LeapFrog Scout’s Build & Discover Tool Box Review
Reviewed by Louise Totton
We are huge fans of LeapFrog toys in our house, they are always appealing to look at, long lasting and keep the kids’ interest for quite some time so we were really pleased to have been asked to review Scout’s Build & Discover Tool Box.
I have two girls, aged 3 and 6, and generally speaking, they’re both pretty girly girls. My lounge floor at times looks like a sea of pink plastic, intermingled with the odd doll or pony, so it was quite a novelty for our girls to have green tool box to play with. It is probably a little too young for my eldest, so we passed the reviewing mantel onto the smallest member of our household.
The tool box is attractively packaged, so all of the parts could be clearly seen. Chloe was really excited to get the package opened, so we attacked the plastic and cable ties with scissors and passed the contents onto Chloe to examine.
The set consists of an open topped, interactive toolbox and five different tools to use with it. It comes with batteries already installed so it really is ready to use. In common with lots of LeapFrog toys, the toolbox features Scout the puppy. We have the My Pal Scout, so Chloe was delighted to see her him featuring on the toy, and the voice that is used for the sounds of the toolbox match that of the soft toy.
The tools are colour-coded, and each one has a couple of components built into the toolbox to interact with. So there are two blue triangle screws to use with the blue screwdriver. There are two red bolts to use with the red hammer etc. Chloe really enjoyed using these; her favourite tool was the hammer, and she had a super time bashing the orange nails with it.
The toy encourages toddlers’ fine motor skills really well, she really engaged with the idea of trying to use the tools properly and getting the screwdriver into the groove on the screws.
The sides of the tool box also fold down, using a couple of orange bolts on the top. Again, it was great fun disassembling and reassembling the toolbox, putting the tools in and taking them out again, and pushing the green door to hear Scout’s instructions.
It was lovely to see the girls playing with a toy that wasn’t pink, and stereotypically a female toy. They had an absolutely super time using it, and I can tell that it will be as much a hit in our house as our LeapFrog picnic basket and tea set. The girls didn’t once comment that it was a boys’ toy, and they thoroughly enjoyed being builders for the day. Kids being kids, of course, nothing is ever single purpose. As well as a tool box and builder’s caddy, it is also being used as a handbag, a picnic basket, pony transporter and a boat. It is absolutely fantastic watching the kids imaginations take a lovely, sturdy and engaging toy like this to all of the places that an adult wouldn’t necessarily think of.
A brilliant toy, we love it.
Leapfrog just don’t make bad toys!
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £17.99
Suitable age: 2-5 years
Available to buy from LeapFrog here.
