Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)We received this toy for Christmas for our almost one year old son. At first glance, it would appear to be lots of fun, but overall the design lacks in many key areas. My son is currently a young toddler at 16m old, and I'd say the 3 star rating holds over this age period.
To summarize the toy, all six sides of the cube are playable.
1. Mini-bead maze (similar to what you find in a doctor's office, but tiny) -- OK
The "wires" on which the beads run are translucent plastic tubing and have motion-activated lights that light up inside the tubing to make the tubing glow. This part is cute, but it's a bit difficult to run the little beads on it, the space is very tight. My son (12m - 16m) ignores it for the main part. I like it, though. I have hopes that he'll like it later.
2. Plastic Phone side - Not great or fun
2.1 Little plastic phone, has squeaker push buttons on the phone itself, which is attached by a short string (faux phone cord) back to the cube. Problem is that even adults can't get the phone to unclick from the cube, you really have to pull. The squeaker buttons on the phone take a bit of pushing to get them to squeak, and it's a very half-hearted squeak in any case. It gets ignored.
2.2 There's also a little plastic distorted "mirror" which gives you a nasty circus-mirror effect that most people hate. Ignored.
2.3 There's a bit of an electronic phone number keypad which you can press, that part is fun, but it's covered by a plastic flip cover that not even adults can get flipped open. My son solved that one by snapping it off, which definitely improved the functionality.
2.4 There's a handle that's folded away that you can open up to carry around the cube. That's potentially useful.
3. Letters (A-D) shape sorter side, and opposite there's a Numbers (1-4) shape sorter side - Not great
3.1 Color palette on this toy is in a lot of ways quite interesting: It has mustard yellow, turquoise blue, dark pink/cranberry, and hot pink/magenta, etc. But when it comes to differentiating by color on shape sorting, suddenly an adult starts to realize that there really isn't a whole lot of difference between hot pink/magenta, dark pink/cranberry and pinky-purple. "No sweetie, you want the pink one, not the....pink one....." This is really irritating in practice.
3.2 Letters are sorted on one side, and Numbers on the other opposite side. But the young toddler doesn't know the difference between numbers and letters, and the shapes are all in a pile, so you always are flipping it from one side to the other, and saying "no, sweetie, that's a number/letter, just a sec, we'll flip it....
3.3 "Font" used for letters/number shapes is interesting, but irritating. In the font used in the shapes/letters on this toy, the letter B and the number 3 have a more "bulbous" bottom curve that the top, ie. The top part of the B/3 is very slightly smaller than the bottom curve. What this effectively means is that if you have the shape flipped upside and backwards, you think it should fit in, because, honestly, you look down at the shape and it looks like it should fit, but it won't fit. Several times now, I myself have been tricked on the 3, where I'm stumped as to why the shape won't fit in (you know, that kind of panic where you think baby-induced sleep deprivation might be making you seriously dumb). Namely, it'll look like it should fit in, but then I remember that you have to flip it around to get it in. It's obviously going to be confusing to a young child who is oblivious to these sorts of shape nuances.
4. Clock which is also door-opening side to retrieve number/letters shapes: OK, but issues
The bottom side of the cube has a clock face with two hands. You can move the two hands of the clock face freely. Young toddlers are obviously going to be a bit young for the concept of analog time (or any time for that matter), more suitable for the older toddler. Now the trick on this side, is that you need to turn clock hands to midnight/noon, and then (with difficulty) press in on the little latch that has written in raised, almost invisible letters "Open". At the beginning, we had no idea how to get the shapes out, maybe it was on the packaging some place? Not sure, but my father-in-law figured it out. Also, even once you get the hands aligned, it's still quite tricky to press in and get the latch open. Believe me, no toddler's going to get this one open.
5. Four button "piano" and multi-colored spinner - OK fun
The remaining side has a large buttoned "piano." The buttons don't make individual notes: No matter which button you play, the piano just sounds out the next note in "Twinkle, twinkle". No skill or learning opportunities here. The little spinner isn't that much fun, you try to spin it with its little knob, and it will make a slight whirring sound. My son occasionally spins this, he's a big fan of spinners. The on-off switch is located here as well. There is no volume control, but the toy isn't very loud.
Overall, we do still play with this toy. My son does like to attempt the number/letter shape sorting, but it's me that ends up doing most of the work, to guide and flip the sides, and try to avoid him getting frustrated, and then try to avoid me getting frustrated when I try to get the shapes out.
As an interesting note, this toy existed in a previous incarnation: Electronic Activity Puzzle Cube from the parent Battat company, but not under the "B." label, but instead under its other plastic-color scheme. As I post this, it has a 1.5 star rating (14 ratings), which is a bit harsh in my opinion, but truly this toy is flawed.
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B. Times Square Activity CubeMake learning shapes, letters, numbers and colors fun for your baby with this B. Times Square Electronic Cube. Motion activated lights and sounds engage your child while she learns. All the pieces fit inside the cube to make storing and moving the cube easy.
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