Customer Reviews

Little Tikes WhirlyBounce Rider

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Since his 2nd birthday jumping is my son's favorite pastime, so I thought that this would be an ideal addition to our jump-o-lene. I was thrilled with our purchase as winter is fast approaching in the Midwest and I am always looking for ways for my little guy to burn excess energy indoors. Sure, I read all of the reviews with the complaints and quite frankly, I thought they were a bunch of whiners. Having lived through the experience, I cannot emphasize how long it takes to funnel through sand (especially damp sand) into the little hole. After hours of working the sand through the hole my son spent about 3 minutes on the ride. I think that Little Tikes underestimated the ages for this toy and now we have a huge, heavy paperweight in the middle of our play room. My son is on the 90th percentile for his age for height, but he can barely tough his tip toes to the floor, so any serious bouncing won't be possible for months. Someday he'll love it!

My daughter who is 4,wanted a seasaw for Christmas last year.Since she is an only child I thought that this would be a cool alternative.I was wrong!I can't complain about the time it takes to pour the sand because you only have to do this once,however I do agree w/the other reviews about the age/size.I would guess 40 pound to be approperate.It dosen't swivel very well(because the sand gets in the base) also I have this toy outside and it is very prone to collecting ants!!!Had I read the other reviews I would not have bought this.

It simply doesn't work. The only value it has is in teaching people that it's possible to design something, get it manufactured and sold, even though it is completely useless.

I read the other reviews complaining about the sand and the spring... I'm good with machines and mechanics, heck, I'm a mechanical engineer, so I figured it was just a little challenging and that I'd be able to solve those problems. I did. But beyond that, a kid would have to be three feet tall or more, and weigh no more than 20 lbs to ride it. Heavier than that, and the spring is too weak. The "bouncy" ball part is completely innefective, and the spin feature requires almost enough force to topple the whole thing over. And you only get about 1/4 of a rotation from that.

For a single kid ride, you'd do a whole lot better to buy one of the less expensive teeter totter toys and strap a sandbag to the empty seat- that's what I did, and my kid actually has fun with it now. It even spins more easily than the whirlybounce piece of junk.

Hey ToysRUs and Amazon- Do your customers a favor and take this thing out of your inventory. Really.

My mother purchased this toy for my two-year-old for Christmas, and, just as in the other reviews I've read, we spent hours setting it up only to have my daughter sit on it for about two minutes. My daughter {who is big for her age at 31 pounds) cannot make the thing bounce or whirl. Her feet do not reach the ground when she sits on it. It is now in the middle of our yard collecting dirt {on the ball}-- I'm waiting to see if she will grow into it, but I'm doubtful. At her birthday party a few months ago, I watched some of the older kids playing in the yard, and even the four-year-olds got bored on it fast.

I'm very glad we didn't spend the money on it, but I wish mom had read the reviews before wasting her money on this one.

I purchased this toy after reading POSITIVE reviews on it. Now I see some of the reviews make more sense.

We got this for my Daughter when she was 2 thinking it was a nice addition to her outdoor toys.

She tried it a couple of times and never got on it again. First of all at 2 years old, they cannot reach the ground, let alone propel the thing in a circular motion.

Second of all you are supposed to grease the center so it spins. after a while, that just wears out and prevents it to turn smoothly.

This sat next to our swing set for almost 2 years and we finally took it off the grass to throw it out.

The bees liked it, they built a nest in the little space underneath.

This item was a huge disappointment! Our daughter loves to jump, and I thought this item would bounce and go around smooth and fun. Boy was I wrong. It bounces up once and really will not turn, even with spraying cooking oil on it (suggested). Sand gets all in the turning area.

What a waste of $60.00 and time.

We finally needed the wasted space in the play area, so we wanted to remove this toy with all the sand in the base, but we couldn't get the wet sand to come out. We had to cut into the plastic base in order to remove the sand to throw this item in the trash. I was hoping Toys R Us knew by now what kind of toy this was and would take it off it's shelf.

i bought this at a thrift store for $10 so i didn't waste much on it thank goodness. my daughter only walks in a circle pushing the seat around. she'll bounce on it every once in a while but gets bored with it in about 5 minutes.

a tip on getting the sand through the hole. most play sand is wet or at least damp when you buy it, so put the sand in something or just dump it on the porch in the sun for a day or two till it dries. cut a two liter plastic pop bottle in half and put the opening of the bottle in the hole of the toy then just pour the dried sand in with a cup or little shovel. cuts fill time to just a few headache-free minutes. my toy already had sand in it since i bought used, but i used this method on an umbrella stand i recently bought.
hope this helps

The star ratings above are guesses because we haven't actually used the toy yet. My kids (3, 3, and 16 months) have been eyeing it eagerly, but but I haven't gotten it set up because I am having a horrible time getting 90 lbs. of sand through a one-inch diameter hole. If the sand is the least bit damp, it will not flow through a funnel. I've spent over an hour, and have maybe gotten 10 lbs. in. Unless I get a great idea to deal with this, I am seriously contemplating returning the toy, even though it looks like it would be lots of fun. (I tried filling the base with water, but it wasn't heavy enough.) BTW, I called Little Tikes about this issue. They expressed surprise and said that no one had ever complained about this before. I am very disappointed in the lack of consideration that this design shows.

I felt so bad after I encouraged Grandma to buy this toy for our daughter. It just sits there and never gets used. It just takes up a whole lot of space. And never mind moving it, because the base needs to be filled with sand. About 100 lbs. worth.

I am a huge Little Tikes fan, and we own many of their wonderful products. This was my daughter's "big" Christmas gift when she was 3, and we'd just been told she had sensory integration disorder. Most of her toys that year were physical, movement-type toys to help fill her need for lots of physical stimulation, all the time (a nice alternative to her jumping off the furniture and landing on her bum over and over again).

I think Grandpa must have filled this item with sand for us, because I don't remember having the pleasure of that tedious task. But I DO remember my daughter's delight upon seeing this toy (it looked so promising...just like a piece of playground equipment), and then her bitter disappointment when it didn't actually do anything fun.

This toy is supposed to bounce, move up and down like a teeter-totter, and spin around like a merry-go-round. We couldn't get it to do any of those things. A major disappointment. I was so upset that I emailed Little Tikes and explained the problem, and told them how very disappointed we were with it, and I told them I wanted them to refund my money or replace the item with something else. In fairness to Little Tikes, they did replace the item with another for me, so I do appreciate their customer service in that regard. But truly, I was very surprised in Little Tikes for the extremely poor design of this toy.