Fisher-Price Bounce And Spin Zebra

I had been desperate to buy the Fisher Price Bounce 'n' Spin Zebra for my son ever since he was tiny, it looked like so much fun I wished there was an adult sized one available! I had also read raving reviews of it, which made the £50 or so price tag for the toy sound like worth while paying. The age reccomendation for it is from 12 Months and over, so I bought it for my son's first Birthday and I was thrilled to finally have one for him.

I looked around for the lowest price I could get this as a lot of places were charging the full £50-£60 for it, luckily I managed to find one in a Sale for £33 so initially I felt like I'd gotten a bargain. First of all, assembling the toy was fairly easy and just requires attaching the Zebra to the green plastic base (a quick screw driver job) and it only took 10 minutes or so. I couldn't wait for my little boy to climb on his new toy and start bouncing and spinning away. The little Zebra looked so cute and although it was taking about a considerable amount of space in my living room, I still thought it would be worth it.

I lifted my little boy onto the Zebra and he held onto the handle bar at the front straight away, I flicked the switch on, took a step back and waited for the smiley, giggly, fun to begin ... but all I got what a still Zebra playing a tune with a couple of flashing lights. "Where's the bouncing and spinning?!" I thought, on closer inspection of the toy you have to physically put a lot of pressure on the Zebra and press it down hard to get it to even bounce in the slightest, something my 1 year old certainly wasn't capable of doing! I myself even found I had to be quite firm with it to get it to move, then the spinning also requires a fair amount of pressure to move at all from side to side.

I was shocked and disappointed, this is a very expensive toy at full price and I had expected it to do the Bouncing and Spinning itself and literally all it does is have a few flashing lights on the front and plays a handful of loud tunes. So my little boy sat still on this plastic zebra not really knowing what to do, he tired after 10 seconds or so and lifted his leg to climb off ... only for him to then fall and bump his head on the hard plastic green base that surrounds the zebra. "Great, not only is this Zebra useless it is also dangerous too" I thought. After that I tried assisting my little boy to get the Zebra to Bounce n Spin with him on it and again if I even managed to get the Zebra bouncing he would tumble off it and bump his head all over again.

The 12 Months+ reccomendation is quite simply ridiculous, it is not safe for a 1 year old to play on even with an adult standing nearby. It is also nigh on impossible for a 1 year old to move this. The only mild enjoyment my little boy has gotten from this zebra is spinning the little characters on the handle bars and listening to the tunes for 20 seconds or so. Thank goodness I only paid £33 for this, if I had paid £60 I would have been disgusted. But even £33 is a lot to pay for something that does so little.

I couldn't have been more annoyed with this toy and I was surprised as I didn't think Fisher Price would make something that was so useless. The age reccomendation for this should be at least 2 Years+ for it to even be safe let alone move easily. It is now sitting dormantly in the corner of our living room and taking up loads of space so I am going to sell ours on, it really was probably the worst value for money I've spent on a toy yet.