Playskool Busy Gears
by Hasbro
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List Price: Our Price: $16.40 You Save: $3.59 (18%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $9.95 (click here) Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of Playskool Busy Gears
Customer Review: Safe, but doesn't keep my 16 month old engaged
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm not super impressed with this toy. It's nice because it's like a puzzle that comes to life after you put it together and the child can't really put pieces in the wrong place. You can also use it to teach colors and the gears do not hurt their little fingers.
There's a button you press at the bottom which makes the toy first light up and play a song, THEN the gears will turn. The problem for MY daughter is that she doesn't care about the song, she wants to see the gears turn. The song only takes about 10 seconds, but it's enough time for her to press the button again and again to try to get the gears to start (which only makes the song repeat, so it takes longer). She understands how it works, but she just wants to make the gears keep turning and isn't interested in waiting for the song to end each time. She usually leaves it for dead pretty quickly except for sometimes pushing the gears around in her stroller or carrying them in her purse.
Speaking of which, it's a pain to keep all those gears in one place! When she wants to play with it we have to track down all the gears that are usually strewn about the playroom and stuffed into other toys. If you are familiar with this age group, you know that ONE missing gear can cause some unnecessary anxiety. Not to mention that when they are laying upside down they hurt when you step on them.
I would skip it.
Customer Review: Easy to lose parts, quick to get boring
Summary: 2 Stars
I thought that this toy would be a lot more configurable than it is. The gears do not snap on in any way - they just sit on the spools. As soon as you try to use the handle and pick up the gears, they all come falling off.
They description says that the gears can be stacked for extra playtime fun, but once again, they do not snap together and end up just being to unsteady to stack very high. You're much better off using the blocks you probably already have (don't we all have floors covered with blocks of some type?) to stack. Since the gears do not snap on, the toy must also be stored flat or the gears fall off and are lost forever - not very travel friendly. It would be a little more forgivable if there was a removable cover or case or something. As it is, I keep it up on a shelf so my dear son doesn't get to play with it very much because of the hassle involved. I ranked it low on durability because of the easily lost parts factor. Once you lose the gears, the toy is not of much use.
With this toy, you can basically put the plastic gears on and take them off. It plays some cute music (the only thing I like about the toy with a rainforesty/jungle type sound), the gears spin, and it stops. My little boy just quickly stripped the gears off, threw them all over the place, and that was the end of that.
Customer Review: A definite must have!!!!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
My son received this toy for his first birthday! I will be purchasing it as gifts for all my friends!! He LOVES pushing the button and listening the the music. I was wondering if he would be able to figure out the gears, but he has caught on very quickly and loves to take the gears off and put them back on. He also enjoys stacking the gears up and watching them go around! I like that it has a handle so he can carry it around with him. It keeps him involved for up to 20 minutes at a time!
It is very durable as he carries it around, has chewed on the gears (which are made of strong plastic and cannot be marred by chewing on them).
My three year old also likes to play with it! Her play is a little sofisticated with it as she tries to figure out which gears have to be put where (as in, do they have to be next to the middle spinning one) placed to make them spin and how many can be stacked and they still turn.
My one wish is that Playskool would include a few extra gears. We have them everyhwere in our house and cannot always find them all. It would be great if they had a place where you could purchase extra ones for replacements and/or to have extras for stacking.
This is an awesome toy that the kids love, can learn from, and is very durable! It is a must have!!
Customer Review: Fun for Learning Colors and Sorting
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great toddler toy. Other than the obvious play methods, my son also likes to match the colored gears to the color on the top of the post. It makes a good matching/sorting game and gives us a chance to talk a lot about colors.
The gears turn automatically when the child presses the Playskool button at the bottom. Lights and music play while the gears turn adding to the excitement. The gears are very gentle. I made sure I could stick my fingers in the turning gears without injuring myself or the toy before letting my son play. The gears slow or stop anytime little fingers get in the way.
I'm a mom who doesn't mind toys with "pieces". There are 11 gears to possibly misplace, but I don't try to store the pieces and the board together. The main board goes in the toy box. The pieces go in a bin with other toy "pieces" like piggy bank coins. When my son pulls out the board to play, he then digs out the pieces. It creates another layer of sorting and learning, and I don't go crazy trying to store oddly shaped toys with removeable parts.
Unfortunately you aren't able to turn the gears by hand. You have to push the button and let the toy turn the gears for you.
Customer Review: Not quite what I expected...only entertains for a short time.
Summary: 3 Stars
I have a 10 month old and a just turned two year old. They both like this toy although neither will play with it for more than 5 minutes or so at a time. It's too easy for my two year old. Although the gears can be moved around, they really only work in one arrangement. It isn't as though you can create different patterns. The gears simply go on or off the pegs one way and for the most part they all move together (or not). Which is pretty obvious now, but I didn't look that closely at the toy before I bought it so I thought more could be done with it. However, we did increase the entertainment value for my two year old by encouraging him to sit Duplo people on the central gear and give them "rides" which he finds entertaining. The toy has some value for my 10 month old. It improves fine motor skills because removing and replacing the gears is still challenging for her and pushing buttons to make something work is still fun for her too. But she only finds the toy entertaining for a short time as well.
Bottom line: Probably not worth it. Your money (and space on the toy shelf) would be better spent on another toy.