Toy Review: Busy Ball Popper

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Fun toy that seems to entertain all kids

Cons: Some, but they appear to be minor

The Bottom Line: 

Popping, sliding balls

Provide lots of little laughs

This one's a big hit

Uncle Mark Scored a Hit with the Busy Ball Popper

I have some friends who have kids just a little older than my niece, so I try to pay attention to what they enjoy to get ideas for presents to give her.  After watching multiple kids from about nine months to over two years playing happily with The Busy Ball Popper by Playskool, I knew I would have a winner.

What It Is

The ball popper is a contraption that theoretically could run by itself forever.  The outside is a giant track where the five included colorful plastic balls run down a track into a giant plastic tube.  In the tube, there is an air jet that shoots them up out of the top again, so they can slide back down the track.

The toy needs four D batteries to run.  There is a plunger you press to get the air jet started.  Once you press it, you'll find it runs for about 30 seconds before it shuts itself off.  While it is running, one of eight songs plays and it makes some fun sound effects as well.  The songs range from "Flight of the Bumblebee" to "Goodnight Ladies," and "Pop Goes the Weasle."  There are several others I recognized but can't name as well.

The toy is recommended for 9 months and older.

Our Experience

I gave this to my niece for her first birthday.  The outside track had to be attached, but it took just a few seconds to get it all assembled, the batteries in it, and to turn it on.

At the time, my niece was afraid of anything that made loud whirring noises.  She hated her mom's hair dryer, the vacuum cleaner, and the lawn mower, for example.  The air jet on this toy makes a whirling noise, so that scared her.  When someone would turn it on for her, she'd run to mommy or daddy to hide, but she kept looking at it.  Quite often, she'd be wandering over to play with it by the time it had shut off, only to start the cycle over again when it was turned on.

My brother and sister-in-law figured it would be a good way to help her overcome her fear, so they kept introducing it to her.  Now, four months later, she absolutely loves it.  She will turn it on and play with the balls.  She will even put them at the bottom of the chute when they come out of the toy.

When the batteries are new, the jet is pretty strong, and most of the balls shoot out of the top and don't land in the tray.  Instead, they roll out around the room.  As the batteries weaken, so does the power of the jet, so the balls pretty much stay in the toy.  Or they would if kids left them alone.  Instead, my niece loves to take one or two balls and walk off.  Very rarely are all five balls with the toy, but they seem to turn up fairly regularly.

One thing my niece loves to do is stick her head over the part that shoots the balls out and let it blow her hair.  The balls are all made of lightweight plastic, so if one is in the machine when she does this, it surprises her but doesn't hurt her at all.

The track pops into place fairly easily, but it also pops out of place fairly easily.  Since she will often pick it up and carry it around, either my brother or sister-in-law have to take a moment to fix it for her.  It would be nice if it stayed in place better than that.

The five balls that come with the toy are obviously designed to go through it, and they work quite well.  My niece has some other balls that are almost the same size, and if she puts them inside, they won't go through.  But just turning it upside down gets them out.  I haven't seen her even try to put anything else in there, but I'm sure anything small enough to fit through the opening (which is just ball sized) could get stuck just as easily.

The music is fairly loud when the toy is running.  My sister-in-law fixed this by putting some clear tape over the speaker.  Now the music is a nice background noise instead of taking over the entire room.  Thanks to the eight different songs, her parents say it is the one toy where they don't have the music memorized.

There is a switch on the back of the toy that will turn it on or off.  It would be nice if this were on the bottom so kids couldn't find it as easily if the parents wanted it off for some reason.

When other kids come over to play, all of them love playing with this toy.  Even the six month old in the circle of friends laughs and claps at it.

Even after four months, they are only on the second set of batteries, so the toy isn't so draining you'll go through them super fast.

Conclusion

After an initial shaky start, the Busy Ball Popper has proved to be the big hit I hoped it would be.  Now, I need to come up with something else equally as great for Christmas.  The pressure is on.