Bright Starts Hide 'n Spin Monkey Ball Popper Musical Activity Toy, Ages 6 Months +

I bought this for my 14 month old son for Christmas. It is the first thing he runs to play with every day. It is super cute & keeps him entertained for quite a while. It has 2 volume settings but honestly the lower setting is plenty loud. The only thing to look out for is that the opening in the monkeys hat is just big enough to allow your little one to place other toys besides the balls in there and it can sometimes take a little work to get them out. Not a deal breaker & we really haven't had too many problems with this. Overall I am so glad I bought it!

I gave this to my son as his valentine gift, when he was about 15 months. He LOVED this toy and now is almost 2 years old and still loves it. The monkey did stop going up and down, but we changed the batteries and was good to go. My son has definitely abused this toy and it has help up. You have to watch because my son loved to stick socks and other toys that do not belong and get stuck inside the toy. Can be a pain to fish everything out but is doable. Keeps him happy and entertained!!

My two kids LOVE this toy. This is actually the third one we've owned. The first one was bought from a used store for a few dollars. It survived about 6 months before the monkey head stopped going down (the motor died on that one.) The second one was bought from Amazon and was supposed to be new, but if it was, it was a lemon. We only had it 4-6 weeks before it started intermittently dying. It seemed to have a chip issue where sometimes the monkey would go down and the bottom would spin and other times it wouldn't even try or even stop in the middle of a spin cycle...This newest one we have is so far working great. It doesn't have any of the warning signs that the second one did (the second one had a motor that seemed weak from the beginning.) My son is 2.5 years old and my daughter is almost 9 months old and they both play with it daily. Now that my daughter is more stable in standing, she doesn't lean on the head as much while it goes up and down. That will extend the life on this one a lot. She taught herself how to put a ball into the monkey's head (not easy since the hole is where she would hold on to stand up, so it took weeks or even a month or two to learn where she could hold on) and is so proud of herself for that. My son loves that he knows the "secret" of pressing the nose to make the head go down and the bottom spin and also that he can turn it on and off.As much as we love this toy, I did have to knock it down a star because of the design flaw that seems to make it break more often than seems reasonable (especially if you spent fifty on it...which I never have.) There is only one motor that runs the entire system. That motor moves the monkey's head up and down and spins the bottom. If that motor is stressed (by a young child leaning on the head as it tries to go back up...many many times... for example) then it can get stripped and die. That is what happened to our first one (the second, as I said, had problems from the start and seemed to be a lemon.) I don't know what the answer would be to fix that, but that design flaw does bring it down to 4 stars for me.

ALL my kids love this, ages 20 months through 9 years. It's a clever design, except for assembly, which was a pain with a standard-sized screwdriver. You'll need a thin one, but not small, if that makes sense. You can make it so the balls roll all over or so they stay inside the toy's bottom tray. Music, lights, movement. All around a lot of fun. One of the best baby toy purchases we have made.

Very cute toy, but this is the second Bright Starts toy we have bought that has broken after short time of use. If this is to be intended for younger children, then it should be more durable. We bought this for my son's first birthday and 3 weeks later, the bottom part is not spinning anymore. Of course I can't return it because the warranty doesn't cover a one year old sticking his hands everywhere (aka playing with the toy) so I am not going to be able to return it and we are out $40. It's too bad because he loved it, but it's just not built for the wear and tear of little kids. Save your money.

Great toy until it breaks. This worked great, entertained my son, but broke after < 2 months of use. It only counts to 3 (should be 5) and never drops the balls or spins anymore. We have tried manually working it, changing batteries, turning on and off, etc. with no luck.UPDATE: Customer service was very friendly and sent us a new one. At this point our son has lost interest we will see how long it lasts with the next baby.

This toy is a total hit! My 3.5 year old even likes it. My son is 12 months and visually impaired. he can still get the balls into the top and the lights keep him engaged. He LOVES watching it spin and pour the balls out. I would say this toy is a total hit. The only flaw is that you need a long skinny screwdriver to screw the barrel together. Easy enough, but a standard would have been better.

Cute concept and it would be fun if it actually worked. Balls don’t release to the spinning tray below and it spontaneously turns off. Seems really flimsy. We are returning it, but even if it was working I don’t think it would stand up to toddler abuse for more than a few weeks.