Customer Reviews

Vtech - Smartville Alphabet Train Station

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this for my 1 year old son for Christmas. When I opened it up, I thought that he wouldn't enjoy it yet. Boy was I wrong! This is by far his favorite toy. If it's put away, he walks over to it for me to put it out for him. He loves the smaller parts, walking around with them and putting them in his mouth. He quickly figured out how to put the parts into the circular spaces where they belong, so that the toy gives a response. He also likes looking at the display that lights up according to which buttons are pushed.

The one thing I don't like about this toy is that although it conveniently folds up to put it away, my son has figured out where the hinges are and constantly tries folding it up himself, or tiping over the building part. I'm afraid at some point he might end up hurting himself. Also, the tote bag is so great, he wants to play with the empty bag. I keep it hidden when it's empty. I would also appreciate being able to adjust the volume, like with other toys.

For some reason I thought that the train was motorized and would travel around the track but unfortunately, that is not the case. The child needs to push it by hand. While doing this, music will start to play and then some of the ABC buttons on the track will go off arbitrarily. It's rather confusing and not very rewarding. The track is not well designed as the child needs to lean over or sit on the track to reach the buttons. I bought this hoping to reinforce alphabet learning but this toy does not deliver. The only way to hear the letters is to press the buttons on the track but the stickers are not very interesting and so get ignored. It seems the most functional part of the toy is identifying the animals yet the animals are rather abstract looking. This toy is very disappointing and not very educational.

My son received this for his second birthday and can't stop playing with it. He is starting to learn the alphabet and numbers and this has helped. He also loves cars and trains so this has helped him learn in a fun way.

We bought this for our 12-month old who loves the station and characters, but he must sit inside the track to use the toy. I try to position his legs and feet so they don't touch the track, but as he moves around enjoying the toy, he ends up either sitting on, or pressing the track with his legs and feet, setting off a myriad of confusing random noises. For example, when he places the polar bear on the hot spot it should say, "I'm a polar bear" but his foot will hit the v/w/x on the track so he hears, "I'm a polar van beep beep wagon x-ray zap zap!" Even when he is older, I imagine it would be difficult to reach around or across the track to play with the station, as the track occupies a huge parcel of space in front of it. The track needs to be moved to the side away from the front of the station.

Other than that, he LOVES the animal noises and enjoys repeating the sounds that "growl" GRRRrrrr! Another favourite activity of his is sliding the on off button back and forth... this should be moved to the back out of the way, but I am glad it seems to be durable enough to withstand. He enjoys pressing the piano keys and LOVES moving the clock hand all around the clock as a pleasant voice announces the time. Which reminds me of another great feature about this toy... the recorded voice is very pleasant. I had forgotten about the train until I read the other reviews as we cast ours aside from the beginning. It is useless and cheap. Quite surprising because the characters are sturdy, chunky and adorable. The train is the only part of the toy that is not well made, and I feel that as a train station, the train should be at least as nice as the other accessories.

Overall, a good toy, but the position of the track is such a disappointment. I give it 3 stars because of the enjoyment my son gets from playing with the animals, the clock, piano, and the pleasant voice that teaches as he plays.

My 17 month old received this toy as a Christmas gift.
He was eager to play, but unfortunately, the toy is designed so that in order to play with the train station, the toddler must sit on and/or kick the train tracks. The toy's babble resulting from the toddler inadvertently activating the alphabet train track is annoying at best. At worst it prevents the toddler from realizing and enjoying the features he is actually activating.
Another design flaw is in the folding action of the toy. I imagine they were going for better storage ability, but the train station can easily tip forward onto the toddler as he is trying to play. Not much fun.
The animals resemblance to the creatures they are meant to represent may be a little too abstract (our toddler could not recognize any of them and he's an animal nut).
I do not recommend this toy.

My daughter got this for Christmas, right before she turned one year old. At this age, she loves the animal figurines, chews on them (has ruined many of the stickers on some of them already) and carries them around. She also likes the station and the sounds it makes, especially the piano keys. Like many other younger children, she just sits on the train track in front of the station so it keeps talking to her because she is sitting on the buttons for the letters of the alphabet and has no idea what the voice is talking about or why it is talking.

I really wish the train track would disconnect from the station so we could put it away and not have to listen to it until our daughter is old enough to understand that part of it. If it gets really annoying, I might just let her keep the animals out and put the track/station away for a few months.

Since she received this as a gift, it wasn't really my choice and now that we are using it, I almost wish I would have tried to figure out what store it came from and returned it. I'm sure when she is older, it will be more appropriate and we will appreciate having it.

I thought great, a little train toy for my daughter. I was surprised to learn it doesn't move. My daughter is almost 3 and really doesn't have too much interest in it. MY younger daughter 11 months doesn't either. I would say it you buy it, don't spend much money on it.

a small child can't easily put the animals in their slot without simultaneously stepping on the talking letters resulting in noisy mayhem. and one of the animal slots isn't easy to reach even for the little hands. this toy would better split up or side by side or for kids with long arms!

This was given to my son for his first birthday and he loved the little animals. Over time he has started playing with the other features of the toy.

Big design flaw: you cannot turn the track off when playing with the rest of the toy so every time he goes to put an animal on a perch to hear information, if he hits a letter on the track that overrides the other narrative. Unless you have the room to put this in the middle of the floor, which we don't have, there is really no way to play with the clock and the perches without landing on the track and setting off a letter of song.

It is really annoying and is the main reason I only gave three stars.

My son received this a few months ago for his first birthday. He played with it for a very short time and now it sits in the closet unused. He still plays with the little animals that came with it though, but that is all. First, we have hard floors throughout our home and this toy just slides all over the place when he is using it. If he happens to stand on the track (which he often does, since to get to the station part of the toy you practically have to sit or stand on the track...), it slips right out from under him. I always have to make sure it is sitting on a rug while he is paying with it. And like another reviewer mentioned, when he tries to put the anmials on their little stations, he ends up sitting on the track buttons and instead of the toy saying that "I am a tiger" it tells him "quilt" because he happens to hit the Q button on the track. I think this would only be confusing later on when he is beginning to learn his anmials and/or numbers. Also, the track is just too big and takes up a lot of floor space. Luckily, it does fold up for easier storage. Overall, this is not something I would recommend to anyone. I would suggest looking around for another set that is a little better.