Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo

My son was given quite a bit of money for his recent christening, so after depositing most of it into his bank account we decided to buy him a 'large' toy, something special, that we usually wouldn't spend the money on ourselves. After looking at loads of activity center type toys, my hubby and I had both decided upon the Fisher Price Rainorest Jumperoo, we loved the bright colours, swivel seat and the fact that it bounced! The price was the least attractive thing, but compared to similar products, it looked very solid and sturdy with quality materials, definitley worth paying extra for.

What is it exactly?

The main part is an activity centre, with a seat in the middle. The seat is a plastic ring which holds the bright red and orange seat pad. The seat pad has two holes for babys legs to go through, so underneath it looks a little like a nappy. The pad also has a padded back rest with two two eyes printed on, so the seat looks like a frog. The activity ring is held by three upright 'struts' with thick green straps which are stretchy at the top. These hold the ring so it is suspended from the floor allowing baby to bounce their feet off the floor. The rods are supported by a large tubular ring which sits on the floor and large plastic 'feet' which hold the rods. Between each foot is a rubber grip, which stops the frame from moving about accross the floor when baby is jumping. The middle ring can be adjusted and raised up the green straps as baby grows, beginning on 0 and ending on 3, eaich level being about an inch higher from the floor.

The toys are all bright and cheerful. The first takes three AA batteries and lights up and plays cheerful music. There are two noise levels and two modes, one plays continual music, the other animal noises and bursts of music, activated when baby jumps. The unit consists of a green base which has an elephant which can be twisted, a red patterned wheel in the middle and an arch with a dangling parrot and monkey.

Next we have a little blue 'butterfly' with a stripey body and spotty wings which make a crinkly sound. He is attached on a long thin piece of rubber, so he kind of just flops about! My son loves to chew on the wings and has really perfected the art of handling it and manouvering it to his mouth!

Moving around we have a blue froggy / lizard looking creature which spins inside a clear plastic oval, there are also some little coloured beads inside, which make a pleasing rattling noise.

Next is a large unit, a cloud with a smiley faced, spinning sun, perched on top of a rainbow. Underneath is a little tigers face, hiding in a bush, which pops up just a little when a big yellow button is pressed. Logan hasn't mastered the tiger yet, but he loves the sun.

Above, toys hang from two of the 'struts'. One is a lovely bright parrot and the other is a blue spotty frog. These are soft and both hang from bright green palm leaves which can be angled higher & lower. Logan hasn't yet taken much notice of these, but as he is on the lowest seat setting he can't reach them yet.

Logan does enjoy this toy and I know he is safe in it. He's also 'captive' in it which means he can't get into mischief like he does when rolling around on the floor! I don't like him spending more than ten minutes in it at a time though, especially when he's really having a good bounce as he really goes for it and I'm not sure how good it is for his legs! He's had it for a month now and still enjoys it, I've noticed he's taking more notice in the toys than the jumping lately. I'm not sure how much life is in it, I can't see him being too happy to sit in it when he's crawling aroung and sitting strongly by himself, as it would restrict him to one place, so it is a lot of money for just a few months. However, they seem to sell quite well on ebay, so that money will go towards the next toy!

So far, I've only had to wipe the plastic ring clean (with a dettol wipe) mainly because of older kids sticky fingers (they love it too!) and because it gets very dusty, but the seat pad can be washed at 30 degrees and tumble dried. All the toys are plastic except for the hanging ones which won't get much use, so easy to clean.

I'm very happy with it, all the parts are made of good materials, nothing 'cheap' looking here. All parts are finished well, no scratchy joins in the plastic. Okay, it's expensive, we paid just under £80 from Toys R Us, but this seems to be the going rate for these kind of toys. What you do get for your money is a trusted brand, quality materials and good re-saleability (if there is such a word!).

Assembly is quite straightforward and It only took me about 30 minutes. The instructions seem a little daunting at first but for each two A4 page spread, only a two inch square paragraph is allocated for each language. There is photo on each page, showing which parts are needed, with little arrows defining the connections. A lot of it is quite obvious anyway!

To conclude, I would recommend this, it's safer than the bouncers wich hang from door frames and safer than activity walkers. However, the price is high and although that is par for the course with these toys, I'm still deducting some points as I know they probably cost only half as much to produce.