Customer Reviews

Melissa & Doug Farm Sound Puzzle

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

My son loves this and enjoys the realistic animal noises. The pictures are attractively and realistically painted. There is a good selection of farm animals.

Drawbacks:
- the sound quality is very poor. It sounds tinny and distorted.
- the sounds are activated by a light sensor, which is covered when the puzzle piece is replaced. Unfortunately, this means they will also sound when the lights are turned off unless the pieces are in place. It has scared the bejeesus out of me when I've turned off the light in his room.

We bought this puzzle for our daughter, who loves farm animals. The sounds are great, and the quality high, but there's one problem. The sensors in each piece's slot that cause the sounds to be made are way too sensitive. We found that turning off the lights (in either the room the puzzle was in, or an adjacent room) would set off one of the sensors, and a "mooo" would inevitably be heard. You have to cover up the entire puzzle (a heavy floor pillow works) to avoid this. I don't know why they didn't make the sensors mechanical - otherwise this is a great puzzle.

My parents had purchased this puzzle at a children's boutique a few hours from home. We discovered once it was open that the sounds did not work. I was disapointed because there was no chance that we would drive back to return it. Instead I called the 1-800 Melissa and Doug number and described the issue to the person on the phone. They were very nice and appologized for the problem. They shipped us a new puzzle at no cost. Great Customer Service!!! The new puzzle works great and my 18 month old loves it. She has learned all the sounds and it really keeps her entertained better than a "regular" puzzle.

We got one of these as a gift, and couldn't get the back panel for the batteries to open. Tried using a small philips screwdriver, a safety pin, etc., and it simply would not open. The lack of sound was disappointing, though our child still liked the pretty puzzle. We got another battery-activated Melissa & Doug toy that was also a failure -- the "Vehicle Sound Block" toy that is supposed to make the sounds of the vehicles when the blocks are lined up correctly. We could get the batteries in, but the toy simply didn't work. No sound, no nothin.' This company seems to do well with plain wood toys, but when they branch out into electronics, the products are fairly shoddy. I plan to avoid their products in the future.

Bought this for our 15 month old son. He loves it! Really enjoys the animal sounds and has learned them quickly...esp. the dog! No trouble with the battery compartment opening or with noise distortion...but the animal sounds are a little interesting! But, BEWARE...am agreeing with a previous review...when you turn out the lights, any open puzzle spot will sound! Might give you a slight scare or might wake up your sleeping child!
Otherwise, a really nice learning toy!

Let me preface this by saying that I generally a big fan of Melissa and Doug toys, particularly in this time of toys of questionable safety, where Melissa and Doug shines as a leader (of safe toys, that is). I also am generally NOT a fan of noisy toys, but this seemed pretty harmless overall, and at least it only makes noise as pure cause and affect, not like many leapfrog and other toys, or so we thought. Like other reviewers, we have found it to go off on it's own because it works by photocell only on the puzzleboard side, rather than having a matching sensor in the puzzle pieces as well like some of their other toys. This is only mildly annoying (and only if the puzzle isn't put away!), and kind of funny. Especially hysterical is when the sun is going down and every couple minutes another one goes off, because each has a slightly different senstivity or angle from the sun. Definitely do not keep this in a child's room! Ultimately, I'd say this toy is a pass, but not very reflective of the overall good quality of the Melissa and Doug line.

We usually love all the Melissa and Doug toys, but these sound puzzles are disappointing. I bought two for Christmas, the farm one and the vehicle one. We couldn't open the back to put in the batteries for the vehicle puzzle (as the other reviewer said), and for this farm one, the sound quality is so bad! The animal sounds aren't even recognizable in some cases. The puzzle itself is fine, but I wouldn't recommend paying extra for the sound.

I love this. This keeps my daughter entertained for awhile. She loves the sounds it makes & has learned to associate the noice with the animal. I highly recommend this puzzule!

We gave this to our granddaughter(who will be 2 years old on September 20th)at her birthday party yesterday and she likes it alot.The screw for the battery compartment is fairly small,but we had no trouble getting it open using a small Phillips head screwdriver.The puzzle itself is thick and looks to be durable,the pictures are well done and the sounds are fairly decent.

At first glance this seems like a pretty neat puzzle. Don't be fooled. This puzzle uses photoelectric sensors to detect the puzzle pieces which seems kind of clever, until the sun goes down. This thing moos and neighs and quacks at all hours of the night. If there are pieces missing, and you turn the lights off (to go to bed, for example) this thing moos, neighs and quacks. Any flash of light (or darkness) sets it off. More than once I've been scared witless by this puzzle. Awful, awful, awful.