Customer Reviews

Play-Doh Octopus Playset

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My son just received this for his 4th birthday. It comes with 4 full size tubs of playdoh, lots of tools and molds for making different sea creatures. The octopus' hat comes out and acts as a plunger for pushing the playdoh down and out the front to create different creatures (turtle, octopus, etc.). This is bit too hard for my son to do so he needs help pushing the playdoh thru. There is also a "flip the fish" game built in. This is a nice added feature. Basically you make a fish with the included mold press and then put the fish on the octopus' arm and flip it in the air. My son thinks this is so funny and tries to see how far he can fling the fish (watch out!). There is plenty to do with this set and should keep any little one busy for a good amount of time.

We recently purchased this toy for my 3 and 4 year olds. What a disappointment. After weeks of asking for this toy, we bought it only to find it so un-user friendly, my children gave up after 10 minutes with it. It's very difficult to push the playdoh far enough down to squish it out of the bottom and then when you do you have to find something small enough to dig out the rest of the playdoh since the plunger doesn't completely push it out. No attachment that comes with it is small enough to "dig out" the rest so a nearby pen or knife comes in handy. Boy, that's safe! Save your money and buy something else or just get the playdoh and have them use their imagination. You'll be less frustrated.

It's a lot of fun to play with, and my three year old loves playing with it, but, MAN, is it hard to clean. Whoever designed the thing ought to be put in time out.

Basically, the play-doh is shoved down the top of the octopus and comes out at a right angle at the bottom. This works pretty well (but it's a little hard for the little one). When he's all done though, there is inevitably play-doh gets stuck in the bottom of the tube. The tube itself is too long to push the play-doh through with your finger, and the right angle makes it so that, even if you do force it down, you have to some how push it out the front. The weirdest thing is, there isn't a device (even the classic play-doh knife) that comes with it, that you can use to dig it out. And even using the classic knife is difficult. I use a combination of play-doh tools, with just a touch of cursing, and that seems to work.

So, buyer beware, it's fun, but tough to clean.

He does love the lobster scissors though, and carries them with him in his pocket all the time.

The parts that come with this are super fun (fish maker, turtle, scissors, etc) but the main part which is the Octopus has a major design flaw. You cannot get the dough completely out using his hat as a plunger. I wouldn't recommend this.

As others have said, this toy is poorly designed. The tube is so long it takes a lot of playdoh to get any fun out of the plunger. Then the playdoh gets stuck inside. Sure some of the toys included are fun, but there have to be better toys for playing with playdoh. Skip this one.

The playdough in itself is fun for kids, but my 3 and 5 year olds find the playdough too hard to push all the way down the narrow shaft with the pusher, and then have a hard time digging it back out. And even if the playdough is successfully pushed out(w/help), there is always a big chunk of it that still remains at the bottom because the pusher doesn't go all the way down to the bottom, so you have to dig it out with a long narrow stick or something, which is a big pain. The attachments that the playdough squishes through are too hard to remove, even for an adult, and if there's dried up playdough in the edges, it's makes it almost impossible to remove. Although my kids have enjoyed playing with it, it required a lot of my help and standby because of these shortfalls.

My 3 1/2 yr old son loves to play with it. It keeps him busy for long periods of time. He loves play doh.
But if you feel play doh must be salvaged at any cost, then this will drive YOU crazy. The tube the play doh goes through is tight & long. So alot of play doh has to be used for it to come out the other end. It does not come with a cleaning tool. I improvise and use a plastic knife to clean it out. No big deal.Or wait til it gets hard and throw it out.
But it's novel & he likes it and I don't object to throwing some play doh away if it gets hard.

This thing is ridiculous. It is impossible for a kid to push down or pull the hat back out, and that is the whole point.

A fun toy for kids but impossible to clean. If you don't have loooong thin fingers you can't remove all of the playdoh from the unit. If you can't it hardens and renders the produce useless.

Our five year old son and his friends love this set. Even after 6 months of ownership, he plays with this set as frequently as other toys. Since the toy snapped together initially, I tried pulling the top piece off to clean up. It separated with medium pressure and the toy was easy to clean and put away. It's held up well during numerous play dates. This toy is good for building hand and finger strength for fine motor skills.