Fisher-Price Cruise and Groove Ballapalooza Rating :
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
73 of 78 people found the following review helpful.
Gets Old Fast
By J. Finkel
The Fisher-Price Cruise and Groove Ballapalooza, much like its name, takes up way too much space for what it is. This toy takes up more room than any other we own and there's no way to reduce its size for storage. Without changing much feature-wise, this toy could have easily been designed to take up half the space.
This toy does have some neat design elements. There is a ball-dropper at the top that you can push balls into and have them fall out onto a angled plastic 'trampoline' pad so that they bounce onto the top of the highest ramp. There is also a switch that registers falling balls to turn on lights and sound (3 C batteries required). The toy comes with plenty of balls (which are very hard plastic, so watch where your kids throw them) and the toy does look great when it is fully assembled. Also, assembly is not too bad, taking roughly 20-30 minutes for the average parent, less if there's help or a powered screwdriver.
My children are 8 months and 2 1/2 years old. They both enjoyed playing with the toy right away, but there interest quickly evaporated. Simply put, this toy doesn't do much. The ramps can only be constructed one way and while there are 2 ramps, the shorter path is completely lame. The higher ramp (with the trampoline) is just short enough for easy access to my older kid, but obviously too much for my little one to handle - she mostly plays with the balls and ignores the monstrous Ballapalooza. The suggested age range of 6 months to 3 years doesn't make much sense to me. I feel that any kid over 2 years will quickly become bored and many kids under 1 year will not really be able to use this toy. So, I would suggest 12-24 months.
Overall, I was disappointed by this toy and so were my kids. It looks nice and is fun for a few days, but for its size and price, it should do more to keep kids entertained. It would have been easy for Fisher Price to include more ramps and do-hickeys that interact with the rolling balls. Instead the toy offers one mildly amusing ramp, one ramp that's a waste of space and some unrelated do-hickeys that don't really do much but take up a lot of extra space.
UPDATE (11/8/2012): After a little over one month, my children have played very little with this toy since I posted my review. I have kept the toy out in a prominent location because we have space and the toy really does look great, but they mostly ignore it. Every few days my toddler might pick up a ball and play with the Ballapalooza for all of one or two minutes. I will be taking the toy down to the basement shortly.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.Not terribly exciting....
By M. Rodriguez
Overall, I'm not super impressed with this toy! I've listed the pros and cons below, and although the list looks pretty equal, the pros are minor functions compared to the cons of a long time to assemble. I have a 3 year old and a 16 month old and they really don't seem to care for this toy, which was surprising, but it really doesn't do much other than the balls sliding down the ramps.
PROs
The post lights up and has fun music
It comes with LOTS of balls, so if you lose some you're not frantically looking for something to make the toy work again
It's fun colors
It has a 2 different music volumes so you can turn it down if you find the music annoying
CONs
It takes a LONG time to put together (took me more than 1 hour and I'm good with putting toys together!)
My kids were bored with it after 15 minutes
The toy itself is VERY large and takes up a lot of room (it's about 3 feet in diameter by the time it's all put together)
The balls only can take 2 different tracks, so the limited options, left my kids (3 and 16 months) bored quickly
The "door" they can crawl through doesn't move well and doesn't trigger any music or lights
The music and lights are not always triggered by the balls going through
It's too tall for my 16 month old to put the balls in the top part and The crawl through door is too small for my 3 year old to go through, so it seems like they weren't sure what age/ages they were really making this toy for
25 of 30 people found the following review helpful.
Super fun ~ activity center ~~ cordless drill helps assembly.
By majormusiclover
This toy is fun ~ very entertaining and educational.
Our grandson loves to run the balls down the chute to keep the music going ~
and crawl through the arms, and this toy is also styled to share.
The flashing lights on the post are red/green/yellow like a traffic light
and blink on/off to the beat of the music.
This activity center encourages various other action
that promote motor skills and coordination.
For children 6 mo to 3 yrs ~ plus.
There are 31 pieces to screw and/or snap together, 35 screws, and some stickers.
The pieces are notched all different ways, and numbered to aid in assembly.
I used a phillips bit, in my cordless drill ~ minimized the torque and went slow ~
the plastic is tough enough that all the screws snugged down to a stop
with-out striping out any holes.
I found it easier to use the butt end of the rubber coated handle of my hammer
to hit the snap joints together, instead of my hands.
The switch on the base has two levels of volume.
Ballapalooza uses three C batteries which aren't included.
This seems to be a rugged toy, and reminds me of the sort of toys
you might see in a Pediatric Doctors waiting room.
Up-date - May 27, 2013. Our grandson still plays with this toy every time he's at out house.
He's forever inventing different ways of interacting with the Ballapalooza, running his little cars around the ramps, etc.
Perhaps he's not grown tired of it because it's not available to him everyday, but he's still loving this toy.
Product Description
Move to the beat with music and six dancing lights with the Cruise & Groove Ballapalooza, from Fisher-Price! Baby can drop colorful balls onto lower ramps or crawl through the gate for a different perspective. When they're old enough to pull up and stand, little ones can drop balls into the chute for surprise, bounce-back action to play all over again. Whether they're sitting, crawling, pulling-up, standing or cruising, the beat boppin' music will keep baby moving and grooving!
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1421 in Toys & Games
- Brand: Fisher-Price
- Model: W9858
- Dimensions: 34.00" h x32.80" w x37.70" l,
Features
- Cruise and Groove Ballapalooza is a great grow-with-me toy that is sure to engage baby
- Sitting baby can drop balls in the lower ramps or crawl through the gate or arch
- Standing baby can drop balls in the top and watch them zoom down the ramps
- Encourages physical development with fresh music and dancing lights
- Top Pick: The Toy Insider Hot Infant and Toddler Toys for the 2012 Holidays
Posted in Education , Learning , Toys Games
