I purchased the VTech Musical Bubbles Octopus as a toy addition to attempt making my toddler more fond of bath time. (You can read my full game plan to getting a toddler to take a bath tantrum free by clicking the phrase in this sentence.) It’s seemed a sure fire hit at first. This cute little purple octopus toy features a stuck-um back so it can be hooked to the wall in the tub. It then plays music and puffs air through a spinning bubble wand to produce bubbles. It also has a learning musical keyboard around the bottom that teaches animal and musical instrument sounds, names, and more. This appeals to two things most toddlers love, music and bubbles.
Why was the VTech Musical Bubbles Octopus only a hit at first? Well, because it only worked at first. It took me awhile to get the bubble solution just right to produce bubbles, but I took this to be a result of me having to use a certain type of soap which wasn’t really for bubble making because of my sons eczema. However it became clear later that straight soap as the instructions recommend actually won’t work. Once I got it working it worked well for a bath or two and then suddenly stopped making bubbles. The first octopus bubble breakdown was a result of bubble mixture drying over the air intake just above the bubble puffer so to speak. Cleaning it seemed to fix the toy, but clearly this was a design flaw.
The second breakdown resulted from left over bubble solution thickening so much the bubble puffer strength was no longer sufficient to produce bubbles. This is also why straight bubble solution or soap doesn’t really work. It needs to be watered down just enough to not gum up the works but also be concentrated enough to produce bubbles.
To remedy the drying and thickening issue you must clean-out the bubble reservoir after each bath which leads to wasted bubble solution or soap and adds of course one more thing for a parent to do. This wouldn’t be so bad if the reservoir worked well with a small amount of solution, but for optimal bubble madness, it needs to be rather full. Note that all of this happened within about 3 baths, by bath number 4 the batteries had gone dead and what was happy time bath music became muffled, demonic sounding dead battery lament. Being that the VTech Musical Bubbles Octopus takes 4 AA batteries I would have expected a bit more battery time than almost 4 fifteen minute baths or so.
Other issues with the VTech Musical Bubbles Octopus:
-The bubble ejection window also is large enough a toddler can easily ram a finger inside, which could eventually cause damage to the toy or even hurt a finger.
-The bubble reservoir leaks slowly. This adds on to the need to empty and clean the toy each use or you have slimy grossness leaking all over your tub between baths.
-You can’t run the music portion without the bubbles. You end up with a toddler tantrum anyway when you attempt to turn off the toy to rinse your child as bubbles blow constantly at the child (when it’s working that is).
-The back suction cups don’t work well on all surfaces, or at all really. I flat out couldn’t get the suction cups to attach on my shower wall, I had to attach it to the tub itself and that was after some effort with drying the wall then the suction cups, then re-wetting the suction cups slightly until I got just the right balance. To my dismay it still regularly fell off, except of course when I was attempting to remove it to wash it, then it stuck well so when I pulled it off it flung bubble stuffs everywhere. As a result of this forced suction location the bubbles fly out right in a toddler sized person’s face area. Bubbles+eye balls= ouch.
Was there anything positive about the VTech Musical Bubbles Octopus? Yes, it was cost effective at only 20 bucks so at least I didn’t spend a bundle on the dud of a toy. Overall the idea behind the VTech Musical Bubbles Octopus was excellent, but the execution was poor. I commend the attempt, appreciate the low price, but wouldn’t recommend this toy to others. Perhaps a do-over is in order as VTech has produced plenty of grade A toddler toys in the past. I’d give Musical Bubbles Octopus II a shot.
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