With this toy you push the plunger, the music starts and the balls begin popping out of the top, rolling down the shoot and popping out the top again. Sometimes the balls just keep going through the circuit and sometimes they fly out of the toy and roll across the floor. My daughters enjoy it all!

From a parent point, the negatives are that the music is a little annoying and the five balls roll all over and need to be picked up again and again. The positive is that it keeps my little ones engrossed. The 3 1/2 year old can operate it all by herself and the 1 year old can play with it with only a little assistance from me (helping her corral loose balls and pushing the plunger).

We haven't had any trouble with the sturdiness of the balls, but the yellow funnel does get knocked off occasionally. It goes back on easily enough, but disrupts the play temporarily.

Bottom line is that we really like this toy and are happy to have it in our toy collection


WOW! What a GREAT toy!   October 14, 2003
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I first encountered this toy in a doctor's office and was amazed by its popularity. My 18 month-old son loved it as did ALL of the other kids in the office -- from about 9 mos to 5 years. The kids could not get enough of this toy. I got it for our own home, and its popularity remains high. I have given it as a birthday gift, and it has been a winner in those homes as well. The kids really do play with it endlessly. On that note, though, please know that this toy makes some NOISE, so if you are a person who can't stand noisy toys, this is NOT the toy for your house.


fun toy, but balls are not durable   October 12, 2003
 14 out of 15 found this review helpful

I bought this toy for my triplet girls, when they were 9 months old. They really enjoyed it, and they soon learned how to start the machine on their own. They did need help collecting the balls and placing them back in the machine. One major flaw is the quality of the balls. My girls literally chewed them up. One ball ended up getting squooshed so much that it cracked, and once that happens it can't get lifted through the air tube. We're now down to 3 (out of 5) balls, and they are all in bad shape -- the surfaces are all chewed up and rough, and they do not go through the tube very smoothly. It renders the toy basically useless. When I sent $ to Hasbro for replacement balls, they were not in stock, and they could not tell me when they would be in stock. So now the toy has lost a lot of its appeal.