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Product DetailsColor: Scout | Design: Retail
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Product Description
Amazon.com
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 An ideal companion for a young child, My Pal Scott sings, talks, and can even learn your child's name. View larger. |
 Using the doll's USB port, you can personalize Scott to suit your child's preferences. View larger. |
Soft Material with Bright Colors and Pleasing Voice
My Pal Scout, with its plush fabric and colorful puppy design, is appealing to children. The voice of Scout, a playful and upbeat young boy's, is fun and engaging for growing minds. Infants are also attracted to the name tag that lights up when Scout speaks or plays music. The name tag is made of durable plastic, and the new model features paws with embroidered symbols instead of decals so there are no removable pieces on the toy's exterior.
Your child can chew on this sturdy toy's ears or toss it around. My Pal Scout is light enough for even the youngest child to hold and carry. The handy Velcro closure keeps the battery compartment, USB port, and power/volume switch securely inside the toy. The switch has three settings: normal volume, quiet volume, and master off. In the "master off" mode, Scout will not operate when the paws are pressed, so only parents will be able to turn the toy back on. My Pal Scout's speakers are also inside the toy and provide balanced sound.
Advice for parents: when My Pal Scout starts to sound distorted, parents will need a screwdriver to open the battery compartment and change the 3 "AAA" batteries.
Music, Words, and Lullabies
Each paw on My Pal Scout is embroidered with a different symbol that, when pressed, turns on a special feature. The right arm paw with a ball symbol provides snappy sentences designed to help your child learn different emotions, colors, and words. The left arm paw features music notes; when pressed you hear a 15-second, upbeat song. The songs rotate randomly and include seven vocal songs to teach skills and three fun instrumental tunes.
Younger infants will be attracted to the melodies, while older toddlers can sing along. The right foot has a stars/moon symbol for five different selections of soothing music for naps or bedtime. Press it once for two minutes of music, or press it twice for five minutes of songs. If your child wants a little extra time with My Pal Scout before falling asleep, you can press the paw three times to hear ten minutes of music.
Parents can use the songs that come pre-loaded on My Pal Scout or change the songs by connecting to the LeapFrog Connect application. It's easy to turn off My Pal Scout by simply pressing the left foot's on/off switch; push any of the other paws to resume play mode.
Personalize for Your Child
A special feature of My Pal Scout is the ability to customize your child's experience. The instruction booklet will guide you through the easy process to connect My Pal Scout to a computer with the USB cord and download the LeapFrog Connect application. All it takes is 25 megabytes of free space on your computer and about 15 minutes to personalize the toy with your child's preferences. You'll be able to search for your child's name among a database of thousands. When selected, My Pal Scout will use your child's name in phrases such as "I love you" and incorporate his/her name into songs.
The application also allows you to choose your child's favorite color, animal, and food to personalize Scout's phrases to your child's favorite things. There's a resource section for printing activity sheets that your toddler will enjoy. Also, you can switch up the songs and lullabies so they're constantly fresh and different. The database is updated regularly with new songs.
The only drawback: if your child has a very uncommon name, there's a slim chance that it will not be in the LeapFrog database. However, you can choose one of many nicknames that you may call your child, such as "Munchkin" or "Peanut."
What's in the Box
One My Pal Scout toy, three "AAA" batteries, one USB cable, Quick Connect Guide and Parent Instructions booklet.
Product Description
*Internet connection required to personalize Scout with your child's name and favorite items or to change songs.
Learning Skills:
- First words
- Daily routines
- Early number sense
- Feelings and emotions
- Animals
Customer Reviews
The USB cable that comes with Scout is incredibly short and I would recommend a second mini USB cable if you do not already have one for another computer peripheral. The customization process was straight forward and we had him done quickly. My only complaint is that you have to create a user account and the Internet is required but that's a minor compliant since Scout ships able to be interactive without being customized. Additionally, Scout has volume control on his battery box and is not obnoxiously loud even on his highest volume
Scout is very, very soft and even with the battery box in his trunk, the puppy's body is soft and cuddly. My son spends a lot of his play time with Scout hugging him and petting him.
Scout has three main features - Play games, Sing Songs, and Night Songs (the fourth paw is on and off):
- The Play Games paw just chatters with your child. Asking him what his favorite color, animal and food is - Scout and Baby have the same ones after you program them. Scout also makes animal noises, talks about feelings "I feel happy, show me your biggest smile!" and engages your child in direct dialog.
- The songs Scout sings are cute and the choices you make when customizing show up in the songs he sings. Poor technical integration is shown when any of the customized items appear in the songs - Scout sounds like he has a speech problem because the tamper and inflection of the customized objects does not match the song being sung. Also, the only music you can customize in this section is elevator music. I would like to see songs with words, more known children's songs (very surprised not to see "Baby Beluga") or the ability to add your own music to Scout.
- The Night Songs paw is pretty cool. You click it once and it does 2 mins of the "night" music you choose when customizing continuously. Press it again, you get 5; once more and you get 10. Although our guy doesn't have problems sleeping, it might be a nice touch if your little one has some problems sleeping or being alone in the quiet.
All in all, our only real concern is that Scout might be the first toy he has worthy of being "that" toy he can't live without! We have a competitors talking puppy that drives us up the wall ("TUMMY!").
If you are looking for a chatty puppy - Get Scout or Violet.
PROS:
1) One of the songs Scout sings is really super cute. It's the one that incorporates your child's favorites. When I sing along with Scout my son giggles, it's so darn adorable.
2) I have a glowworm that plays nighttime music for like 15 seconds, not long enough. Scout plays up to 10 minutes - GREAT FEATURE!
3) Scout is very soft and huggable.
4) When my son recognizes his name I'm sure he'll appreciate it more, but for now, it's just, well, cool to hear his name come from a toy. Gotta love technology.
CONS:
1) You have to choose a favorite animal, color and food during set up. He's six months old - I don't think he has favorites at this point, and if he did, how am I supposed to know what they are?....so I just put in any old thing for now. When I want to change them, I have to plug Scout in and download new options. It should just have all the colors and foods and animals programmed in instead of "What's your favorite?".
2) There is a pretty bad inflection at the end of my son's name (Christian). I have not tried putting other names in there to see what they sound like, but his sounds a little weird.
3) "Let's sing a song about you". Hmm, well, all it does is spell his name with a funky beat behind it. He seems to like it though.
Overall my son seems to like Scout a lot. When he hears his voice he immediately looks for him and smiles when he finds him. The things I don't like about it really don't matter because the toy is not for me, it's for my son and he likes it just fine. For the price, a definite buy.
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