Uncle Milton Moon In My Room
by Uncle Milton
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List Price: Our Price: $17.49 You Save: $12.50 (42%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $15.25 (click here) Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of Uncle Milton Moon In My Room
Customer Review: OK at the right price, but not built to last.
Summary: 3 Stars
I've given my grandkids several of these lighted "sky toys"--the stars, the rainbow, and most recently this moon--but I'd never been around long enough to see the effects of the gift--on parents or child--until this Christmas.
The construction, frankly, is a bit shabby--2 screws, one for the moon and one for the remote, and each requiring the right-sized Phillips to open and close the battery compartment on each piece. The remote takes 2 AAA alkalines, while the moon itself requires 4 AA batteries. After nearly stripping the head of the moon screw, I had difficulty tightening the compartment door--not a good sign if replacing the batteries with any sort of frequency is required (other reviewers have suggested that the toys consume batteries in short order).
My hunch is that most kids will not be diverted long enough by the light to require frequent battery replacement (if they are, I'd be happy to oblige--batteries are quite cheap since Walgreen's and the other big chains tend to use them as "loss leaders," attracting customers with 2-for-one specials practically every week). But the flimsiness of the compartment door could then indeed lead to breakage and the stoppage of all further moon-glow.
If you have a patient child genuinely interested in heavenly bodies, there's an accompanying CD explaining the 12 phases of the moon (again, how many kids will follow the astronomical stuff this closely? Instead, try playing "Moonglow" or one of dozens of romantic, evocative "moon songs" while observing the orb go through its paces.)
Once you've hung the moon on the child's wall, it's the remote's big button for manual control of the lighting (from dark to waxing light to full moon to waning light to dark) or the small button (easily recommended over the big one) for automatic phase-shifting (the moon cycles through all 12 phases every 60 seconds and shuts down completely after 30 minutes).
The toy could see use by adults seeking an object to meditate upon while waiting to fall asleep. (I'd give it another star were the construction not quite so flimsy or questionable from a longevity standpoint).
Customer Review: Awesome Product!
Summary: 5 Stars
PLAIN AND SIMPLE
Ok lets leave my personal opinion out of this for a minute and just base this on facts. This moon performs as stated. It is textured and wit the craters and looks realistic enough (close enough for my 14yr old and under children, lets be honest how REAL do you really expect it to be!). No where on the box does it call it a TOY moon. Anybody can look at it and read the decription you would know your not going to just place this in your childs hands to 'play' with. Also YES in some settings it goes through some batteries faster, SO either only use it occasionally or buy rechargables if that bothers you. Which is more environmentally sound anyways, to the people that say this is a disposable product based on that one fact. ALSO YES the remtote is small and will be easily lost hence the fact this products age limit is 6 and up. If you think the remote will get lost by your child/ren YOU the adult should stay in possession of it. OR you can do what we have done with both of ours and get little strips of velcro and that takes care of that.
Now for my opinion. I LOVE this product we have one in the boys room 4 & 8, its been there for about 2 years and NO PROBLEMS. Yes we use it almost every night and take it down just to recharge the batteries, which takes just a few hours during the day, for a few months worth of use. We just recently saw this same exact product on clearance at Target ($12.98) and immediatly grabbed it for my daughters room 7 & 14. They used to beg to sleep in the boys room just to see the moon. They would 'camp out' in there and have had some great times together. So now the girls are happy evey night but they still ask to have 'camp outs' to have that special time with their brothers and I think thats awesome.
If you use this just as a night light or to facilitate your childrens natural curiosity and creativity, either way its a 5 star product. If I ever see these again at such a great price I will be buying more for when my kids move into their own rooms or as gifts, but it such a great product with realistically a decent price I would pay $20 if I had to.
Customer Review: Another Good Idea Wasted Due to Poor Design and Greed
Summary: 2 Stars
I don't know about the rest of you, but I have had it with companies that waste a good idea in the effort to get our money and run, only to leave us with what amounts to a disposable product - a plastic one, no less. Our landfills don't need it, and our wallets don't either. Worse, perhaps, is the waste of a perfectly wonderful idea. There is no excuse for this item not being designed to function better and longer. The same can be said for most of the other "space" products out there, like star and constellation projectors and nightlights, all of which rate poorly and are over-priced.
The Moon in My Room is actually quite nice when put up on the wall and lit. Sure, it's a cheap plastic shell with an annoying battery case (screw-top, which doesn't seem like a big deal, except that if you actually use this thing, you'll quickly get sick of unscrewing that battery compartment to replace the batteries every few days). When lit up in a dark room, the light it casts emulates actual moonlight beautifully, and it looks fairly realistic.
The problem, as others have pointed out, is the extremely short battery life. I started with regular ones, and those were drained within a couple weeks, so I switched to rechargeables, and those die within days. And this from only lighting the thing for maybe 45 minutes a day! There is nothing relaxing or enjoyable about a product that, when you have it on, makes you feel pressured to turn it off. I even tried conserving by only lighting it in crescent mode, thinking that using fewer lights would help, but no. I have a clock that will run on one C battery for 3 years. Sure, the Moon lights up and all, but seriously, why isn't it more efficient? It's not like it's powering lasers or incandescents.
I've read this thing has even broken pretty quickly for many people. Mine didn't break. I simply got sick of taking it down off the wall to replace the batteries, so now it sits packed in a box. What a waste.
Customer Review: BUYER BEWARE!
Summary: 1 Stars
I am incredibly disappointed with this product. The moon worked great when we first set it up. My 5 and 4 year olds loved using the remote to change the moon from full moon to half moon. We enjoyed how the moon would automatically turn on when it became dark.
Everything was great until a week later when the moon stopped working. The batteries had died within a week.
The moon looked cute up on the wall even though it wasn't lit up, so I left it as it was for a while. After a couple of months I decided to try replacing the batteries and see if it would work.
After putting in brand new AA batteries, it did not light up. A few hours later it came on. We put the moon up on the wall and again enjoyed having it turn on when it became night. Within a week, the batteries were dead, again.
I called up Uncle Milton, the company who makes the Moon in My Room, and they informed me that the batteries dying in less than a week is normal if you keep the moon in the on position. I explained to them that the instructions never mention having to turn the moon off every night as it already has an auto shut-off. She said even with the auto shut-off on the moon, it is normal for the batteries to only last a few days.
For the batteries to work longer than a week, you have to turn the switch on the back side of the moon. We keep our moon on the wall up high to look like a moon, so turning the switch on the backside is completely impractical. There is no on/off switch on the remote to turn the auto sensor off, so the only way to turn the switch is taking it off the wall.
Overall this moon is not worth over $10 to use as a decoration if you can't keep it lit up for more than a week. The money I spent on the batteries to keep the moon lit for such a short time was a complete waste. If I could do things over, I never would have purchased this product and I will not be recommending it. Save your money for something else.
Customer Review: Wonderful
Summary: 5 Stars
Ever since I first pointed out the moon to my daughter when she was eighteen months old, she has had a deep fascination with the moon. This toy is great because it brings the moon into her room.
Pros:
- Its just smaller than the size of a dinner plate
- It lights up in phases (4 total) with a remote
- Manual Mode: It has a remote control that allows on off of each phase manually
- Auto Mode: With the remote you can put it in auto mode which cycles through the phases automatically through all the cycles in about 30 seconds
- On Off Mode: Allows you to turn on all phases on at once or turn them all off
- The moon has a light sensor that turns on the moon whenever you turn off the light.
- It turns itself off after 30 minutes automatically.
CONS:
- The moon has a light sensor that turns on the moon whenever you turn off the light. This winds up having the moon on more than I'd like it to and during the day you can't tell if its on or not so this causes some battery waste.
- It uses 6 AA batteries and I've had to change them too many times to count so I've gone to rechargeable batteries...so if you hang it too high, you'll wind up having to bring out your ladder quite frequently.
- It only has one handing hole for a nail so if you want to put it on the top of your ceiling or on a slated vault wall you will have to cut an additional hole in the plastic back.
Overall, this is a great toy - my daughter adores it and it has brought quite a bit of joy to her so I highly recommend it. It's not quite perfect but the challenges with it are small compared to the joy it brings to my daughter every night.