Shake N Go! Flyers Show Plane Review

We're big fans of the Shake'N'Go race cars from Fisher-Price. Now the F-P wants us to take to the skies. What next? Shake'n'scuba?

Anyway, the Show Plane is a decent toy. The idea is you pull back on the catapult and release the plane to make it fly. But here instead of pulling the plane back (which you can do), you shake the entire launcher, and one tiny clip at a time, the plane inches backward. A nice idea, translating the shake'n'go concept to a flying machine, but in practice they have a few problems.

First, you have to insert the plane just right to engage the motor. Since it's a little tricky, and you can't pull on it too much or the "motor" won't start (it makes an engine noise), my son got a little impatient and just decided to start pulling it back. To do this, he's got to yank on the back of the plane. Ours is the green plane, which is kinda skinny and I worry the glued sections will rip apart.

Besides, having to use batteries for something that shouldn't need them is silly! In my day we had a crossbow and we liked it!

Really the boy had a great time though. It's a fun toy-- just make sure you educate the kids on how to use it. I think a little more practice and he'll go nuts. He played with it for over 30 minutes outside. That, to me, is quite good for a single toy. And he's quite interested in playing with it again tomorrow.

The box was astoundingly easy to open. Not as many of those twist-ties. We'll see how battery life goes, and the structural integrity. Although we might exchange it for the other one if he keeps tugging on it.

Final thought: get it on the cheap for a neat flying toy appropriate for younger kids.

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I Can Play Piano - Quick Review

The Fisher Price "I Can Play Piano" is the modern successor to the old Miracle Piano Learning System (which used to be available for your computer or Nintendo Entertainment System). It comes with an AC adaptor, and plugs into your TV with an attached (and not removable) set of RCA cables. You can play just the keyboard without a TV, but the sound is limited and there are no special features when you play without a TV.

So how does it work? There are just a few modes, and our 5 and 3 year olds can set it up quite easily. There's a game mode for learning the keys, a song mode for playing along, and a freestyle mode for just banging on the keys, haha.

But does it really work-- does it teach the kids to play piano? Sadly, no. I had hoped the keys would light up, as some do. Instead, they are color-coded, and you press the appropriate color when prompted by the game or song. The problem here is that the kids have to move their eyes from keys to screen, quite rapidly, even on the easiest settings. This really only encourages them to slap at all the keys, in hopes that they'll score points.

So you'd have to stay on them pretty closely for this to do any good. It isn't bad, but it won't make them into a concert pianist overnight either.

Bigger review with screenshots coming soon!