Customer Reviews

Fisher-Price Precious Planet Deluxe Musical Activity Gym

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Our son was born 4 weeks prematurely. Because of this he is behind in several physical milestones. His physical therapists suggested we get a gym like this. We bought this gym last night at WalMart and I just put it together. It is SUPER cute! It was really easy to put together.
The mat is large enough for my son to lie in the middle of it and his big sister (who is 17 months old) to crawl around on. The top of the mat and the fabric that the poles are covered in is a soft fabric that reminds me of a windbreaker, but not nearly so noisy or rough. The bottom of the mat is made so that it won't slide. There are three slits in the mat for the gym poles to go in. They are small enough that you kind of have to maneuver them in, so babies aren't going to be able to get them out or have anything roll around if you're pulling on the poles.
There are two loops on each pole, one high and one lower to hang the toys on, so you can adjust the toys for whatever excercise you're working on (ie tummy time, side time, kicking, rolling over) The loops seem to be really sturdy and sewn in really tight. I don't forsee anything pulling them out, not even my daughter whose nickname is "destructo". The toys are SUPER cute. My son has a problem raising his arms when he's lying on his back, but as soon as I put him under the gym he immediately reached up and was playing with the toys. (I don't know if the toys vary)We got a penguin and a monkey that have spinners at the bottom. And then two rubber things for teething that can hang from the hooks. They are really heavy duty, but not too heavy that our little one can't lift them. They are all very brightly coloured. But you can hang anything with rings.
The musical bear is so fun. We love noisy toys around here and I've noticed that a lot of the music sounds the same. However, the music on this bear has a calypso beat to kids songs. It's not out of tune like a lot of baby toys. You can set the bear to two volume settings, and unlike a lot of noisy toys, the lower setting really is soft. And the louder setting is not so loud that you have to leave the room to answer the phone. There are also two music settings. One keeps the bear going through all the music. It seems to be about 20 minutes worth of music. The other setting stops the music until you move the circle in the middle of his tummy. Also, the switches are set into the back of the bear and little fingers wouldn't be able to move them. Another thing that I like about the bear is that on the back there is a strap that holds it to the poles. You are able to loosen or tighten the strap with a button on the back. It took me a minute to figure out what the button was for (heaven forbid I read the instructions), so I was pulling on the strap. It really doesn't budge.
The mirror above is also really great. My son was reaching for the baby in the mirror before I put any of the toys on. The mirror isn't too fun house looking, and you can hang it from any of the hooks. We didn't get the cloud things to make it a mobile. It might be a difference in packaging from different retailers.
The last thing that I like is that the toys around the bottom can hook together so you can still play on the mat when you don't need the gym parts anymore. I love this gym and recommend it to anyone, especially if you have a child with special needs. :)

I like the gym. I purchased it for my newborn, now 4 months, but my 2-1/2 one likes it even better (she couldn't stay away from it). The music could have been better selection, even better if we could load our own music. The play mat should be thicker and softer since we have a tile floor. It's a big gym so it does take space. The arches really make it easy to get the baby in and out. I moved the toys around as his interest developed. Baby likes to look at themselves so I fixed the mirror on top like a ceiling and the penguin at the bottom of the arch. He can look at himself and making noise kicking the penguin. When he was a little older he started grabbing the bear and turned the rattle or light on. By the time he learned to sit up and crawl (at 9 month), he lost interest as he sat up taller than it is.

my 8-week old LOVES the mirror, especially when you wiggle it. hasn't mastered the rattle yet, tho.

all the parts of this toy seem safe, too.

edit: It's now March 2009, six months later. The play mat has sat unused since the Christmas, because once your kid starts walkin' (around six months) the last thing they wanna do is lay on their backs looking at the same thing they've been lookin' at since birth! Still looks brand new, tho!

So keep in mind, while this thing is great, it will only get about six months of use. Everything's washable except the electric-musical-polar-bear (which is hard plastic and easily wiped), so you'll be able to pass this on to the next kid, or a friend or neighbor pretty easily.

And yes, he mastered the rattle. :)

This play mat has withstood the test of 3 babies. Baby #3 enjoys it just as much as my other two kids did.

I like that this one is more attractive than others...slightly more muted colors and isn't as obvious in our living room as other playmats we've tried. The bars are very sturdy and click into a center piece that holds them in place (as opposed to the Rainforest playmat, where the bars go all wonky). There are several loops to attach toys to at different places along the bars. The musical polar bear was my son's favorite feature, he would laugh and talk to it for up to an hour. My oldest loved talking to herself in the mirror, while my youngest daughter seems to prefer the toys. Unlike some of the other playmats, the toys that come with this one seem high-quality and entertaining not just as something dangling over the mat, but as a stand-alone toy. It's nice to be able to remove and add toys based on the baby's stimulation-level preference.

I also love that i can easily pick this up and move it from room to room without having to readjust and set up the bars. I've washed the bottom play mat probably 30 times or more and it hasn't faded at all -- still looks brand new! The playmat pattern also seems to be interesting to a baby doing tummy time. The pieces, once disassembled, store somewhat compactly. Unfortunately, the bars are slightly too long to fit into a standard storage bin, but we can usually find a good place to store them.

Favorite features:
Not as "in-your-face" bright as other playmats
High-quality toys
Durable, holds up after many washes
Sturdy set-up

I bought this playmat based on recommendations that the round shape is good for long babies. My husband is tall, so I thought I should plan for a possibly long baby.

I also love the mirror, and 1-2months olds really like looking into mirrors.

It would be good to attach some softer toys to the ones included. Buying a few plastic links to lower the included toys would be good too.

I wrapped the flat monkey panel around the aligator so my 3-month-old would have something softer to grab.

My son's 4months now and grabs more of the toys and rolls over on the mat. It's big enough that he stays on the mat even when rolling.

His 6-month-old cousin seemed to like to grab the mat and pull it toward him to drag a toy on the edge of the mat closer to him. The mat is soft and flexible for this action.

It's easily washable.

I ordered this as an entertaining place to put my newborn on her back while I could swap out laundry, grab a drink, etc. It actually became even more useful than that! When she started to sit up on her own (with a little help of a boppy) I took off the arches. I removed the toys from the arches and she still plays with those (she's 10 months old). The mat became so useful for her to play on before she became too mobile. I could put all her toys in one place on that mat and that could be moved easily for cleaning, vaccuuming, etc. The mat folds up and has velcro straps to hold everything in while you relocate it (even put it in the trunk to take to Grandma's with lots of toys still in it). I also found that she would spit up on it occasionally or get food on it and it was so easy to throw in the washer. Much easier than cleaning carpet! She is now too mobile to stay in one place so the mat is losing it's usefulness but it was very useful for the first 8-10 months of her life. Highly recommended.

Before we bought this gym, we had Fisher-Price Rainforest Melodies & Lights Deluxe Gym, it did not keep my baby entertained, he did not care for it so we returned it. I gave another try and got this play gym. It was love at first sight. My 3 month old started cooooing smiling to the bear, trying to reach for the toys. Now he is 4 1/2 and still loves it. I was impressed since this is a little cheaper play gym then the previous i got for him. He loves the Mirror on it, he loves the bear that plays music.....it keeps him busy for awhile. Actually he just fall asleep while playing on it :))). I also like the fact that its round. GREAT BUY!!!!

We were confused when we were buying a gym for our newborn with all the options out there in the market.
This was a new product and did not have much reviews. We eventually bought this one because we were getting this at a good price. We thought that after 2-3 months our daughter will get bored of it.
Our DD is now 6 months old and she still plays with the gym everyday. She loves the music and the toys. When she was little she played with the dangling toys. Now that she's started crawling..the dangling toys don't keep her busy for a long time but she turns over and looks at all the cute animals on the mat and enjoys that.
I am gald we made this purchase. The only thing i wish is it had more music options. It just has two melodies, one for long play and one for short. The short play is really short and I never put that on. We always play the music in the long play mode. Our DD might still be loving the music but we have grown a little bored of it... would have been great to have more melodies. Otherwise a good gym.

Our two month old baby likes this quite a bit, and I think he will like it even more as he gets older. There is a nice soft mat for him to lay on, and we put his boppy on the mat so that he is propped up more. There are several animals for him to play with and he spends quite some time swinging at the little guys and rattling them. The penguin is his favorite toy - we take it off and bring it with us wherever we go. I think he likes the contrast of the black and white, which little ones tend to like best. The gym would be even better if there was something he could pull to make it sing, but we bought one of those separately and added it for him. It is nice how the gym goes all around with three separate pieces, so if he gets bored with one part of it, we just move him around to look at another part. We use the bear to play with him on his own - he doesn't really use the bear or the animals that come with it while he is laying down at this point, but my guess is that he will appreciate them more as he gets older. I gave it only four stars because it isn't super-amazing, but it is good and we were quite happy to get it as a present. We wouldn't have thought of it on our own, but it has ended up being very helpful to give him a little entertainment while I try to get something else done - make breakfast, or sweep the floor. He can entertain himself for 10 minutes or so with this, which is long for him. The only other thing that works so well is the precious planet fisher price swing, which we also recommend.

I love this play mat, its bright and colorful and my son loves the mirror. My only issue with this play mat is the polar bear that plays music. Its kind of cheap looking and it does not keep his attention at all.