A while ago I won a competition with some fabulous Fisher Price prizes. There was quite a lot so we have been taking our time to play with everything. I have written about other items on my blog because mainly we have been very impressed with the toys and baby equipment. I like the way the Fisher Price things are made in a sturdy and lasting way, the colours are always bright and engaging and they usually work very well indeed. We particularly liked the Duck Potty that we reviewed and it worked very well making music every time Florence used it!
It’s not been often that I have been able to find fault with any of the products which has been brilliant! It’s a little bit of a shame then that the bubble mower, our latest toy to come out of the box, has been a touch disappointing. Florence has been looking at this box on top of the wardrobe at my Mum’s for about a year now but we’ve not been there when the weather was good and I thought I’d save it for a sunny day treat! Well, the day came and I allowed it to be got down! She was thrilled and the box promised lots of bubble fun!
Now, before I go on I must say that the mower does have some positive attributes and we enjoyed playing with it, it’s just it’s main function wasn’t particularly impressive!
It was very easy to put together and quick which is a big plus with children who can’t wait to play with it! The bubble mixture, of which we were provided one bottle, clicks on the front as per the picture and you are to push it down and hold for 15 seconds before pushing. When you push the mower the bubbles are supposed to flow out of the hole on the side. They didn’t.
There are no batteries but despite this the mower makes an extremely realistic motor noise as it is pushed, this was very satisfying and the children thought it was great fun. The wheels and the noise caught Jimmy’s attention instantly and he was very frustrated to have to wait his turn! Jimmy loves a button to push or a knob to turn and the mower has a key which clicks and you twist it and a dial to slide up and down too. Both of them had great fun pushing and using the buttons but…
There were hardly any bubbles at all. To start with the front wheels have to make contact with the ground which is quite hard when you’re little as the handle is sloped backwards and because it’s light the front has a tendency to lift up off the ground. Even so, when I tried it, ensuring all wheels were in contact with the ground, it still only produced a few sporadic and limp bubbles. It wasn’t a windy day so it wasn’t that they were blowing away, they simply weren’t coming out instead just making a runny mess around the bubble hole.
It really was a bit of a shame as the bubble mower is obviously so named because you are to expect bubbles. They were certainly nowhere near the picture on the box suggested or indeed the advert on their website which both use animations of the bubbles, I presume they couldn’t get real ones either so it’s a bit misleading. The mixture ran down very quickly so perhaps if we try a different brand of bubble mixture or make our own, apparently adding glycerine to washing up liquid and water is a fab recipe, then it might work better? I shall keep you posted!
I was not paid in any way to write this post.
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