Customer Reviews

LeapFrog My Pal Scout

5 star:		(162)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

My year old son got this for his birthday and although he loves it and it is a neat toy, it really could have been technically executed a little better. I am hoping they send out updates via the USB cord to make his speech a little bit smoother and that they enhance the variety of "elevator" music available

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.

I agree with other reviewers, not much to complain about for a customizable toy for under $20.00.

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.

I have a three year old son who just loves this puppy. We programed the puppy and my son lights up every time he hears his name. He even answers the puppy when he talks. Puppy (that is what my son calls him) will ask Brenden if he wants to play and my son says "yes", when puppy says Hi Brenden my son will say "hi". Just love it, puppy goes every where with him. Since my son has a not very popular name, this toy is awesome in saying his name. Even though the toy is rated for age 6 months to 36 months, my son is almmost 39 months old and loves this toy. Great Price too!

The usb cord is short but not a problem with plugging into the laptop. Since it is only used to program the puppy, it's not a big problem.

I would like to hear more songs with words rather then just a beat. The do spell out the child's name in a song and would be better if they repeated the name at the end of it, but my son still loves it. The puppy says snuggle a lot and would be better if the puppy would say hug instead. My three year old didn't fully understand the snuggling part, but he is catching on quickly.

I am going to buy a few more for my younger nephews, since it is such a big hit with my son and both of my nephews have uncommon names too! So this will be a great christmas gift. LeapFrog My Pal Scout

This review is for; LeapFrog My Pal Scout

I bought Scout for my young son with the interesting fact that it can be customized with my son's name via an internet-accessed computer. I was satisfied that my son's name was included in the very large selection of names available (some with alternate pronunciations) from the software downloaded in the Leap Frog website. Nicknames can also be chosen if you prefer. From the downloaded-software you must also select your child's favorite food, animal & color. Favorite selections that are incorporated later in Scout's conversational dialogue & songs sung.

Scout has three primary functions on each of his three paws and the fourth paw has a power-off function (colored red) although Scout powers off on his own on sleep mode during inactivity. All dialogue is pre-recorded from a young boy's voice & his collar lights up intermittingly.

The fun paw with the balloons is a series of dialogue interaction with your child such as guessing games or simple dialogue like "Hi Darren" (my son's name), "Do you want to play Darren?" or "I love you Darren".

The paw with the green musical notes are daytime, fun songs. If Scout is personalized with your child's name, some of the songs will incorporate your child's name. Some of the songs have lyrics and some are only instrumental. I personally like the songs with lyrics and I wish there were more of them. From the downloaded software you have up to 30 songs to choose from, but you can only add 5 at a time and all of the songs you download are instrumental (no lyrics).

The paw with the blue night-time symbol are collection of night time songs. Like the other musical paw you can download up to 30 songs to choose from, but you can only download 5 at a time. Like the daytime songs, all the night-time songs you download are instrumental (no lyrics). Press the night-time paw once & you get two minutes of music. Press it twice and the music lasts five minutes long. Press it three times and the music lasts ten minutes long. Nice!

Overall, Scout has a very, soft, outer body for the child to carry or hug. If you don't have access to a computer, Scout is still enjoyable with the already programmed phrases & songs already included, but far more potential is reached if you can personalize it with an internet-accessed computer. The included USB cable is very short as many others have complained about, but was long enough for my laptop. I have longer USB cables from other electronic devices I have around the house that will also work with this toy in case I need longer ones.

My only concern is what is going to happen when my young son ever figures out how to open the Velcro-back that conceals the plastic box housing the electronics and where your install the three AA batteries via screws? I'll just worry about that later, but for now it is a real pleasure for him to enjoy! I highly recommend this one, especially for the very, low price!

PRODUCT RECALL FOR EARLIER MODELS!!! Around May & June of 2009 a limited number of Scout toys were sold with printed decals on the paws instead of embroided symbols. The decals were later discovered to be removable and presented a choking hazard to young children, so if you have purchased either Leapfrog's Scout or Violet (the purple version featuring a young girl's voice) with the decals on the paws, please return it to the store you bought it from or it can be exchanged directly with Leap Frog for the corrected, embroided paws. I posted pictures of the paws above.

My son had the Leapfrog phone with Scout's voice and loved it, so we got him this Scout for his first birthday. The description here on Amazon does point out that you are to customize Scout with your kid's name from a database of "thousands," but my kid's name wasn't in there, nor is his much more common nickname (and there are some unique names in there). I wish there had been a way to check the list without buying the toy. The customizing software recommends that you choose a name similar in sound to your kid's, but that's not a great option because Scout spells the name in one of his songs. Luckily there are some generic nicknames available, so Scout calls my kid "buddy." Notwithstanding, my son really loves Scout. He's soft, huggable, and portable. My son likes playing around with the different music and speech options, clicking Scout's paws repeatedly to get to his favorites (great lesson in cause-and-effect!). And now my kid can spell the word "buddy," so that's a plus.

Pros:
1. My 3 month old is drawn to the flashing light on the dog collar that flashes as Scout speaks or sings.
2. The voice is easy on the ears
3. Easy to haul around, great entertainment in the car!

Cons:
1. Very few songs to select from online
2. Only the leapfrog created songs have lyrics. All other songs just contain the melody. Melodies include twinkle twinkle little star, ABC, Muffin Man

First off, this is a great toy. I have one and everyone else I personally know who has one loves it. It quickly becomes a baby/toddler's favorite toy.

For those negative reviews complaining about the inability to customize it, I'd say it's more due to user error than the toy. There is a plastic tab that clearly says you must remove it in order for customizations to be enabled. Then you have to make sure it's turned ON and properly connected at BOTH ENDS of the USB cable. Also remember that you must have downloaded the correct software version (MAC or PC - yes it IS compatible with both), registered an account and logged in. If you don't do all of these, you won't be able to personalize Scout, so don't blame the dog and give him one star. It's not his fault!

The USB cable that is provided is very short, but that's probably so it can be stored inside Scout's velcro pouch in his back when not in use. I would advise against that with an infant, though, because of the risk of them being able to pull him open and chew on the cable and potentially choke on it...not very likely as the velcro is pretty good, but it's a possibility to consider and a risk not worth taking. If you find the cable is too short to conveniently connect while programming Scout, you can use ANY mini-USB to USB cable - you're not stuck using the one that says "leapfrog.com" on it. For example, my TomTom USB connector works just fine with Scout.

Some reviewers complain that Scout is loud and can't be adjusted. There is a VOLUME SWITCH in his back! USE IT! Some complain there is no way to turn him off. He goes into a sleep mode by himself after a while. If that's not good enough, there is an OFF SWITCH in his back. USE IT!

All in all, Scout is a great toy. Once he's programmed, he can play learning games, talk about favorite foods, play music, and address your child by name (which they love).

Don't believe the negative reviews about Scout not working or not being able to be customized. The instructions couldn't be any easier than they are on the box. REMOVE THE DEMO TAB! Make sure you've downloaded the correct software appropriate for your computer, PLUG HIM IN, register your account, login, and you can then program him with your child's information (name, birthday, favorite stuff, choose music for him, program the duration of sleep music, etc.). We're happy with Scout and you will be too as long as you follow the instructions. It's not hard.

We actually have the Violet toy, but want others that buy this product to have a fix if they run into the same issues with their Scout that we ran into with our Violet. Great toy, but we had issues with setup. Violet would not register as being connected to my computer so I could not run the setup to program my daughter's name and favorite things. I randomly tried another USB cable and it worked PERFECTLY. If your toy does not connect at first, try another cable. I used the one from my digital camera. It is not ideal that part of the toy did not work, but ... for a $15 toy I can't complain when it is such an easy fix!

We started to have our son sleep with Scout as soon as he was old enough to safely sleep with stuffed animals.
He has grown so attached that he'll walk all around the house until he finds Scout before he'll go to bed.
When we put our son's name, favorite colors, animals, foods, etc... into the interactive Scout webpage, it all downloaded into Scout via the USB Cable it came with...
Along with a bunch of sing-along songs & lullabies of our choosing.
Yes, the songs sound like they came from an early 80's keyboard, BUT they're perfect for a child. Scout interacts with our son, too.
The little pads on each one of Scout's paws trigger different things, one is on/off, one is lullabies, one is songs for the day, one is interaction with your kid.
It's such a cute toy! Our son is getting older, and eventually the toy will be outgrown, but I'm keeping this one.
He's gonna remember this thing forever. And it's SUPER durable, it's pretty much in the same shape we got it almost 2 years ago. We almost replaced it once after it ended up underwater, but it even survived that... the sound just got a little quieter. The routine is always us putting our son to bed with his bottle and him dozing off to the 10 minutes of bedtime music Scout plays for him. Our son just flicks Scout's ears and hugs him until he's asleep.
Definitely "THE" toy he's going to remember from his childhood. I'm probably gonna end up all teary eyed when I hear the lullabies a decade from now... but I'm sure Scout will still be working. For the price, you're silly not to get Scout or Violet for your kid. I've since purchased a 2nd one, programmed it, and left it in the box to give to my son YEARS from now as a nostalgic gift in case the current one goes underwater again.

The only toy we've encountered that I'll MAKE the time to review online. Just hope to share this joyful little toy with other parents out there! No-Brainer, buy this! :)

My little boy just received My Pal Scout for his first birthday. He carries it all over the place and snuggles with it. He hasn't quite figured out how to push the paws to make Scout talk or sing, yet, so I help him with that, but his eyes LIGHT UP and he giggles when he hears his name. He is all smiles every time Scout talks or sings.

I was rather shocked at some of the scathing reviews about this toy. Programming Scout only took about 5 minutes and I had no issues during the programming process. I also had no issue plugging in the little USB cord to the back of Scout and I did not need any extra tool to hold open the door. I do not find the toy repetitive at all, there is enough of a variation of things Scout says and sings. You don't hear the same thing over and over and over like some reviews lead you to believe. The toy is designed to be interactive at a small child's learning level, not an adult's learning level.

The only reason I docked a star from the 5 star rating is because I wish that there was more of a variety of songs to choose from during the downloading process, particularly recognizable songs. A lot of them were just random music that sound like they were just made up for the toy. Plus, you can only choose up to 5 regular songs and 5 nighttime songs at a time to download to Scout. I also don't like that most of the songs are just music rather than songs with lyrics. To be more educational, I think there should be more singing of actual lyrics, or possibly some counting games. But all in all, we love this toy and it's almost perfect for the learning level of a small child.