REVIEW – Tomy Sort & Pop Spinning Top

Our family seems to be full of children at the moment! I have a niece and nephew, multiple second cousins and a daughter of my own (plus one on the way!). There is no better feeling than getting a group of them together and watching them play. Aged between 9 months and 4 years, my sisters children and my daughter are very close, and love to share and explore the world together!

We were recently given the opportunity to road test some toys from the Tomy Toddler range, and the children were very excited and couldn’t wait to get this one out of the box! 🙂

The Product

The Tomy Sort & Pop Spinning Top is a spinning top with a difference.  Aimed at children 10 months and above, this bright and colourful friendly character is a spinning top and shape sorter combined. Match the different coloured shapes to the various “legs” of the Octopus, and then press down his head to watch him spin, causing the pieces to pop out, ready for the child to put all the pieces back in the right place! 🙂

The Tomy Sort & Pop Spinning top retails at £15.99.

Our Experience

We road tested the Tomy Sort & Pop Spinning Top with three children aged between 9 months and nearly 4 years. They all enjoyed playing with the Octopus, and each one was able to play in a slightly different way.

Immy, the youngest, loved the bright colours and holding some of the individual pieces, although a little too young to be able to correctly place the pieces back in the correct location. She was however, very keen on pressing down the octopus head and giggled when the pieces all popped out! 🙂

Erin & Nathan being that little bit older (nearly 3 and 4) were able to fully use the shape sorting element of the toy, and were able to fairly quickly put all the pieces back in the right place, matching up the different shapes and colours. In my opinion, when a child is over 1/18 months they should become more able to do this element of the toy. You could say that this toy was a little ‘young’ for both of them, but they found the popping element of the toy hilarious, and as such, kept going back for more. We made it quite educational, by asking them to confirm the shape and the colour before they put it back in to the sorter.

What I particularly loved about this toy was that it is perfect for siblings of different ages to play together, with all of them getting enjoyment from the pop and sort features.

It is also educational, and encourages children to pick up their toys and tidy away after themselves – this can NEVER be a bad thing, although if you had seen my lounge, Erin clearly hasn’t put that learning to good use elsewhere yet!! 🙂

Pros:

• Bright and colourful design with a friendly face!
• Staged learning, making it suitable for children from 10 months to at least 4 years from our testing!
• Teaches colours and shapes
• Encourages children to collect pieces and tidy up!
• More fun than your average spinning top!
• Great value for money

Cons:

• If like us you have a slightly messy lounge you will end up struggling to find the odd shape that has popped out a little too far, however Erin seems to really enjoy finding them all! 🙂
• I think a 10 month old would struggle to benefit from the shape sorting element of the Spinning Top, but the fact it spans a number of age groups is a real benefit.

You can read more about the Tomy Sort & Pop Spinning Top on the Tomy Website here – http://uk.tomy.com/products/tomy-sort-pop-spinning-top-octopus