Uncle Milton Uncle Milton Planet Frog
by Uncle Milton
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List Price: Our Price: $15.97 You Save: $14.02 (47%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $13.99 (click here) Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of Uncle Milton Uncle Milton Planet Frog
Customer Review: We (finally!) have frogs!!!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
My [kid] is beside himself with joy. After six very, very long months, one of our two tadpoles has finally become a froglet. The planet frog habitat itself is a good educational gift, but the instructions that accompany it are poor most of the time and incorrect on several key points. The company that provides that tadpoles leaves a lot to be desired. We ordered the tadpoles in July and received them in mid-October (the order form stated approximately 2 weeks for delivery). The instructions indicated the metamorphasis should start 3-4 weeks after arrival. November, December and January passed before I realized that something was wrong. The tadpoles were healthy and had grown, but no limbs or frog features were happening. Desperation set in in February, when I was guilted into buying two newts to make up for the lackluster tadpoles. When I checked the other Amazon reviews, I saw with dread that 16 out of 17 people never got frogs. So we did some research on our own (the tadpole company' s website is useless). I guessed that some critical environmental trigger was missing to start the transformation to a froglet. So, we tried all of the following: adding a tiny bit of reptile vitamin powder once a week, allowing the water to get a little cloudy for 3-4 days before a water change, and adding frozen bloodworms once or twice a week. I don't know which actually helped, but it is now mid-May and we have the cutest little frog. The other tadpole has grown a lot and is showing signs of limbs. My two boys are tremendously excited about the change; they rush home to check the frogs' progress each day. This toy teaches about animals, the environment and care of living things. But most of all, it teaches patience. I don't recommend this to anyone with an actual life that can't be modified to revolve around the needs of small pond creatures. but for those of us who only dream of freedom, it's worth the wait.Customer Review: DO NOT BUY. Flimsy product- poor service!!
Summary: 2 Stars
The first thing of note is when you take it out of the box, it has a plastic overwrap that protects it in the shipping container. This overwrap is actually much more durable than the product itself! For wht this is sold for, it is hardly something a kid should be around. The entire container is so wafer thin that unless never touched and treated with kid gloves, will crack, break and become useless. Think of a milk gallon jug; these are 4 times the thickness of this item by comparison.
The lid is also just a dropped on item, if your creature inside has any gumption at all, it can easily push it off and escape. Since were dealing with frogs that have powerful hind legs, this has already happened. Unfortunately due to the flimsy nature, any attempt to weigh the top down will collapse the sides.
The Frog Farm took over a month to send my tadpoles, which I can understand, however even though I followed the directions to the letter, within a week both had died. (G'bye $13) rather than bother to use the guarantee, I found a local place that had some young Firebelly Frogs, which are about the same in size that the Leopard would have grown to and need the same tropical enviroment.
Now the good part:
I have this at my desk at work, it is bright, cheery, very well received. The two part structure makes it a breeze to clean. The frogs aer happy and seem to like the enclosure.
Synopsis:
Simply not for schools or anyone under 16 years old. It is not designed to last forever, or much over about a year really. For your kids, get teh Grow-a-frog kit, its much better built and will last a long time.
Customer Review: I am surprised at all the other reviews!
Summary: 5 Stars
My daughter received this for Christmas from her Aunt. It is clearly marked on the box that you have to mail off for the tadpoles and it tells you how much they will cost (roughly $6 per tadpole, and you can choose to order just one, or two). It is also clearly marked that the tadpoles can only be mailed when the weather has reached appropriate levels for more than 3 days. Though it did take about 8 weeks to receive our tadpole, we had ordered it in the dead of winter and were well aware that we may have to wait longer. Our tadpole has taken an awfully long time to develop, but again, it is clearly marked in the instruction booklet that some tadpoles take longer than others, and again, the weather (winter) is a factor (as another reviewer wrote, how many tadpoles/frogs do you see in winter?). I have had no problem getting through to the company (their number is clearly marked on the back of the booklet), and they have even helped me with questions and then sent me a second bag of food free, since our tadpole was taking longer to change. It has been 3 1/2 months now and he has started getting back legs. Funny how he seems to be changing now that the weather is warming up! :) I think it is an excellent educational product that has helped teach our daughter not only about frogs, but about patience - Mother Nature will do things when she sees fit, not when we want her to! The habitat itself is made of a thinner plastic, but it still has been perfectly sturdy and secure for our little guy. I think that the manufacturer has been more than accommodating to all my questions and my family has been very pleased with everything!Customer Review: 5 months til frogs
Summary: 2 Stars
Like most everyone else, our Arizona tadpoles have taken some time to become frogs. We ordered them in late Nov 03 and they arrived in January. We were diligent about feeding them once daily, not overfeeding, and making sure they were cared for during travel. It's now late April and we're finally seeing some legs...now that they're near a warm window.We have one larger (I suspect a female) and one smaller (a male, or undernourished?) and the larger budded legs first. You can't imagine the excitement my 9-year old expressed when he discovered their legs. I didn't buy this gift, but the cost in time and money was surely worth his joy at the discovery. We got out a flashlight and searched high and low to explore those legs (such tiny feet!). His smile was a mile wide. It took awhile, but most things worthwhile do.
I admit, however, that I remember gathering tadpoles in my neighborhood in Nebraska as a youth, and they were much cheaper and easier to maintain (and eventually release). We just put them in a big plastic swimming pool with rocks! With this product, the plastic is flimsy, and a small aquarium from your local pet store works as well, but the effect is nice.
For a short burst of joy, this is 5 stars. For long term maintenance (you'll probably run out of food before they're frogs), it's about 1-2 stars. It's kinda cool, but you're probably better off with the butterflies...I've never had a problem with them transforming and it's fun to let them go and speculate how many days they'll live and how many babies they'll have.
Customer Review: Not too bad, but get your own tadpoles.
Summary: 4 Stars
The trick is to have your own source of tadpoles. I live in Florida and we always seem to have some in an abandoned old hot tub that's sitting out in the back yard. (Ditches and small ponds are great sources too.) The advantage of this is that you can release the froggy when you're done, back into his native envrionment. We ordered the tadpoles, but they both died the night we received them. We called the company and requested a replacement, but got the "it's too hot to mail them" response and haven't heard anything back YET.However, our "backyard" tadpoles (we had three) did better. One died pretty quickly, one lived until he had legs and then mysteriously croaked, and the last one turned into a full-fledged hopper. He was released back into the yard from whence he came. Another thing we did was to not use spring water. We used the water out of the old hot tub. (It was a little green, but it was what they were used to and it worked wonderfully.)
The habitat is a little flimsy...but it's fairly easy to clean. The lid seems to get lost because little fingers are constantly removing to look at the tadpoles from the top of the habitat because the plastic "glass" isn't very transparent. The amount of food included is pretty good, but we supplemented with some algae frog & bottom feeder food from Wal-Mart. (Mashed into tiny little pieces.) All in all, we've had lots of fun with it and plan to start some more tadpoles soon.