Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Exceptional value for money, Entertaining, Durable |
| Disadvantages: |
Only available in store |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Those of you who are familiar with my Bruin Toy reviews will know what an avid fan of them I am. I just haven't found another brand that can compete with their prices, colourful designs and educational values. This particular product, the "Bruin 3 in 1 Value Pack" is probably the best buy I've ever come across with regards to baby toys. The price is unbeatable and the contents outstanding.
When I first purchased this toy pack it was because my son was six months old and needing 2nd stage baby toys. He was growing out of his play gym and bored by soft books and rattles. The trouble was that at the time I was living in a hostel on Income Support having had to leave the marital home so to say I had very little money is an understatement. Just imagine my delight at having been able to purchase not one great toy but three for just £19.99? And they were so versatile that besides this purchase, I spent just £15 besides and that was my baby sorted until I moved and returned to work three months later.
RAINBOW
ACTIVITY CENTRE
The central toy in this set is the Rainbow Activity Centre. It would usually retail for £12.99 on it's own but personally I would pay around £15 for this quite happily and still consider it a great buy. What we've got here is basically an opportunity for baby to start learning about interacting with their toys rather than just whacking them around. The set comes with a 12m+ recommendation however that's only because the Bear Stacker has that age recommendation; the Rainbow Activity Centre is suitable for 6m+ and the Busy Wheeler is suitable from birth. I was perfectly happy to give all three of these toys to my son at six months old and the Rainbow Activity Centre in particular.
The centre comprises of several different activities that baby can undertake; all very straightforward but very entertaining and educational nonetheless. Firstly my son adored the spinning the mirror (and admiring himself in it too!). There's a mirror inside a colourful flower shaped frame on one end and a rattle ball on the other so it makes a lovely rattling noise when it's spun. The other thing my baby could straight away was move the shapes across the wiggly plastic lines running across the front of the toy. You've got a little aeroplane, hot air balloon, beach ball and butterfly all made of colourful chunky plastic to move back and forth and spin round and round. The beauty of this of course is that being fixed to the toy in this way, they can't get lost of choked on but they can be moved around and played with.
As my baby got to grips with his new toy he began to push the buttons. There's a big bright chunky dog button that barks when pressed, a bird that chirps, and a cat that meows. There's a big green heart just above the animal buttons but I have to hold my hands to this one and admit that for a long time, I thought it's only use was to light up when the animals made a noise. How wrong was I! It turns out that if you yank the pieces of fruit on the tree - the heart lights up and a tune begins to play! I was really shocked the first time it happened; we'd had this toy for several months before we figured it out. My baby's a cautious lad who always leaves things alone if he things they won't come off. Even things like mega blocks! If things don't come apart or do something the first or second time he tries he will leave them alone thereafter. It was actually me who yanked the fruit to set off the tune the first time it happened. But I think my boy is an exception to the general rule; I feel most babies at a very young age WOULD yank the fruit hard enough. It's attached with super-strong elastic so I very much doubt there's any risk involved with this method and hey, it's a new way of doing things!
Other features include a motorised bug that can be pulled down the tree and released to crawl back up it; and a car that clicks back and forth on the front of the "rainbow" and three chunky plastic curved hoops in bright pink, blue and yellow on the opposite side that can be moved around or spun. All in all this is a great opportunity for baby to begin to lean about cause and effect. For example he can begin to learn that if I press this button, that sound happens. He can start to fine tune his motor skills by learning how to manipulate his fingers to grasp and move the variety of activities and he begin to learn how to entertain himself. This might all sound very basic to some of you but those who've had children and can remember their capabilities at six months old will appreciate that seemingly basic skills don't start to come into play until around this age.
BUSY WHEELER HIGH CHAIR TOY
Now I have already written a review on both this toy and the Bear Stacker however as the Rainbow Activity Centre is the focal point of this value pack and not available to review alone; I decided to go ahead and write this review regardless. I'll tell you all about the Busy Wheeler but if you want a more indepth review of it (in case you're thinking about buying it alone) then please do see my profile.
This toy is similar in design to a miniature ferris wheel in it's construction. It consists of a stand with a large orange rotating wheel that boasts four individually rotating activities within. Firstly there's a blue framed mirror that my little boy loved to admire himself in, then there's the giant orange and green smiley flower. Both are smooth and circular in design and can be spun round on their individual axis as well as spun with the outer wheel as a whole. Next up is the little bird perch with a yellow bird in the middle and two tiny, movable green hoops either side plus a pink ball on the bottom to weight the bird down. Then there's a blue ball with a jingle bell inside; yep, just like a cat toy this one! These activities can also be spun individually.
Now you're probably thinking okay, sounds cute - but doesn't sound very exciting? Well no it's not but it's plenty entertaining when you're a young baby. The real benefit of this toy is it's large suction cup base. It's intended to be a high chair toy so that you can give baby something to play with while they're having some "sitting up time" but personally I always used this (and still use it) as a bath toy. It suctions nicely to the bottom of the bath and baby can spin it round and watch all the bath water flick off it! Suitable from birth, what we're talking about here is really something to provide visual stimulation and help to encourage hand-eye coordination. Like I said, despite it's simplicity my 17m old still plays with it every now and again in the bath so top marks for durability here.
BRUIN BEAR STACKER
Like the Busy Wheeler, what we're looking at here is something seemingly simplistic yet invaluably helpful in aiding baby development. This toy is suitable from 12m+ but I believe that recommendation comes from the age at which a baby could be expected to manage this activity rather than the toy being unsafe for a younger child. I've got a fab picture of my son putting the hoops onto his arm at eight months old (see below) so don't underestimate your individual child's abilities until you've let them have a go themselves!
This toy basically comprises of a very simple stand, four chunky plastic hoops and a Bruin bear head. The purple stand is really well designed with a moulded bottom so that it tends to wobble rather than fall over when knocked. It can also be unscrewed though personally I've not found a use or purpose for this particular function to date. The stand is tapered so that the hoops should be placed on in the correct order; green, yellow, orange then pink. The hoops are all different sizes too so that if baby tried to force the pink one to the bottom of the stand it wouldn't go. This toy can be used for fun (chucking the hoops around!) in the early stages then as a mentally stimulating activity later on. It takes a lot for baby to sit down and work out how to get them on in the right order and with the long term memory still kicking in at this age they won't remember the colour order for some time to come making the activity seem new and challenging some time. Even if your baby doesn't work out how to get the hoops on in the right order until they're 16 or 17m old, it doesn't matter. Think how much they'll have gained from just trying all those times.
SUMMARY
Individually you'd pay £12.99 for the Rainbow Activity Centre, £4.99 for the Busy Wheeler and £3.99 for the Bear Stacker so buying the toys in a pack is saving you £1.98. No it's not the save of the century but it's a saving nevertheless. I also think this would make an absolutely ideal present for someone. With the Busy Wheeler being suitable from birth there's no reason why you couldn't give it as a new baby present. It's been almost a year now since I made this purchase and despite having dramatically added to my son's collection; these toys are all still going strong. He's 17m today and was bashing around his Busy Wheeler in the bath just a few hours ago. He still uses his Bear Stacker from time to time and has only be able to stack them in order on the stand and put the bear head on since Christmas so that's not lost it's appeal yet either. The Rainbow Activity Centre still gets a look in from time though you have to appreciate that as baby develops he becomes interested in more intricate interactive toys. And would you believe that since purchasing it nearly a year ago I've only had to change the batteries once?! I keep this one in his nursery though so he can play with it when he gets up because unlike his newer interactive toys; this one's fairly quiet and doesn't disturb me if he gets up to play at 7am!
Bruin Bear Toys are exclusive to Babies R Us so it's the only place you can purchase this toy from new. I withheld from writing this review a few months ago because I had thought it had been discontinued with it not being available online but a trip to my local Toys R Us proved otherwise. I think it's pretty safe for me to say that this product is still on sale in it's stores but unfortunately no longer sold online which is understandable really considering the low
price it carries and the demand it must be in. Despite that minor drawback, I'm going to have to give this product a five star rating. How many toys can you parents out there really say stayed fully intact and continued to entertain your baby nearly a year after they were first introduced? Especially three great toys for just £19.99. Every baby should have one of these.
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