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Thomas at the Carnival 100 pc glow in the dark puzzle

Turn out the lights and watch it glow!!! This Thomas puzzle has 100 extra thick pieces to give your childs hours of fun. It’s from Ravensburger, so you know it is the highest quality puzzle you can buy.

Measures 9.2″ x 1.5″ x 13.3″

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Thomas the Train Puzzle Review
This puzzle is so neat. My 4 year old can put it together with a little help. He loves the fact that it glows in the dark! Great quality!!!

5 Stars A Puzzling Delight
This puzzle was an absolute delight for the little seven year old tyke who put it together. Each piece was of interest whether flowers, faces, or trains. She was most excited to see it glow, and waited all day for night to come and for the puzzle to reveal itself in the dark. A truly fun experience in every way.

4 Stars very cute puzzle
This is a very cute puzzle and my 4 year old LOVED the glow in the dark aspect. My only complaint was that some of our pieces wouldn’t lay very flat and the paper on the edges of some of the pieces seems a bit flimsy like it might peel easily. Overall, though I think the puzzle will hold up fairly well and hopefully flatten out over time.

5 Stars Enjoyed by my Thomas fans/puzzlers
Both of my kids (2 & 5) love this puzzle. The 2-year-old (nearly 3) needs help finding pieces, but if I find her all of the pieces for a given engine she’ll put them together. There is enough going on in it of different colors that it’s an easy puzzle to put together in parts. It’s a great toy to bring out when we need the energy level to go down for a little bit.

4 Stars Great Puzzle
I bought this for my 4 year old, after realizing the 35 pc Thomas the Engine puzzle I bought him was too easy. You won’t be disappointed by the quality of the puzzle, it is pretty sturdy compared to the cheaper puzzles out there. The picture is coordinated such that my son works on different parts and can later put the whole puzzle together by himself. In fact, the picture is so well put together, that he can put the puzzle together in less than 30 minutes. I am afraid he will outgrow this puzzle soon, however, I think I will have it framed and hang it on his bedroom wall so he can enjoy at bedtime. He loves the glow in the dark feature. Puzzles are a great head-fake, he’s “playing” but learning great logic and analytical skills at the same time. I am overall satisfied with the product.

Buy/More Info

Kid Toys Puzzles Absolute Delight, Carnival, Dark Carnival, Different Colors, Energy Level, Glows, Great Puzzle, Great Toy, Highest Quality, Little Bit, Puzzle Pieces, Puzzles, Quality Puzzle, Ravensburger, Thick Pieces, Thomas Fans, Thomas The Engine, Thomas The Train, Trains, Tyke

Livescribe 2GB Pulse Smartpen APA 00002

Sleek ergonomic design with anodized aluminum housing, high speed infrared camera, 300 mAH rechargeable lithium ion battery, smartpen microphone, 3-D recording headset, and USB mobile charging cradle.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Great for Meetings
I use it for work meetings constantly and it works great. Here are some pros and cons:

- Works well in meeting rooms and offices, even when a speakerphone is being used. Records all the discussion in the room. Includes an external speaker – microphone that plugs in for better audio quality.

- Can upload the pages directly to your PC and then word search the written text. It even prints as pdf file…

- Pen has a nice build and not too heavy but the pen cartridge moves and rattles a bit.

- Ink cartridges run out quickly although they provided replacements, including different colors.

- Read the manual, there are some quirks on the way it knows and handles the notebooks.

- I haven’t tried it yet but you can print your own dot paper on a compatible printer.

- You can sometimes hear the pen noise while writing (using the installed microphone) but again you can plug in the external speaker/microphone supplied to avoid the noise.

- Got it as a gift from Costco and comes with 4 college ruled generously supplied dot paper notebooks.

- Had to update the software from the internet but couldn’t do it from work since it was blocked by company network. Tried to get this corrected using Internet Explorer options but worked find from home Cable Network.

- Doesn’t come with OCR software but Vision Objects sells myScribe it separately on the web for 29.00 and integrates directly with the Livescribe software…you would think they would bundle this since it works so well. The OCR software dumps directly to MS Word.

- Livescribe pen software works OK but is a little limited. For example, you have to delete one session at a time from the pen. The interface is not intuitive so did I mention…read the manual.

- The pen is little buggy…lost its brain on date and time…had to reset a few times. Can update the firmware right from Livescribe so thats a nice feature.

- I really like the product and will be looking for the new and improved model once they work out a few bugs.

2 Stars vista 64 bits
When I run the desktop manager on my windows vista 64 bits don’t recognized the pen, and don’t let my transfer the information from the pen to the laptop.

I made a test on windows xp and work’s ok, but on my vista 64 bits doesn’t work.

What can I do to fix this situation?

2 Stars You could lose your files
Google “Unable to access your database folders” for a serious problem with this pen, or rather with the PC software used to search your notes.

5 Stars Works perfectly as advertised
I got this for work. I take lots of notes. This thing is awesome. Lots of people at work are getting them – it’s really catching on.

All I can say is that it does everthing as advertised. You do have to write in their special notebooks, however, that’s not such a bad thing, since the books come in different types, plus the books have calculator sheets as well.

In a pinch, you can print your own special paper with a high-resolution printer.

4 Stars The Pen is Fantastic, The Software is 1/2 done.
So you already know the pen is wonderful, amazing, fantastic and does so much. Clearly created by fanatical geniuses. Unfortunately the desktop software is not quite there yet. In my opinion, the biggest flaw is that you can’t group your pages together into binders or folders. I have a 200 page notebook with sessions weekly from business meetings, classes, lectures and interviews. If I wanted to have a folder labeled “candidate interviews” and move all my pages into that folder, I can’t. This is a serious flaw. There’s no indexing system for your work. So if you have hundreds of pages on your desktop you cannot tag them, index them, group them or associate them together in any way. Clearly 1/2 done.

The other missing functionality is character recognition and translation to text. This would have been a killer feature if it were included but it doesn’t seem to be here and it’s certainly not integrated.

Wouldn’t it be nice if those two things were part of this software?

Finally, someone else asked for this too, why isn’t there a clip on the side of the pen for two reasons; one so it doesn’t roll and two so it can be clipped to the inside of my shirt pocket!

So don’t let that stop you from getting this amazing device but don’t expect to get these functions in the provided software.

Buy/More Info

Kid Toys Music Audio Quality, Cable Network, Compatible Printer, Costco, Different Colors, Dot Paper, Ergonomic Design, External Speaker, High Speed Infrared Camera, Home Cable, Internet Explorer Options, Lithium Ion Battery, Ocr Software, Paper Notebooks, Pen Software, Rechargeable Lithium Ion Battery, Speaker Microphone, Speakerphone, Vision Objects, Work Meetings

Smart Snacks Rainbow Color Cones

The eight brightly colored scoops encourage color identification, and stacking the ice cream on the cones promotes fine motor skills. To help preschoolers learn the colors, each scoop is clearly marked on the inside with the name of the color (blue, red, etc.). Scoops measure approximately 3″ x 2″ each.

Awards:

• The National Parenting Center’s seal of Approval (2003)
• Honors Award Winner- National Parenting Publications Awards for Children’s Resources (NAPPA-2003)

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great play ice cream
We needed some ice cream for the play food repertoire and looked at a number of different implementations — wood a la Melissa and Doug, Fleece, cheesy plastic, and these sturdy yet mildly flexible rubber ones. Ultimately I left it up to my 3 year old daughter who sat and deliberated over them on the store floor (”I can only get one, right?).

Initially I leaned toward the wooden ice cream since I’m a fan of wood toys. But this was a good choice — the ice cream looks realistic, has a pleasing texture, is nicely weighted, super durable (tossed all around), and richly colored (more so than the alternatives).

After the purchase we sat down in a pizza shop and took out the ice cream. Other small children there were standing on their seats vying for a look so we had a communal ice cream “tasting”.

Note that the balls of ice cream are hollow — like a shell — so that they can be stacked in a realistic way.

5 Stars Realistic, educational and FUN Ice Cream!
My daughter received this toy for Christmas when she was 2.5 years old. She absolutely LOVES her ice cream!

It comes with 8 different colors of ice cream – each color is labeled on the bottom in pretty big text. It also comes with 2 cones. You can stack as many or little ice creams on top of each other as you want!

They are very durable, realistic, and an absolutely wonderful toy. My daughter struggles a little in putting the first ice cream onto the cone.. its a little “tight” – but she’ll get the hang of if.

And, one thing to note – I do wish the ice creams would fit a little bit more snug on top of each other.. they just kinda sit on top of each other, so if you just tip the cone.. they fall off. My daughter doesnt seem to mind this, but I can see where a couple of kids may get irritated the ice cream doesnt stay on the others!

Overall, excellent toy. Highly recommended for any child – my daughter has mastered the colors a long a time ago.. and this just reinforces the different colors when she plays with this toy – wonderful educational and FUN toy!

5 Stars Love this toy!
I hesitated for a second before I bought this product because I thought that the price was too high. I feel differently now that I received it. It is made of thick, soft, durable material. It is a very fun and educational toy. My 6 year old and my 1 year old both really enjoy playing with it.

5 Stars Fun toy
My two-year-old daughter has loved this toy. It is very durable and very realistic. The only difficulty is with getting the first scoop on the cone. I have just instructed my daughter to leave those on and not take them off and that has solved the problem.

5 Stars So realistic, So much fun!!!
My 2 1/2 year old daughter LOVES these ice cream cones. She serves up multiple flavors daily! Plus every kid (multiple ages) that comes in to her play room, goes for these! There great on the cones or in bowls! Very durable, bright colors, great toy to play pretend with!

Buy/More Info

Kid Toys [Learning & Education] Award Winner, Balls, Christmas, Color Cones, Different Colors, Fleece, Flexible Rubber, Littl, Melissa And Doug, National Parenting Center, Parenting Publications, Pizza Shop, Pleasing Texture, Rainbow Color, Scoop, Seal Of Approval, Shell, Smart Snacks, Wood Toys, Wooden Ice Cream

Ultimate LEGO DUPLO Building Set

Little builders with big imaginations will love diving into this tub of colorful LEGO bricks. Comes with building plate, wagon base and figure to help inspire role-play fun. New container allows for easy clean-up and efficient storage. The transparent lid lets little builders display their models. 71 pieces. Tub measures 7.56″H x 15.12″W x 7.56″.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars He Never Tires of His Legos!…
I purchased this set at Wal-mart for my son when he was about a year old. At that point he was a little too young to have the patience to sit and attach the blocks together. However, now, at almost 16 months, this is one of the first things he goes for in his playroom.

He’s figured out to connect the blocks, but is still a bit young to really make anything, such as a house or building. The size of the pieces are great for his clumsy little hands, large enough that he can grasp them and stick them together. He LOVES the little car that comes with, and plays with it all the time. I also really like that this is a toy we can play with together, it’s not something he loses interest in after a few minutes.

Overall, I definitely recommend Duplo Legos! I’ll absolutely be buying more sets as he continues to grow. I was a huge fan of Lego’s as a child, and I’m thrilled that my son gets so much enjoyment out of them as well!

5 Stars Ultimate Legos
Our grandson (18 mos.) loves playing with his Lego Duplo Building set. He is learning how to put them together and take them apart. He is also learning to identify different colors. Well worth the money.

5 Stars Good Starter Set
This is a good starter set, one can never have enough duplos, but this set includes a useful number of bricks plus a wheeled base for making cars, and a little guy. My 2 year old and 5 year old love playing with them.

3 Stars Quantity has been drastically cut
I bought this same set for my daughter about six years ago. I went to buy the same set for my son and was disgusted to see that what had 140 pieces just a few years ago now only has 71 pieces for the same price.

5 Stars Two HOURS of fun on a plane ride
My son turned two the day we took a long flight. He played with the bricks for TWO HOURS on the plane. He loves, loves the bricks, both by themselves and with a few characters purchased as part of another set. The characters go a long way.

This is a nice little set with all of the basic bricks needed plus the fun of a small building plate and a person. We also bought a large building plate 15 X 15 which is great.

Buy/More Info

Kid Toys Games Cars, Different Colors, Few Minutes, House Building, Imaginations, Lego Bricks, Lego Duplo, Legos, Little Car, Little Hands, Measures, Models, Patience, Playroom, Role Play, Six Years, Stars, Storage, Tires, Wal Mart

Wild Planet Hyper Dash

It’s the electronic game that’s as fast as you are. Test your speed and agility in a race against time using five targets and an electronic handheld unit. To start, set up your targets on the table, around the room, around the house or throughout the yard. Then, follow the announcer’s commands as you zip around your racecourse to tag your targets with the handheld unit. The fastest time wins. Features four game modes that challenge your speed, skill, memory, coordination and teamwork. Includes ergonomically designed Hyper Dash unit and five labelled targets. Requires 3 “AAA” batteries, not included. Measures 4.5″L x 12″W x 10″H.

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star Piece of junk
[...]

The kids were really excited about this toy. Unlike the other reviews which report a garbled voice, the voice/commands shutting down, we get repeated commands over and over and over, from the first time we used it. “Yellow! Yellow! Yellow! Yellow! Yellow! Yellow!”

Yet another low-quality toy that will go straight from my wallet to the junkyard. What a shame.

4 Stars Great toy – good exercise and educational value
We have 3 kids of our own. Our oldest is 6 and we have a 4 year old and 1 year old. One weekend when we watched my sister’s kids (ages 4 and 1), we bought this game via AmazonFresh. It was great fun for the 4 and 6 year olds. Obviously not appropriate for the 1 year olds.

First you spread out the targets around the room or yard which are different colors and have numbers on them. You select a game (hyper dash, micro dash, micro team dash) and a level (1-3). The first player strikes any target to start. The “wand” then speaks instructions to the player such as “Green!” (strike green target) or “Double Strike Blue” (hit blue target twice) or “CompuStrike 6 minus 3″ (meaning strike the target with the number 3 on it) or “Reverse” (strike last target) The player follows the instructions. If they get it wrong, the wand makes a buzzing sound and they have to keep trying. The goal is to get through all the commands in the round in the shortest time possible. AFter everyone has gone, the wand tells you which player won. There can be ties. The winners advance to the next round.

Our 6 year old understood all the commands which includes colors & math & some memory. The math was too advanced for the 4 year olds but they got the colors & memory commands.

We found that if you placed the targets far enough part (outside in the yard or at the park), the game was good exercise as the kids ran around from target to target.

The game is easy to transport – light and compact. It takes 3 AA batteries. Fit well in our stroller.

The kids really got into this game and were quite tired when they finally stopped. It seemed to exercise all the right muscles and kept their attention for at least 1-2 hours

1 Star Blast! plus Letdown…
My kids received this as a present for Christmas and all of them from 4 to 10 loved it! It seemed like the perfect “kid” toy. However, as so many have already said, after about 1 month, it stopped working. New batteries didn’t help. I even took it apart to see if a wire came out or some connection fell off, but no luck. What a letdown. I’d feel better if it wasn’t such a great toy! Do I dare buy another? Probably not.

5 Stars More fun than I thought it would be!
I saw this game for some time, but just didn’t think it would be fun. After seeing all the positive reviews I decided to buy it for my son’s birthday. It is a lot of fun. The courses we set up do not span a great distance–so we don’t do a lot of running. However, I’m thinking of expanding the distance and perhaps I could lose some weight as well as having fun!

1 Star Great fun–but NOT durable!
We bought this toy for our kids for Christmas, and they played with it a handful of times and had a blast. I loved how it could be an indoor game or an outdoor one. But the kids just took it out again recently, and it doesn’t work anymore. It turns on, but then as soon as you press it to one of the targets, it shuts off. We have replaced the batteries, taken it apart to see if there was something that came loose inside, but nope, nothing has worked to fix it. I think it’s destined for the landfill . . . what a disappointment.

Buy/More Info

Kid Toys Games 1 Year Olds, Aaa Batteries, Agility, Amazonfresh, Dash Unit, Different Colors, Educational Value, Electronic Game, Fastest Time, Game Modes, Green Target, Handheld Unit, Junkyard, Kids Ages, Level 1, Low Quality, Quality Toy, Race Against Time, Wallet, Wild Planet