Customer Reviews

Little Tikes Jungle Jamboree Tiger Piano and Xylophone

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

After taking my 8 month old to a friends house where he loved their kids xylophone and especially the full sized piano we got this toy for our son.

Yes the strings are short and a little one doesn't know how to hold the mallet handles on their own, but I can position the mallets in his hands properly and he does just fine. They are just long enough to be able to strike all the surface of each bar with the end just fine.

It is very sturdy. My 8mo old likes to bang on it pretty hard and so far we've had no problems with it coming apart.

My big gripe with it, though, is that two of the bars are clearly out of tune (the 3rd and 8th from the lowest pitch). It looks like they just cut the bars using an evenly increasing size rather than properly sizing them to match a major diatonic scale. I know this probably isn't a big deal, but I'm really sensitive to things being in tune, and besides do you want your developing kid to get used to a musical scale that's out of tune?

When I look for a toy for my son (now 16 months), I really research and try to get one that will last a long time and provide lots of fun and learning. Well, this looked great - a piano keyboard and a xylophone in one! My parents had passed on the ancient xylophone that I had used growing up but it was practically in pieces so I thought I'd replace it.

First of all, the strings are not long enough on the mallets/sticks for a toddler to grab and use! I can barely reach the furthest key when I hold it for maximum length myself. I'm sure they did this to prevent a strangling hazard, but it's unusable! Moreover, they should have made the ends of the "sticks" much wider so they'd be easier to hit and make a sound. So even if I cut the strings it would be hard to use the "sticks" provided.

The piano part is also funny. You have the hit the keys just right, very gingerly, to get it to make a sound. Not the way my son would hit them. My son NEVER plays with this toy, and frankly I don't think has played with it a single time since we bought it! Even with my encouragement! What a waste of money!

First of all, and this applies to all reviews of toys for young children, there is no way to know what's going to appeal to any particular child. I have purchased many toys that I thought would be great and that my kids would love only to see them lose interest after a day or two. On the flip side, I've seen them play for months and months with things I thought were useless. A toy that one kid absolutely loves might be boring as sin to another. So, the fact that your child doesn't like a toy doesn't necessarily mean that it's a BAD toy.

But I digress. My daughter happens to think this toy is great. Yes, the strings that connect the mallets to the xylophone are frustratingly short, but that problem was quickly remedied with a pair of scissors. My daughter, now 19 months old, bangs on the piano and pounds on the xylophone and just generally has a ball. On occasion, she even favors us with a "song". It's a loud toy, which doesn't thrill me, but she thinks it's great, so it was a worthwhile purchase for our family. It's age-appropriate, brightly-colored and sturdy; I'd highly recommend it.

We just purchased this for our one-year-old. She loves banging on the piano keys to hear the noise it makes. She doesn't know how to use the xylophone yet, but that makes the toy even better. As she gets older she will learn how to use it. This is a great choice. Even mommy and daddy will have fun playing with it.

We bought the tiger xylophone for our son when he was 10 months old and showing a high interest in music. He played with the piano part at 10 mos; now at nearly 1 1/2 years he plays the keys and uses the sticks to hit the xylophone itself.

He plays with this toy all the time -- it easily occupies him for 15 - 20 minutes at a time when he plays with it, and I always know what he's doing because I can hear the music. He seems fascinated that when an older person sits to play with it, the toy creates real music and songs he knows.

When we first bought the toy I thought the strings on the mallets were a little short to use with the xylophone, but they're shaped like drumsticks, which he sees all the time around the house, and he has no problem using them.

While selecting the toy at the store I found one that did have a broken key, but as rambunctious as my toddler is everything still works just fine.

We bought the caterpillar version and while the piano part is cute, the xylophone the very, very frustrating for my 3 and 1 1/2 year olds. I realize the strings are short to prevent them from getting wrapped around their necks, but these are so short that even if I hold the mallet perfectly, I can barely reach the end bars. For a toddler, who doesn't always hold the mallet the correct way, this toy is very frustrating.

Even if you hold it just right to reach the furthest note, the head of the mallet is so huge that it hits the sides of the instrument and the note sounds dull and not pretty at all.

This toy causes more frustration than pleasure.

My Son Loved It, the only suggestion is the strings attached to the drum Sticks are too short, besides that it's a great toy.

I bought this for my daughter about a month ago. She is a year old and has managed to rip off one of the mallets and break one of the keys to the piano part. She isn't really rough, this toy just isn't made for consistent play. She does love to play with it and still plays with it often. I just don't think that this toy will survive till xmas.

We bought this toy for my 19 month old son for Christmas and he loves it. I agree that the strings are a little short but I guess that's how life goes. He doesn't have any problems with the keys...toys are so individual as far as kids go. Some kids will love it and some kids won't look at it twice. He hasn't broken it yet and it seems pretty tough, so I guess we'll cross our fingers. I think that it was totally worth it.

I bought this toy (the caterpillar version) for my daughter when she was about 5 months old, and she went to it like a magnet. She's a pretty musically inclined baby, so maybe that had something to do with it, but I'm pretty sure all children love banging on things and listening to the noise it makes.

She is a year old now, and since her initial encounter, she still plays with it regularly and even pounds out little "baby melodies" on the xylophone. It's a little off-key, but she doesn't seem to mind. :) Great toy for learning music, colors and math.