Tomy Winnie The Pooh Moonlight Dreamshow

...It also features the word TOMY in blue writing at the top of the screen. The projection comes from a small hole about 2.5cm diameter in the top of the mobile, which for some reason is not positioned in the centre, but slightly offset to the left.

Cleaning the mobile is easy, like most plastic toys it is just wiped over with a damp cloth, and maybe a touch of Dettol.


POSITIONING
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The ...
...cot using the 2 adjustable plastic straps on the back. These are about 2cm wide and situated about 6cm apart. They can be fixed at 4 different heights, although this is in order to accommodate cot rails of different thicknesses, and it should be attached in the highest position possible for a more secure fit. It is fairly secure when fixed on, as long as you remember to feed the straps through the plastic guides on the back of the mobile before securing ... more

Our daughter was given the Winnie the Pooh Moonlight Dreamshow as a gift for Christmas at 11 months old. I wouldn't have got her another cot mobile at that age but she loves it. She does sometimes play for a bit in her cot and often will make it start again if it stops. But when she's tired enough she will happily drift off to sleep, while listening to the calming music and watching the lightshow on the ceiling.

WINNIE THE POOH
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Before I continue with reviewing the actual product, I thought you might like to know a little about the main character that provides the theme.

If someone were to mention Winnie the Pooh, I'm sure that most of you would immediately get an image in your head, of a cute and lovable bear, deep yellow in colour and wearing a bright red t-shirt, the Pooh created by Disney. I would imagine that he is included in some way, shape or form in almost every young child's toy box, DVD collection or bookshelf. But how did he make the transition from one little boy's much loved teddy bear, to such a popular cartoon character worldwide, loved by millions?

Many of you will already know that Winnie the Pooh originates from the stories written by A A Milne in the 1920's, about his son Christopher Robin, and the imaginary adventures the boy had with his favourite teddy bear and his other stuffed animal friends in the 100 Acre Wood. The stories filled 2 of the books in a series of 4 that have sold in the millions worldwide.

The teddy bear started off as Edward Bear, but was later named Winnie the Pooh. 'Winnie' being a black bear that Christopher Robin had befriended at London Zoo, and the 'Pooh' part was taken from a swan. But the Pooh Bear that we all know and love today actually bears little resemblance to the original teddy bear.

The line drawings of Pooh that appear in the original books, were in fact based on a teddy bear named Growler, that was owned by the illustrator's own son. From these drawings Pooh has gradually evolved, with various product manufacturers' interpretations of the original pictures. Merchandise inspired more directly from the original illustrations provided by E H Shepard, are now known as 'Classic Winnie the Pooh', and are still sold today, but personally I think the Disney version is much more appealing, especially to children.

Disney's Pooh was originally based on a plush toy made by Agnes Brush in the 40's and 50's. Walt Disney had been inspired by his daughters' love of the books, and after acquiring the licensing rights in 1961, Disney first brought him to film in 1966 with "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree". By 1996 Winnie the Pooh had proven to be the most popular Disney character.

While other characters come and go, Winnie the Pooh remains a favourite, both in Classic and Disney form, and will do for many years to come. He is especially popular for baby toys and nursery accessories, and was the first thing we thought of when choosing a theme for our son's nursery seven years ago (although he now prefers superheroes). We now have quite a collection of Pooh products for our daughter, this mobile included.

PACKAGING
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Tomy's Moonlight Dreamshow comes in a bright and colourful blue and yellow box, with pictures of the mobile in use, along with slightly exaggerated images of the projection and music. The 'TOMY' and 'Disney baby' logos are featured clearly on most sides of the box, but perhaps not so clear to see is the name of the mobile. 'Winnie the Pooh' is written quite clearly at the bottom on the front of the box but 'Moonlight Dreamshow' is in much smaller writing underneath this, along with its five European equivalent names: F-'Winnie Enchanté'; NL-'Wonder Winnie'; E-'Lampara dulces sueños'; D-'Mondlicht-Traumshow'; I-'Lampada Incantevole Winnie'.

The following description is featured on the back of the box:
• Voice activated lightshow with Winnie the Pooh theme tune.
• Woodland images gently move across the glowing nightlight.
• Short or longer lightshow cycle, plus voice activation.
• Superior quality of projected lightshow on ceiling, and longer battery life. (I wouldn't actually agree with that part though)

INSTRUCTIONS
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The manual is a single folded A3 size sheet and is fairly basic, as is the mobile. It includes brief instructions with accompanying images on inserting the batteries, how to operate, and attaching to a cot. It also includes the following warnings:
• Always keep out of children's reach.
• Remove from cot when baby begins to push up onto knees. (This warning is also featured on the back of the mobile.)
• Regularly test attachment to ensure the product is secure
• Do not look directly at the light source. (This warning is also displayed in picture form on a small sticker next to the projection outlet.)

All information is written in 6 languages: English; French; Dutch; German; Spanish; and Italian. Although Careline details are only available for UK and France, but to be honest I wouldn't have thought there'd be any need to contact the Careline for such a basic product. Information is also available on www.tomy.co.uk and in other languages on www.tomy.com.

THE MOBILE
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The Moonlight Dreamshow is suitable for babies from birth. It is an attractive mobile with pale blue plastic casing, and a moulded design on the front featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet playing pooh-sticks on a bridge, with Eeyore watching in the background, and Tigger up a tree. This picture surrounds the rounded screen which acts as a night light while playing the lightshow, in addition to it being projected onto the ceiling. I should mention that there are a couple of tiny chips in the colour on the pictures on the front of our mobile. But I suppose such wear and tear is inevitable when it has been knocked on the floor a couple of times.

It is a reasonable size, approx. W20cm x H18cm x D8cm, with the centre screen being about 13cm diameter but partially covered by the pictures. It also features the word TOMY in blue writing at the top of the screen. The projection comes from a small hole about 2.5cm diameter in the top of the mobile, which for some reason is not positioned in the centre, but slightly offset to the left.

Cleaning the mobile is easy, like most plastic toys it is just wiped over with a damp cloth, and maybe a touch of Dettol.

POSITIONING
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The Dreamshow can either be used freestanding or attached to the cot using the 2 adjustable plastic straps on the back. These are about 2cm wide and situated about 6cm apart. They can be fixed at 4 different heights, although this is in order to accommodate cot rails of different thicknesses, and it should be attached in the highest position possible for a more secure fit. It is fairly secure when fixed on, as long as you remember to feed the straps through the plastic guides on the back of the mobile before securing them in place on the hooks.

We have used it on our BabyDen, and it also attaches fairly easily on the corner of our Graco travel cot (please see my other reviews), although it does tend to hang on it at a slight angle. This is good in the fact that the screen is tilted, so easier for baby to see when lying down, but is not really ideal when baby is standing as the projection is also tilted slightly more toward them. You don't want them reaching over it and looking into the hole on the top, the light projected is quite bright and could be damaging for their little eyes. We have had to move our mobile further away from the cot now and placed it on a nearby chest of drawers in order to avoid this happening. Our little girl has already shown a fascination with the light, after discovering that the images are projected onto her hand if she holds it above the light source.

OPERATING
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It runs on 4 'AA' size batteries which are easily accessed via a panel in the back, this is secured in place with a small cross-headed screw (like most other baby toys) to prevent the little ones getting hold of the batteries. They do seem to need replacing quite often though, it's only been 3½ months since Christmas and it's well into the 3rd set of batteries. I think I might have to get some rechargeables, or remember to turn it off when our daughter's asleep so it doesn't keep going off in the night. And it sounds really bad when the batteries do start to go. In addition to the usual whiny sound of the music in slow motion that you get with any musical toy when the batteries run out, it also starts making a loud grinding noise. I suppose in a way this does make me want to change the batteries sooner, as I can't bear to wait for them to die completely with all that going on. It's not necessarily a general problem with them though, we could have just ended up with a dodgy one.

Whereas many musical baby toys would have 2 volume settings, this has just the one, which is closer to the louder volume of other toys. It does have a 3-setting slide switch on the back (OFF / ♪♪ / ♪♫♪), which I originally thought would be 2 volume settings. But it actually determines the length of the lightshow, with ♪♪ lasting 5 minutes and ♪♫♪ lasting 10 minutes. Both times are approximate guides as stated in the manual, but it will continue until the last play of the tune is completed, not halfway through (which can be slightly annoying on the wind up mobiles). In addition to this switch there is a small round button (►/■), which you can start it with, or stop it immediately if you've had enough of listening to the same tune over and over again, whilst still leaving it on standby in case your baby should wake in the night. Obviously this button will not work if the slide switch is in the OFF position.

VOICE ACTIVATED SENSOR
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With the voice activated sensor it has come a long way from the wind up mobiles like we had when our sons were babies that only lasted about a minute. Before I finish clicking my fingers it is already playing the Winnie the Pooh theme, and our daughter knows she can just scream at it, or bang on the side of the cot if she wants to see the lightshow again. The sensor is very sensitive, but it does not react to everything. You can still move around in the room and talk at a normal volume and it stays silent, but any sudden noise will start it playing. It is a bit annoying though when I put something down and it sets it off, or our daughter coughs in her sleep. But it never seems to wake her up so it's not really a problem. I just end up singing the song in my head while I drift off to sleep.

THE TUNE
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It only plays the one tune which is the old Winnie the Pooh theme, played in a relaxing lullaby kind of way, but also sounding slightly tinny. Our son had the sing-along tape when he was a baby, so if anyone else wants to know the words that go with the annoying tune that's always playing on the mobile, they are as follows:

♫ Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood
♫ Where Christopher Robin plays
♫ You'll find the enchanted Neighbourhood
♫ Of Christopher's childhood days

♫ A donkey named Eeyore is his friend
♫ And Kanga, and little Roo
♫ There's Rabbit and Piglet, and there's Owl
♫ But most of all Winnie the Pooh

♫ Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh
♫ Tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff
♫ He's Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh
♫ Willy nilly silly old bear

Sorry, you won't get it out of your head now!

THE LIGHTSHOW
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The lightshow is played on the screen and is also projected as a small circle of light onto the ceiling. Obviously the further away from the ceiling, the larger the projection, but with a distance of about 1.6m from the mobile to the ceiling, you get a lightshow about 85cm in diameter. I do find though that if the mobile is positioned too close to the wall, the lightshow is projected half on the ceiling, but half spilling down the side of the wall, causing the images to distort somewhat.

One cycle of the lightshow from start to finish (where you can clearly see the join in the tape) features Roo, Pooh, Roo (again), Tigger, Pooh (again), Tigger (again), Roo (AGAIN) and Pooh (AGAIN) each floating down on balloons and accompanied by a variety of butterflies, bees, stars, clouds, flowers and leaves. I think this is fairly boring and predictable after you've been watching it for a while. Given how many characters live in the 100 Acre Wood, they could have used 8 different ones instead of alternating between just 3. This would probably hold babies' interest for longer and be more likely to keep them lying still. Although I don't think they really care what they're looking at at that age. Obviously each one may vary slightly and you might get different characters in your Dreamshow.

The colours are also limited using only pale shades of blue, yellow, orange, red and green for the pictures, all outlined in blue, and surrounded by a border of white, and on a pale blue background. Although this 'moonlight' look is a bit dull and can be hard to see if not in total darkness, I think it might be better that way, as the lack of contrast is more soothing for a tired baby to look at. You don't really need it too bright and waking baby up more!

VALUE FOR MONEY
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The Moonlight Dreamshow can be found at varying prices, generally up to £19.99 but occasionally more. It is selling for £14.99 in the current Argos catalogue, which I think is very reasonable. The only real problem with this toy is that it works out quite costly to run. Apart from that I think it's a very good buy. Especially for a younger baby as it is so much easier than having to go and wind something up every time your baby starts crying. But it is also good for older babies, as long as you can find somewhere safe to put it out of reach, but where it is still easy enough for them to see. And if you don't mind having to change the batteries every 1-2 months it could last your child, and any subsequent children for years (or at least as long as the bulb survives, as it is apparently non-replaceable). And Winnie the Pooh's always a winner, as long as you don't mind the theme tune!

Thanks for reading! 

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