We love Tomy toys in this house. One of our all time best ever toys has to be the Discovery Magical Melody Maker this was a toy gifted to us which I would not have bought if I had seen it in the shop, but has turned out to be the most awesome toy ever. All children love it, without fail. It amuses them for ages, it’s brilliant.
We were thrilled to be given the chance to keep and review Mr Colour Maker. This is a new toy, unlike anything I have seen before which attempts to teach children about colours. Very basically it has three little paint pots and a paintbrush and your child puts them into the larger paint pot which lights up appropriately. Its sort of noisy and interactive and the way it lights up is lovely. Fifi likes it, toddler boy (for whom it was intended) took a brief look and then wasn’t remotely interested.
I think the concept is great, and for some children it would be a really engaging toy. However it hasn’t proved to be for us. I have several criticisms; The first is that it doesn’t come with batteries and you need a screwdriver to insert them, when you do finally acquire them. That sets you off on the wrong foot from the start. Many toys are like this so I cant complain too much on that front. My main issue is with the lid. You can’t physically turn it off, you have to wait for it to go into standby mode, however this is decided via a sensor in the lid. The lid is held on by a really flimsy hinge. I say held, it actually fell off as soon as we got it out from the box. The lead that holds the paintbrush runs right by the hinge and the lid and whichever way you seem to put the lead (above or below the lid) it doesn’t fit securely. This has proved a major design flaw as the toy literally seems to be in two parts at all times. Also, the noise it makes can be quite annoying if you cant turn it off, easily take the batteries out and you can’t find the lid, as it has become detached. Toddler boy, quickly lost interest, it seems to take too long to generate the light for him and although Fifi likes it, she is too small to handle it without being clumsy which upsets the audio bit.
So anyway, love the idea, but not for us . Sorry Tomy!
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