Tomy Hide 'n' Squeak Eggs

I brought the Tomy Hide 'n' Squeak Eggs as a present for my daughters first christmas. I came across them whilst looking around for a few little, affordable bits to go with her main presents - stocking fillers if you will!

I brought the eggs from Amazon.co.uk for around £6.00. I'm not actually sure what offline shops sell them as I haven't seen them in shops but if you type 'Tomy Hide 'n' Squeak Eggs' into a search engine, there is a long list of online retailers which sell them. Prices range from around £6.00 - £9.00 which I think you'll agree isn't bad at all.

The Tomy Hide 'n' Squeak Eggs are suitable for children 12 months onwards, although I can't imagine there are many hazards that come with this toy and think it would amuse children from 6 months onwards (don't listen to me though, I wouldn't want to be responsible for any accidents!).

The eggs come in a durable, plastic, yellow egg box. This not only makes the eggs seem real to a child but is really handy for storing the eggs away - I always seem to be finding different pieces from different toy sets all over the house! The box opens and closes by a little catch and is the size of an actual egg box. The only downside is that the catch is quite hard for young children to open and will probably need help from an adult.

Inside the box are 6 white, plastic eggs. Each egg has 2 parts to it, as if they are cracked in half. The top part of the egg acts like a lid and the bottom part of the egg has a chick inside. The lids have different faces on and are interchangable, which means they can be swapped around. The chicks are 3 different colours (orange, blue and green) and make a 'tweet' sound when they are pushed down. Little effort is needed to push the chicks and they are suitable for the smallest of fingers.

Inside the egg box and on the bottoms of the eggs are different shapes (square, triangle, star shaped etc). The eggs fit into the box according to their shape, so effective the toy doubles up into a shape sorter.

The educational aspects of this toy is that is encourages hand-eye coordination, role play and can help to learn counting, colours and shapes. It is also unisex and doesn't requires batteries so can never run out and should never break.

This toy was a big hit with my daughter from day one and is something that she has played with alot - I also have friends that have this toy and they have said the same. The noises and funny faces always made her giggle and the shape sorting really made her think and concentrate. Infact she is now 2 years old and still enjoys playing with it! Such a simple toy but very effective.

Overall I think the Tomy Hide 'n' Squeak Eggs are a great toy for babies and toddlers. It manages to grab childrens attentions and gets the balance between education and fun just right. Superb value for money.