Tolo Toys Review

Have you heard of the Tolo Toys range? I hadn't so far, so I was pleased to be sent the Safari Girl to review.

When it arrived, I gave it straight to Cubling. She played with it a little and then moved on. Not wanting to give in easily, I let my nephew have a go. Cubling had no problem sharing. Nephew was keen, tried out all the features and was done 30 seconds later, announcing "I'm finished, Cubling can have it back".

To be fair, that's a 2 1/2 year old verdict. And it was for just playing with the safari girl on her own. I'm pretty sure that the reaction from a 1 year old would be very different, but it does say 1-5 years on the box, and one thing is clear, our 2 1/2 year olds aren't big time into it. Of course this may be different if they had a whole set of Tolo Toys, where they could use their imagination and actually act out scenes. After a quick browse on the internet to see what kind of sets there are, I realised that Tolo Toys aren't exactly cheap as chips.

What does the safari girl do? It's brightly coloured, has a camera and you can turn bits of her body, like put the head facing backwards, her pony tail forwards and the arms and legs in funny positions. And there's a squeaky button on her tummy to do a belly button squeak. When you turn her body parts, it clicks - a nice loud click which I'm sure would delight a 6-18 month old. It doesn't sit unsupported and the camera obstructs the movement of the left arm which is a bit of a shame.

Verdict: Great for a one year old or even younger, potential for 2 year olds if puchased in a set or in context of a playhouse or similar environments. On the higher price range for toys. Sturdy and quality construction. Made from plastic. Would I buy it? Definitely not for my 2 1/2 year old. Would I be happy to buy it for a one year old? Yes. Compared to say the Little People range they offer more activity with the actual figures, they are bigger and would definitely inspire a child's imagination. Of course, you'd probably also spend about three times as much on the set.

If you're interested, you can find out more here.