is beautiful, and is my daughter's "dreamhouse."It includes all furniture, and is very large.The pieces snap together very tightly, and I
barely even needed the instructions. It was very common sense
and easy to put together.It took me ten minutes to finish.
It is much more than I expected, and it is the highlight toy
of my daughter's birthday.

Very flimsy, pieces keep falling off the castle
My daughter received this for Christmas. We put it together for her. Most of the parts just snap together or pop in to each other.This is the problem.As my daughter plays with it, and she is not rough with it, the parts fall off over and over again. I thought that this was such a great toy for her to play with and that she could use her imagination.It is a great idea, but it needs to be more stable. I feel it is very expensive considering the fact that it is very flimsy. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Every Fireman needs a Station
I purchased this Thomas Fire Station for my son last Christmas (age 5). He loves all his Thomas the train items and this Fire Station was icing on the cake for my little fireman. He enjoys setting up the track with his Fire Station. As his other engines/trains circle the track a fire surpisingly occurs, than here comes the Fire Engines to put out the fire. This is a must have accessory to add to your set, if you little man loves being a Fireman. At age 6 he is looking forward to Christams and adding more accessories/builings/track/engines to add to his collection. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Holds up to daily playtime!
Santa brought this set for my 3 year old son last Christmas and he has played with it everyday since. With daily use, this wooden set is holding up to his rough play. His favorite piece is Cranky the Crane. It's easy to add onto as we have added the hospital and another bridge. We purchased a Nilo table to put the train on so it will stay together. Well worth the money!

Great for 18 months and up! But expensive...
The Thomas train and train collections are durable toys. Their real value, though, is that playing with the toys allows children to act out the great Thomas and Friends children's stories they read and watch.

This is a nice layout that provides far more track than the usual figure 8 layout that gets purchased first. But it is very expensive. There is generic track available that costs far less. Our kids haven't noticed the difference. IT IS EASY TO CREATE ELEVATED TRACK AND BRIDGES USING LEGO OR DUPLO PIECES AS SUPPORTS. GENERIC CRANES ARE AVAILABLE FOR MUCH LESS.

Kids' imaginations can remarkably supply buildings and water towers and cranes, etc., so that they won't even miss what might be lacking from less expensive sets. And families can build some of these items themselves out of old boxes, etc.

Purchasing recommendation:
* Choose which type of Thomas trains you will 'standardize' on. There are three kinds: This size of wooden trains from Learning Curve; larger, plastic, battery-operated trains from Tomy; and smaller, die-cast metal trains from Ertl. The wooden trains have the most products and accessories available.

* The clickety-clack (grooved to look like real railroad) track in the Thomas series is great, but it's expensive; I recommend buying generic track. ... You can literally save hundreds of dollars by buying these kinds of sets.

* Buy the Thomas and friends engines separately--and wait for sales. The kids care about the characters, so no short-cutting (ie., Brio or generic trains) here.

* Look for trains bundled with VHS videos. You can get a video and a train (on sale) for about the same price as a train alone. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Kids who wear this fancy dress-up piece will obviously not be playing the "pauper" side of the Barbie-influenced fairy tale, "The Prince(ess) and the Pauper."With a quilted felt bodice and three layers and textures of skirt, it's a pretty, blue expression of 19th century couture. Details include pink trim around the neck, waist, and forearms and a miniature portrait at the neck. Kids up to a smallish 5 years old can wear it, and get it on and off easily thanks to Velcro closures in back.--Diane Beall ... Read more

Editorial Review

Simply put the Move ‘n Groove Dance Mat on the floor and let your child dance the day away. The keyboard makes six different notes, the instrument icons play various tunes, and when the picture of Barney is stepped on, he will issue instructions to step on the blue footprint, step on the red footprint, etc., and even congratulate the child when she steps on the correct spot. The furry, inflatable Barney figure spins around when music plays, an effect that would be better if he didn't tilt weirdly to one side. Nonetheless, Barney is still a nice bonus with this mat since, being removable, he is a fun toy in his own right. True, the combinations of things you can do may be limited, but the physical and interactive qualities of this toy are a big plus. --David Stoesz ... Read more

Reviews (22)

wow im 25 and i still like this
this thing is so much fun it teaches people to dance move n groove barney is off the fisle fashisle dawg. so buy this thing for yourself and experiance the fun and joy of barney. barneys fun fun fun

Barney Dance Mat, not so Super Duper
The Barney doll is a blow-up doll and does not stand up properly on the stand even when it is at filled at capacity with air. It just turned out to be a big noise-making mat that our toddler dances on.

Fun, but Barney Deflates
We may have purchased a defective one then because Barney will either deflate while trying to spin or he will come out the base (I even tried to double-tape the bottom of his feet to the base, but that didn't work either). My 2 year old loved this toy, but since Barney doesn't stay put (or deflated), it made her upset, so we ended up throwing it out. I didn't realize that not everyone had this problem (from the other reviews I have read). Maybe, we just purchased a "bad" one or something.

Great toy for a two year old who likes to dance!
My 18 mnth old loves this toy. She loves to dance with him even though she can't understand the steps yet. She especially loves to pick Barney up and run off with him! It's one of her favorite toys and my 6 mos old laughs when he hears Barney talk. He thinks it's really cool that Barney is in our house. (:

Don't understand all the bad reviews!
My 2 year old just received this toy yesterday and she and my 3 year old can't stop fighting over it!! They both just love it. The people who complained about blowing it up must have never blown up a beach ball before!!! It took me maybe 5 or 6 breaths to inflate it. And after hours of play.........Barney's still standing. This is the first toy review I've written and the only reason I wrote it is because I strongly disagree with all the poor reviews. It may not be the most educational toy but it's great exercise for the kids!!! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Kindhearted but noisy, Harold the Helicopter likes to drop in on the Island of Sodor to visit his railway friends. This 4-inch sturdy wood helicopter is white with a sleek red racing stripe above his name. With a rotating propeller and plastic landing pontoons, Harold is ready for action. Based on the popular Thomas the Tank Engine series by Reverend W. Awdry and the PBS television show Shining Time Station, this flying fellow is part of the much-loved wooden railway system, which is compatible with other magnetic train sets. You can reenact all the exciting stories in the series or make up new ones. Thomas fans won't want to miss out on any of these fun, well-built railway characters. --Emilie Coulter ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Lots of fun, but easily broken
My 3 year old son did chores around the house to buy this toy himself. We were very disappointed when one of the rotors broke off within a month. I was with him when it broke. He was not doing anything rough with it. He didn't even drop it. We did not realize there was a guarantee. We've glued it back together at least 10 times. I don't know if that voids the guarantee or not.

Otherwise, it is a great toy. My son carries it all over the place. He says it is his favorite.

I guess the older propellers work better
I've noticed a bunch of complaints regarding the proplellers on Harold the Helicopter. My Harold is over eight years old and it still has his propellers in fine working order. My problem with Harold is the fact that there's not much to do with him. The new hospital track gives him a place to land but he gets boring quickly. Still a good buy though.

love it!
My son has this toy. He loves it. The plastic rotors keep breaking off,(we are on our 3rd Harold and have to get a 4th now.) I have had a hard time trying to find out who to contact for replacement now that the company has switched hands.

Harold's propellers break easily
I have a normal active three year old boy, who loves his Harold. However, the propellers are made of a hard plastic that snap if they are stepped on or smacked around - hard to avoid with a 3 yr old boy! Thank goodness for the lifetime replacement guarantee - that's why I continue to buy this brand. Harold has been replaced twice - my son thinks he goes to the repair shop! Overall the Thomas wooden train system is incredible, but like any brand, it does have it's glitches.

Great toy but breaks easily
My kids have several Thomas toys from Imaginarium and they LOVE them. This one is the least durable of the bunch. 2 blades have broken off of Harold, so his flying is a little lopsided these days. I think they need to try another approach for the blades. ... Read more