The LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar retails for approximately $22. It was given to my child as a birthday gift. It is a learning toy designed to help babies and toddlers learn their ABCs, letter sounds and colors.
Product Description and Quality
The LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar is a plastic caterpillar on wheels. It has a pull string so that kids can pull it along its wheels. It also features 26 colorful feet. Each foot has a letter of the alphabet printed on it. There is a little bug on the back of the caterpillar that talks when pressed, and the antenna on the toy also light up.
Overall, the LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar is of moderate to low quality. Like many of today’s toys, this item is made entirely from plastic. Over time and with extended use, bits of the plastic parts broke off of the toy, including feet and its antennae.
Product Features
There are four modes to the LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar that can be chosen with a switch. Each mode is designed to teach the child something. When in “letter” mode, the name of the letter is said whenever the matching caterpillar foot is pressed. So if the child presses the caterpillar foot that has the letter “B” on it, a voice says “B.”
The “letter sound” mode is similar, except the voice sounds out the letter. So if the child presses the caterpillar food that has the letter “B” on it, a voice says “Buh.”
When the LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar is in “color” mode, the voice says the color of the caterpillar’s foot that’s pressed. So if the child presses a red foot, a voice says “Red.”
In “music” mode, a snippet of a song is played. There are 26 different song snippets that play, depending on which foot the child presses. In many cases, the song titles align with the letter on the foot. For example, the “C” foot on the LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar plays “My Darling Clementine.”
When the child pulls on the string, the LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar sings the “ABC” song.
One interesting note is that the “letter sounds” mode allows actual words to be created if the feet are pressed in quick succession. For example, the word “Duck” can (sort of) be sounded from the LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar if you press “D” and “K.” However, we did discover that swear words can not be sounded out on this toy. If you try to sound out a swear word, the caterpillar giggles and says, “That tickles.”
My Experience
Overall, my child was moderately interested in the LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar. Personally, I found the phonetics (letter sounds) mode to be fairly useless, especially considering the varied sounds produced by letters in the English language.
I think my child enjoyed the music mode the most, as she would press the legs to hear different sounds. She did not seem particularly interested in learning her alphabet or colors from the LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar. She did, however, enjoy tugging the string to hear the “ABC” song.
My Recommendation
I think there are probably better learning toys than the LeapFrog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar if your goal is to find a toy that teaches things like colors and letters. This particular toy was given to my child as a gift, but I don’t think that I would purchase it myself.
