Last Christmas my in-laws purchased the Playskool Busy Ball Popper for my youngest child, who was 11 months old at the time. This is a great toy from Playskool and is recommended for ages 9 months and up. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be a gift that would hold my daughter’s attention for very long.
The Busy Ball Popper is a cute and attractive toy. The Busy Ball Popper retails for $19.99. The Busy Ball Popper is battery operated and requires four “D” sized batteries. It comes with five colorful plastic balls for your child to enjoy. There is only a small amount of assembly required to get your child’s Busy Ball Popper all ready for their enjoyment. The plastic ramps will have to be popped onto the motorized portion of the toy. After assembling that and installing the batteries the Playskool Busy Ball Popper is ready for your to play with.
The Busy Ball Popper has one big red button that activiates all of the music and the blowing power. Also included are five plastic balls to roll down the ramp. In order to play with the Busy Ball Popper all you, or your child, have to do is push the big button, which will activate the music and blower, drop a colorful plastic ball onto the ramp and watch it roll down only to be blown up and out on top of the ramp so that it can roll down and do it all over again. Sometimes the balls will blow completely off of the Busy Ball Popper making it a fun and exciting moment for your child to scramble after the ball as fast as they can. You never know when a ball will pop out wildly.
This toy is great for the little ones who are standing and/or walking yet. They can sit in the floor with the Busy Ball Popper and enjoy it for as long as they want to. Well at least until all of the balls pop out and roll across the floor out of reach.
The Playskool Busy Ball Popper is the recipient of several awards. In 2003, the Busy Ball Popper was the Nappa Gold Winner. As well as winning the Child Magazine Best Toy award and the American Baby Best Toy award.
With all of that being said, I would say that this toy was certainly worth the $20 that my in-laws paid for it but it didn’t hold my child’s interest as long as I thought it should have. The age recommendation is stated as 9 months and up. My daughter was 11 months old last Christmas when she received this toy as a gift so I thought she would be the perfect age for this toy when I saw it. I guess I was wrong because she would only spend about eight minutes with it anytime she would play with it. Eventually her interest in even that small amount of time decreased until it was just another toy sitting against the wall in her bedroom.
About 6 months after she received the Busy Ball Popper for Christmas her interest peaked again. Unfortunately, that interest was not focused on playing with the Busy Ball Popper but was focused on finding things to put into the Busy Ball Popper. Anything and everything that would fit, and some that would not fit, into the Busy Ball Popper ended up inside of the Busy Ball Popper. My poor husband has had to get a screwdriver and open up the Busy Ball Popper in order to retrieve some foreign object that didn’t belong in the Busy Ball Popper.
The Playskool Busy Ball Popper has great music that plays when the button is pushed. Unfortunately it is VERY loud, which brings me to the best feature on the Busy Ball Popper. An on/off switch!! Trust me when I say that this feature will definitely come in handy as soon as your child figures out how to use the button to play all of the scores of music that come with the Busy Ball Popper.
Now that my daughter is almost two years old she has all but adandoned her Busy Ball Popper. It’s a lone toy among toys. It will be a toy that is given away during my pre-Christmas toy clean up of 2006. I hope that another little boy or girl will enjoy it more than my daughter has. She will not miss the Busy Ball Popper.
In the end, if you decide to purchase the Playskool Busy Ball Popper don’t fret that it will be a waste of money. Not all children will enjoy the same toys. Your child might very well fall completely in love with the Busy Ball Popper. I think that there should be a volume control on it also.
