Thomas and Friends Bathtub Squirters

Another favorite thing my son loves to play with are the Thomas and Friends Bathtub Squirters. It helps that he loves anything to do with Thomas the Train anyway, but these bath squirters help my son love bath time. Bath time wasn't always so much fun before we discovered this toy. The age recommendation for this toy is 6 months and up. My son is two and a half and he adores them. I am not so sure a baby as young as 6 months would really understand what to do with this toy, other than look at them. I would suggest one year and up would be the appropriate age for this toy.

Price:

I bought this toy at Target for $7.99. I didn't realize the price until I got home and looked at the receipt. It's not too bad since my son enjoys playing with the bath squirters. I also found them on www.Amazon.com but they were much more expensive at $14.99 plus you have to pay shipping and handling.

How they work:

Well, supposedly they are supposed to squirt water out of their little steam hole tops. This is great for a 35 tuning 36 year old to do. Unfortunately my two and a half year old can't quite figure out how to make the water squirt out of the top. You have to totally submerge the train under the water while squeezing at the same time. Even after doing this for a few seconds, which is already too long for my son to have any patience, you still only get a few squirts out of the train. This isn't exactly an easy concept for a toddler to do. So my hands end up all wrinkled from submerging them over and over again in the water. I finally gave up and my son just plays with the trains without the squirting aspect. Good idea in theory, not so much in reality. Instead, my son likes to line them up on the side of the bathtub. He likes to knock them into the water and do this over and over and over again. He also throws them out of his reach and then wants me to get them for him. This lasts for only a few minutes before we move on to the next plan of action. We practice counting with the train too

Included:

Three trains come in the package. One is blue, one is green, and the main locomotive is red. His name is "Salty". The other trains don't have any names on them even though my son knows them . They do however, have numbers. The blue train (Thomas) has the number one on it in yellow. The green train(Percy) has the number six on it in yellow. We practice our numbers and our colors while taking a bath. They are light in weight even when filled somewhat with water. I still haven't been able to fill them completely with water but they don't seem they would be too heavy. They are bigger than the regular metal trains but are still manageable for my son's hands to hold and manipulate. They are about 4 - 5 inches in diameter all around. I can see my son playing with them for another couple of years, hopefully.

This product is made in China but I haven't seen any recalls on this toy. You can visit the website www.thomasandfriends.com for more information.

My recommendations:

I do recommend the Thomas and Friends Bathtub Squirters as long as your heart isn't set on them working properly all of the time. Don't spend the money if you can't find them for less than $10. I don't think they are worth any more than that. Be prepared for a messy bath time too when using this product. Somehow the water finds it's way out of the bath and all over my bathroom floor and walls. I am glad I made this purchase for my son. He is really having a blast with them. It is hard to find bath time toys that actually are fun. Most of the time they last one bath and then they lose their appeal. We have had these trains for a long time and they are still going strong.