LeapFrogź Leapster L-Maxź Game: Letters on the Loose

by LeapFrog

Product Features

• The letters in the Letter Factory are loose and Professor Quigley needs your help to pull them all together!
• Write a letter on your handheld and see it come to life on the TV.
• Help Professor Quigley finish the Talking ABC Book by writing letters.
• Search the factory and collect as many letters as you can.
• Teaches upper- and lowercase letters, writing and phonics skills.

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.5 x 6 x 9 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0008FUD18
• Item model number: 20245
• Manufacturer recommended age: 4 - 6 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,402 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
  • #32 in Toys & Games > Preschool > Pre-Kindergarten Toys > Learning > Reading & Writing
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Wacky Professor Quigley makes learning about letters fun! Twenty-six playful games at the Letter Factory and an interactive letter book help your child learn more about letter names, letter writing and letter-sound relationships. Leapser2 players can connect online for extra activities and rewards. And with the LeapFrog® Learning Path, parents can see what their child is learning. Works only with Leapster and Leapster2 learning game systems.

Product Description

When the letters in the Letter Factory get loose, Professor Quigley needs your help to pull them all together! Play 26 fun letter games, and learn letter names and letter sounds and learn to write the entire alphabet for your letter book. Then plug into the TV to help Quigley find and identify uppercase and lowercase letters for the book! For use with the Leapster L-Max Learning Game System, sold separately.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, September 21, 2005

By 

S. Rowley (Lubbock, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: LeapFrogź Leapster L-Maxź Game: Letters on the Loose (Toy)

I bought this to use on my regular Leapster and it worked just fine. My 4 year old son is learning to write letters in his Pre-K class and this just excited him beyond belief. He sits there for hours tracing those letters and he is so proud of himself when he is done!!! I am amazed because my son usually NEVER sits still unless he's watching TV. This has replaced our watch TV before you go to bed time...now he gets in bed and draws his letters.

The most important thing about this is it teaches them to draw their letters CORRRECTLY. Start at the top and go down...etc. All educational experts Iv'e talked with say that it is essential to get then doing it right. PLUS, unlike the letter factory (which I loved) it also teaches lowercase letters which I have come to find out that those are what they need in Pre-K and K.

Thank you Leapfrog for encouraging my son to enthusiastically learn and challenge himself.

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Letters on the Loose -- A Wonderful Learning Resource, February 10, 2006

By 

Pam Tee "Busy Mom" - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: LeapFrogź Leapster L-Maxź Game: Letters on the Loose (Toy)

What fun and what an excellent learning tool. If you are familiar with Leapfrog's Alphabet Videos, then you should know that "Letters on the Loose" builds upon those experiences. Tad and the gang aren't here, but Professor Quigley is and he directs the action.

**What You Get**
There are two games on the cartridge. The letter hunting and writing game, and another bonus game which is only available when the LMAX is hooked up to the television.

Bonus Game -- In the bonus game, Professor Quigley puts on a robotized suit and shoots through a vertical maze. You are told to gather either capital or lower case letters. It's fun but requires quick decision making.

Letter Learning Game -- This game teaches uppercase and lowercase letters, their sounds, and it allows children to practice their letter writing.

Note: Others have commented on how `perfect' you have to write the letters and how annoying this requirement is-well LEAPFROG must have heard them because we have not found this to be the case. My daughter's handwriting is anything but perfect (though it's improving) and the LMAX accepted any `decent' attempt of hers to follow the dotted lines.

Plus, and I would never tell this to my kindergartener, you can actually practice writing using your finger on the writing screen. Now I don't want her doing that, but it *is* great practice for my younger preschooler son. [In fact, this is something that is used by some teach-at-home writing systems that have young children use sand to practice.]

**Pros**
--The letter writing portion of these games is just awesome. My daughter now loves to practice her letters (had to drag her screaming to a piece of paper-LOL), and likes adding them to her book of letters.


**Cons**
--For reasons which are not clear to me, when the LMAX is connected to the TV you have to use the button on the pen to make the pen work. [Without the TV you just have to touch the pen to the screen to enter a choice.] This means that for some young children (I'm thinking of my 3.5 year old son at the moment) they won't be able to use the LMAX's TV feature until later.

--There are really only two educational actions. You practice writing or you identify letters. I personally wish there was more to the game; but having said that the writing practice is worth the cost of the game!

--Graphics are okay (could be better) on the small screen but really suffer when transferred to the television. (I guess we are spoiled.)

-- Identifying letters is not really challenging for children that already know their letters. (Still they will play with it.)

Five Stars. Children can learn their letters, the letters sounds, and practice writing. I wish their was more for the money, but considering that both my preschooler and kindergartener can use this smartridge I really shouldn't complain.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kick Start Kindergarten, September 2, 2005

By 

Deb B. (Illinois) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: LeapFrogź Leapster L-Maxź Game: Letters on the Loose (Toy)

Best thing we ever purchased was the Letters on the Loose and Leapster L-Max. My son entering kindergarten loves the Leap Frog Letter Factory video, word factory video and Leap Pad but this is on a whole new level. He can listen to professor Quigley and interact with a Video type game that shows how to write his letters then lets him write the letters on the screen with the accompanied pen. After he writes each letter it is stored in the memory book of his handwritten letters. If he is plugged into the TV he may then view and display for the whole family the great book of letters he is working on. There is a game to catch capital or lower case letters that arer specified differently each time he plays and animated letters play a game that asks you to do different tasks that help with hand eye cowardination and letter recongnition/phonics. We love it!! Kudos to Leap Frog again. Searching for the number Zero next to help him with Math Skills.