Review: Fisher Price Tuff Stuff Tape Recorder with Voice Warp

My kids are big music lovers. It is so much fun for them to listen to music and sing along. My in-laws had an older tap player with a microphone attached to it. Each time we went over to visit at my in-laws house that was the first toy that the kids wanted to play with. They would play for it for hours and never tire of the toy. It made sense for us to get our own toy like this one. We found the Fisher Price Tuff Stuff Tape Recorder with Voice Warp and thought it would be perfect.

After we added this tape recorder to our toy box my mother in law gave us tons of tapes of children's music for the kids to use. The kids could not wait to get started playing with it at home! They were just thrilled to not have to wait to be at the grandparents house to play with a tape player.

First let's go over the basics! The cost of this tape player at Toys R Us was $34.99. Not an inexpensive toy, however it also wasn't the most expensive tape player on the market either. The age range on this toy is supposed to be ages 3-5. However, all three of my children have played with this since it was purchased. My youngest was not quite 2, and my oldest was 6 at that time. Even though only one of my children fell within the specified age range on the package, all three of them found tons of enjoyment from this toy!

Tape Play
We have never had any trouble out of the tape player. All of our tapes, both new and old, have played without a problem.

Durability
This toy is probably the most durable toy among all of my children's toys. I am constantly amazed at what abuse this toy can take. My youngest was not able to carry the toy when we first got it. Therefore, she would drag it around by the microphone instead. the cord never stayed stretched out, and it never broke off the unit either. As with any other children, when it comes time to clean up, all the toys get thrown into the toy box with out any thought to organization. So this toy has had several other toys thrown on top of it, and I am sure it has been tossed into the toy box a time or too as well. It still works like it did right out of the box.

Battery Life
This is probably the only negative that I can find with this toy. Of course, this is probably my only co,plaint with any toy! The batteries are almost eaten by the toy. Now mind you, I am not replacing batteries daily, but it is much more often than I would prefer. I do always use Duracell or Energizer batteries in our toys so that does help us get more time out of the battery life, but still I feel like the batteries could last longer in this toy. One plus is that a DC adapter available for purchase as an accessory for this toy. I have not purchased this accessory, but it may be a wise investment.

Even More Good Things!
I just like any other parent think that my children's voices are the most beautiful sound int he world. However, there are times that I need some quiet from the children's music and sing-a-long by the kids. This tape player has a place to plug in headphones. It is only one plug in though, so this makes it difficult for more than one child to play with the toy while using the headphones. However, it does also have a volume control.

Voice Warp
The largest bonus to this toy for my children is the fabulous voice warper. Your child can speak into the microphone and hear his or her own voice come out of the speaker, or they can 'warp' their voice to make it sound like a monster, a robot, a chipmunk, or an alien.

I have to say that this is probably the best buy for the money. The only thing that I wish I had done differently is purchase the DC adapter to go along with it!