Customer Reviews

Learning Resources Pretend and Play Count and Click Camera

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

 

 

As a reward for a milestone accomplishment, my daughter requested a toy camera. To make good on my promise, I began searching for a good camera to buy. Believe it or not, this is a far more difficult task than it sounds! Most I found were actual real 35mm film cameras. Others were digital and quite expensive and fragile for a 3 year old. We found a Little Tykes one at a local TRU that was in the shape of a monkey face. It had pictures of animals in the view finder that changed every time you pushed the button and made noises an comments based on what kind of animal was shown. It even winked each time you pressed the button.

It seemed kind of cool, but when I showed it to my daughter, she'd have nothing to do with it. "It's not a camera, it's a monkey, mommy!" she also didn't like the fact that it made sounds.

Bottom line is, she wanted a toy that looked more or less like the real thing and didn't do the pretending for her, and this was the one that fit the bill. It requires no batteries, and it actually looks like a camera, not some cutsie rendition of a camera. The fact that it actually spits out Polaroid-like pictures is a bonus for my daughter, since she had plenty of fun playing with just the camera. As with any toy, there are some plusses and minuses, and I'll attempt to list them here:

Plusses:

1) The most "realistic" toy camera I've found

2) Does not need batteries

3) No annoying noises! Hooray!

4) Pictures are laminated inserts in a plastic frame. These pictures can be turned over and drawn on with crayons (and subsequently wiped off), or simply replaced with family photos.

5) Extremely durable. This toy was dropped several times and even fallen on by a husky friend, and doesn't look worse for the wear.

6) Has a strap so the camera can be worn around the neck (my daughter liked this feature).

Minuses:

1) Button to eject the pictures is a little hard to push for little fingers at first. My daughter and her friend eventually got it, but only after an hour or so of fiddling and playing with it. Putting in three or four pictures at a time instead of the maximum five seems to make the button a little easier to push. (probably the main reason I didn't give this toy five stars)

2) There is a slight learning curve to load the pictures into the camera. My daughter and her friend eventually got it, but they still needed a little help from time to time.

3) The strap that goes around the child's neck has a safety break on it. This is a good safety feature, but the problem with it is that it breaks if the child starts jumping around. This isn't a big problem, since all you need to do is snap the bead back together.

So there it is. This is a good toy for a child with an active imagination and wants things just like mommy's or daddy's, but not so good for one who expects a lot of bells and whistles. Hope this helps!

Cute idea but does not work. Camera jams every time you load the pictures. You need an adult to do it and even then it jams. My three-year-old was very disappointed that she could not get it to work.

This camera is very sturdy and my 3 yr old loves it. It comes with 10 polaroid pictures ( 5 are in the camera). The camera can only hold five at a time. That is how many I allow my child to play with when he wants to put them back in the camera...which is all the time. He loves it, however, I could not give excellent marks because the button you push to take the picture is too difficult for him to press down. This is frustrating to him, and me because I then have to do it for him. Good concept... just needs a little tweaking.

The pictures get jammed in the camera and are very hard to remove. One picture got stuck in there and so this toy was broken after about 2 days of play.

Given as a gift for our 4 yr. old's birthday. Believe the giver was as disappointed with the gift as we were. No instructions, save for the outside of the box. It does say 6 pictures can fit into the camera, but not possible. Easily jams, as the pictures have only one way of sliding into the camera and it's not easy for him to get them out of the camera. We thought there might be a way of viewing the pictures inside the camera, but there isn't. He hasn't played with the item since his birthday, which was several weeks ago. Would not recommend this item even on sale.

We bought this for our daughter at Christmas and she was about 2 1/2 then. It was a little tough for her to use the button but we thought as she got older it would get easier. She's now nearly 3 1/2 and even though she is stronger and can insert the photos herself, the button is almost impossible to push down (even for an adult). Other people's tips to only put a couple of photos in at a time does help but if your child puts more than that in, it will likely jam - making it a frustrating toy. The pictures on the "slides" are nice and would help teach counting. Also nice because you could replace with your own photos. But overall, the mechanism for the camera to "produce" photos gets worse over time, not better. So I wouldn't recommend buying this camera unless they fix the problem.

This camera is fun and educational. HOWEVER, the pictures are difficult for a child to load into the camera without adult help, and as another reviewer said, the pictures get jammed easily. Also, only 5 pictures fit into the camera, not 6 as stated on the instructions.

We bought this toy for my daughters 2 year birthday and she loves it. She loves when her picture is taken and insists on "reviewing" the shot so I thought she would love this toy, and she does.
The good points are you can put your own picture inside the picture frames that pop in and out of the camera.
Its a tough toy so dropping it isn't a problem.
Bad point: it didn't come with directions, and its jammed twice.
but, if you can get it on sale, its a great toy!