Pretend Play Reviews

The gown itself is luxurious and well-made. My granddaughter wore hers for Halloween and plays in it often. The headpiece is another story. It is Huge! The child's father (six foot 2inch and 200 pounds) found that it was too big for him and would not stay on his head. When we finally got her to hold it on her head long enough for the costume contest, the pointed plastic piece on the bridge of the nose caused great plain so we glued cotton balls on it but they did not stay. The very top of the headpiece was crushed slightly when it arrived--thus the low durability rating. Overall, the child loved the costume and hated the headpiece while Grandma thought it was a bit pricey! (But she was the most beautiful child in the contest -- even though she did not win!)

The gown itself is luxurious and well-made. My granddaughter wore hers for Halloween and plays in it often. The headpiece is another story. It is Huge! The child's father (six foot 2inch and 200 pounds) found that it was too big for him and would not stay on his head. When we finally got her to hold it on her head long enough for the costume contest, the pointed plastic piece on the bridge of the nose caused great plain so we glued cotton balls on it but they did not stay. The very top of the headpiece was crushed slightly when it arrived--thus the low durability rating. Overall, the child loved the costume and hated the headpiece while Grandma thought it was a bit pricey! (But she was the most beautiful child in the contest -- even though she did not win!)

This hangar is (I believe) a bit larger than the "Kid's" hangar, but still will barely hold three of the planes in it. It is a very cute replica of the hangar on the show, and makes a fun place to park the planes during play or for the night. The Brenda Blue character that pops out when you press the lever is clever, but doesn't add much play value. Frankly, I'm surprised she hasn't broken off yet! The hangar itself is very solid and quite heavy, and the kids seem to enjoy incoporating it into their play.

I was pleasantly surprised by the high quality of this item - it has survived being stepped on (accidently, of course) several times by children and adults. In addition, it has now survived almost a whole year of hard playing, crashes, and trips down the stairs.

The vehicle is well-made; all the parts fit together properly. No sharp or rough edges. The trunk opens and closes smoothly, and the detachable roof re-attaches quite easily. The package comes with three figures, and their accompanying items (suitcases, newspaper and hats.)

A few caveats:

1. It's sometimes difficult to get the driver (or any of the included figures) to "sit" properly behind the wheel. You have to contort the figure and the steering wheel "just so" to get him or her in.

2. Be prepared to lose the antenna on top (unless you use some type of super glue.)

3. The figures "personal effects" tend to get lost easily as well.

All in all, it's a well-packaged set that should offer hours (or in some cases, years) of good solid play. It's a great item - we highly recommend it!

While I think this costume is just fine quality wise for the price, I want everyone to know that the costume arrives as "Up to size 16" and not as 46 as described by the product description. The US and Europe use different size charts and you should know that this is NOT a plus sized garment.

My mother got this for my 10 month-old daughter as an early birthday gift. It was a bit of a chore to put together, the instructions are not always very clear.

As for playing with it, my daughter likes the slide, the blocks, and the steering wheel, but she cried when we tried to push her in the swing (an activity she LOVES at the park). The swing doesn't "swing", it jerks. The straps are OBVIOUSLY too short. It was disappointing because that was the part we were most excited about. We're going to try and take the swing part off and get one to hang on a tree. This would be better off as a playhouse without the bulky, useless swing part.

We were hoping to get a couple years worth of fun out of this, and now we're happy that we got it early instead of waiting until September so she can at least get one summer's use of it. I think she will out grow it by next summer.

I have to imagine there are better sets out there.

We bought the swing set when our first Grandchild began pulling up. She was absolutely delighted for us to swing her and very proud that she could go down the slide on her own. We now have 6 Grandchildren and they have all played on the swing set. They have been equally entertained. I would recommend this product. It still looks good and has needed no repairs.

We bought this swing for my son's 1st birthday. He loved climbing on it, using it as a fort and racing his cars down the slide. We never had any problems with it tipping over, it has always been very sturdy. He did out grow the swing quickly because it was very low to the ground so he ended up using it for his stuffed animals instead.

We kept it on an enclosed patio with sun exposure and the swing straps did rot. The Hedstrom company replaced all 4 straps and the seatbelt for free, they were very nice.

One nice feature is that the slide and ladder fold up so it won't take up quite as much space when it's not being used. Overall, I would recommend this product, just don't expect much from the swing.

My child can never use this because the handle constantly falls off. Glue or tape has not helped. Terrible purchase! Buy a different vacuum.

This is a cute toy and our daughter loved it but... something is severely wrong with the voice mechanism. It has a muffled voice sound and often sounds gargled and demonic! We have replaced the batteries several times thinking this was the problem but it does the same thing once you replace the batteries out for new ones. Our daughter did enjoy playing with this toy but she often gets annoyed because the handle falls off easily and the voice mechanism doesn't work well or sounds posessed and this freightens her! I'd probably recommend a different vacuum cleaner and wouldn't re-purchase this one again if I had the option.

I bought this item for my 18 month old daughter. She loves it but the handle keeps breaking off. She played with it less than 2 minutes before the handle broke the first time and now we have to glue it on for her to even play with it. She has only had this toy for about 10 minutes and is in tears because she can't play with it. This is the biggest piece of junk that I have boughten in a long time.

whether your child loves superheroes or any kind of dress up - this is a winner! A great price, very comfortable and one of their favorites under the tree (we bought the Superman, too). My kids are 3 (slightly over 35 lbs.) and 5 - the fit is fine. They jut up just a bit at the shoulders, but since it is soft foam, not a hard plastic, this has no affect on their play or enjoyment. The capes are long for the shorter guys, but I haven't seen any tripping yet and they basically haven't taken them off since the 25th. If you think the length might cause a problem, the fabric is easily trimmed with scissors, there is no hem.

You can't lose with this one!!

My son got this for his fourth birthday. The costume is quite large for small children, but he did not care and it was amazing to see him play and grow into it. My son who is now eight, told me to write a review as we were looking at toy ideas for Christmas. He thought the costume was really fun to play with, and wanted other parents to know it would be a good gift for kids that liked batman.

The costume held up pretty well under many hours of crime fighting in our home. This was an excellent value for my son. He literrally spent hundreds of hours in this costume over the years. For the price, it will be hard to find a better value for your child. You will smile as you watch your child use their imagination, and play with their friends keeping your home safe from evil doers. Helpful hint - Buy another Superhero costume so their friends can join in the fun (Robin,Superman).

We bought this in March for our 3 year old son's Batman-themed birthday. Like the other reviews say, it's really too big but the way it is made it doesn't matter. Here almost 9 months later, he has worn it almost every day and it was his Halloween costume. It looked so dirty and spotted by then I washed it expecting it to fall apart but it came out looking great. It's not top quality apparel, but it's definitely much better than the flimsy costumes you typically get at your local [discount store] or whatever

I bought this toy for my younger sibling but played with it myself. It is so much fun! The foam shapes are colorful and eye-catching and are very cute. You fill the mat half way with water, whipe it off, and watch your baby play. The mat makes cool sloshing sounds, too. A funny thing is that it's good for a baby with a fever or outside in the summer if you fill it with cold water. You can do the opposite for colder days.

I bought this for my son when he was four months old. He fought spending any time on his tummy until I came home with this. At first, I had to hold him up to play on it to avoid suffocation. However, it was worth it. My son suddenly loved playing on his belly!! He loved the sounds of the water splashing inside and watching the fishes move around. He would bat at them and laugh.

The only reason I gave it four stars is that the fish tend to stick together alot. Storage is a bit difficult too. It's worth it though. I think I paid $5 at a discount store.

I bought this for my son when he was 4months old and he would slap the water and now that he is 9 months old he Loves it. He will bat at the little fishys in the sea and try to swat at the head of the ??? not sure what it is. LOL I bought it for $6.99 at a local store and it was worth the money.

My daughter really liked her new grill, she was very excited to see her new toy as she really likes cooking and kitchen toys. The idea of getting this kind of toy was good but this toy was disappointing....the eyes and the mounth moves as the grill talks but when it moves it creates NOISE from moving aside from the annoying talking which never ends. I really like the idea of talking grill, keeps the kid from getting bored but it should only talk when a button is pressed or something, this thing scared me in the middle of the night when it started to talk, I almost called cops. plastic food is had to flip...I agree with the rest of the reviews on this page and would not recomend spending $$$$ on this

My daughter is 2 1/2 an tomboy at heart. This grill scared her. I thought that it was a lot of fun to play with but the constant talking and shaking made her not want to come near the thing. What a shame. This is a toy that should be tested out in the store first.

The talking grill was given to our ten month old boy. He loves it. He gets excited when it talks, and he likes to kneel at the grill, grabbing onto the "food", which ends up in his mouth. We wish it had a shut-off button and it does tend to go off when no one is around, but since he loves it, we live with it. I could see how older children would get tired of it, but it's great for my ten month old.