Customer Reviews

Brightlings Exploration Station

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I looked at the picture, before I bought this toy, I thought WOW what a great toy...look at all it does. Then, when I got it, it was just OK. It wasn't really what I thought it would be, including its size. But...wow, was I surprised...my daughter (10 months old) loved it...and still does. She has found ways to play with it that I never would have thought of (they always seem to do that!). Now, whenever it is around, she goes right for it. Even though children at her age get board quickly with toys and move on to other things, this is one toy she actually spends time with. So, overall, it am very pleased. It ended up to be a great purchase!

this may look simple in the picture but there is truly so much to do. There are two different modes, toddler and baby, which you activate by turning the green part on the top to hide the number or reveal them. In baby mode they can drop the brightling playpals in through the top and they come to the bottom which triggers the toy to sing. mostly everything you do triggers a song, except for the open/close gate and the yellow/blue/red tags you pull. in toddler mode when you opne/close the gate it will tell you how to say hello and goodbye in german, french, japanese, spanish, and english. you can move the tab around the abcs so it sings the abc song. then it will sing numerb when you drop the pals into the chute. this really is an "exploration station" my daughter is constantly finding new little things on this that trigger her interest and excitement to explore!

My son received this toy for Christmas, when he was 6 mos old. He was very interested in exploring all the features. He now 10 mos and still loves to pull on the ribbons, spin the rainbow spinner, and push on the singing Brightlings. The sound mixing on the music setting is even fun for adults. This is a great toy to teach cause and effect. One flaw is that it isn't very stable. My son and a friend of his easily pull it over on themselves. Also, we had to pull off the flowers, because they are spring loaded and when my son pushed on them, they sprung back and hit him in the face hard, making him cry. They are not easily removed so we broke them off. Also, it would be nice if there were a place to keep the balls.

LeapFrog Brightlings Exploration Station

I wasn't as impressed with this toy as I thought I would be from the description and reviews. My 18 month old "explored" this toy in about three minutes and was bored. When I actually sat down on the floor and played with her, she became more engaged and had fun placing the people in the stack, but it's not long enough to create much lasting interest for a bright kid. It is still an interesting toy, but I expected more from Leapfrog - whose educational toys usually are superb.

Short version:

PROS

1. songs are not annoying! (and if you do get annoyed, you can change to music only mode so there's no more singing)

2. introduces languages, alphabet, counting, colors, cause and effect, you name it

3. will keep your baby's interest as he/she learns how to manipulate all the different components

4. after daily use for 4 months, we STILL haven't had to replace batteries!

CONS

1. my son has pulled it over on top of himself and that hurts

2. you may lose the little brightlings balls that come with it

Long Version:

We bought this toy for my son when he was just 4 or 5 months old. At first he could only bat at the little flowers on the side, but when he started sitting up he quickly learned to pull the handle to make the rainbow-colored disc spin. The song that plays is really cute too. Now he is 8 months old and he has learned to open and close the door, move the alphabet slider, push and pull the brightling characters (sometimes), and pull the colored ribbons. With each action there is a unique song or sound, which keeps it entertaining for him and keeps it from being annoying for my husband and I. I especially love how the door says "hello" and "good-bye" in english, spanish, french, german, and japanese....what a great way to introduce languages! This toy is truly awesome and keeps my son's attention for 5 to 20 minutes at a time (depending on his mood, lol)....he used to sit and play with it even longer, but he is learning to crawl now. The best part is that there is still more for him to discover, because he has not learned about putting the brightlings balls down the chute yet and he only sometimes by accident will push or pull the brightlings attached to the base, causing them to sing. We will definitely be keeping this toy for the next baby.

My son received this at 8 months old as a Christmas present. I thought it was a bit odd at first and wasn't exactly thrilled to see all the little round parts that go with it but I can't say enough good about it now!

He will play on his own, exploring all the functions of this toy, for up to a half an hour at a time. He loves the music that plays when you pull the tabs & knobs, the words it says when you open/close the green "door" on the side, and putting objects down the chute to get it to sing or count. And the balls are really not a big deal...they are all sort of oblong so they don't roll more than a few inches - brilliant touch!

I hope he continues to get a lot of enjoyment out of this toy...he seems to learn a lot in the way of "cause & effect" from it right now & it has great potential for future learning of words/songs, etc. And, it gives me some time to straighten up the room or fold some laundry or some other task while he's enthralled with playing with this.

I'll definitely get this for any youngsters I need to buy a gift for! It's a great toy!

Our 7 1/2 mo. old got the Brightlings Exploration Station for Christmas and LOVES this toy. Not only does it keep her attention, but it also encourages her to play. She can easily activate the lights and music, cause the platform to spin around, and move the flowers on the back. It is chocked full of activities. From the ribbons she can pull to the balls she can roll, this is the first toy she has spent more than 15 minutes playing with.

I am sooo glad I bought this for my 8 month old for Christmas. The music is very sweet and fun for mom and babe. There are two learning modes, baby and toddler, and the range of sounds and songs this toy makes is amazing! You get your money's worth with this one. There is so much to do on this toy. My only complaint is that it seems like the yellow flower might break off in the near future. She loves to pull on it, and the plastic is turning white. I will contact Leapfrog to see what they have to say about it...

FYI, my little one is very mellow and loves to sit and play with her toys. I am not sure how much my 3 year old boy would have used this one, as he was always on the go as a baby. Something to keep in mind!

I bought this toy based on all of the attention and good reviews it was receiving last Christmas. It was predicted to be one of the hottest toys for toddlers! I knew virtually nothing about it, but I was expecting to be impressed.

Out of the box, the toy looks unique and very interesting. However, upon sampling its capabilities, I'm not quite sure what the point is. Maybe the one we received was defective, but the slider for the ABC's does nothing but sing the ABC song, regardless of which letter it is on. My daughter has gotten a little enjoyment out of the toy--mostly from the strange sounds that the little creatures make. But, overall, it is largely ignored.

This toy simply doesn't seem to do much and offers very few educational benefits. However, it is very durable. My daughter has thrown it from the toy box on several occasions to get to a toy of greater interest, and it still works and looks like new.

I know every child is different so to be fair, I won't say this is a bad toy. I'll just say that this toy held my daughter's interest from the opening of the box until about 5 minutes later and no matter how many times I have tried to engage her with it, she may play with a part of it for a few minutes but always always moves on. This is one of those toys again where for such a big toy (it's not huge but it is reasonably sized), I feel it should do a heck of a lot more than it does and I guess my daughter agrees. There are random 'flowers' etc that exist that have no point but to wobble. Really? The other parts that are educational are okay but it's just really not engaging. I found the singing heads that sing "pa pa pa" or "ba ba ba" strange sounding.

I'm sorry I bought this only since it has never done much for us!