Playskool’s Explore and Grow Busy Ball Popper, or as we call it, the ball popper toy, was an instant success at our house. The big kids had to be withheld as we tried to let our one year old open his birthday present. The reason being that they had played with it at a friend’s house a few months earlier. At ages 8 and 6, our two oldest even liked it. Our friend’s children gave them the great idea of shredding tissue, putting it down the tube and then turning on the new snow machine. Cue the clean up song.
So let’s talk about the features first.
There are five balls. Your child cannot swallow them (you’re probably safe too).
There is a mushroom shaped button. This activates the fan and makes the balls pop out. It also activates one of the eight songs that the machine plays while it pops. We find ourselves humming the songs long after. My kids dance to it. It can be a bit annoying for parents but it makes the toy very engaging for kids.
There is a catch tray and a trough. The tray dumps the ball into the trough after it shoots into the air. Sometimes the balls will shoot out in quick repetition, knocking each other out of reach of the tray. It just adds to the fun for your toddler. Our little boy, a ball fanatic, quickly chases down the loose balls and puts them back in the tray. He loves this toy.
How old do they have to be to play with the ball popper? Probably about 18 months. Some kids will catch on quicker, but by 18 months they’ll understand that they need to press the mushroom to get it to play the song and shoot the balls out of the trough.
Is the fan too loud on the ball popper? I don’t think so, but we have five kids so it’s already loud at our house. If you have one child who is very sensitive to sounds, this might not be the right toy for your child. The fan really isn’t that loud. You can definitely hear it, but it doesn’t drown out the songs that are playing and you won’t need to shout to be heard, unless you have five kids all trying to play with it at the same time, which ends in tears.
Where can you buy the Playskool Explore and Grow Busy Ball Popper?