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17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 There is no spoon, er, off-switchJul 05, 2009
By Beau Yarbrough
This is a well-built wooden puzzle by Melissa and Doug (who seem to produce little other than well-built wooden puzzles) with eight farm animal pieces, each with a peg for easy removal from the board. When the pieces are placed in their slots, an electric eye causes a somewhat tinny animal sound to issue from the speaker at the top of the puzzle board.
But there is no off-switch. If you want to turn it off, you'll need a small Phillips-head screwdriver to remove the battery from the back.
The reason that this is an issue is that, if your kid is anything like mine, one of the pieces will vanish immediately, never again to be found. (In our case, it was the cat. Ducks and cows are great, but they've got nothing on cats in his eyes.) And the electric eye in the missing puzzle piece slot will activate every time the lights go out in a room or even a shadow passes over the puzzle.
EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Ever thought you had your toddler almost asleep, and then had a pet's shadow cause a puzzle in the room to begin meowing at him, waking him up? I have.
I don't think it's reasonable to ask toddlers to not walk off with puzzle pieces and hide them who-knows-where, so be warned: Whatever piece they fall in love with is the animal who will announce that the lights have gone off or a shadow has passed over the board until the puzzle finally powers down.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Toy is great - without batteries!Oct 04, 2009
By Jill I. Doody
I'm pretty sure Melissa & Doug outsourced to Satan when making this toy.
I really liked it - until we put batteries in it. Like another reviewer said, there is no off-switch for it. And the toy is not high-tech enough that each animal only makes its own sound when you put the right piece over it. So when your child tries to put the duck in the horse spot, it makes the horse sound (which sounds like a dying horse by the way, and the sheep sounds like it's being murdered).
I also have had it start making noises when it got dark in the room it was in - which is quite disconcering when you are alone in the house.
It's a really cute puzzle. Just save your sanity and don't put the batteries in.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Excellent, but only without sound!Jan 26, 2010
By P. Mathur
The sound puzzle seemed to be a great idea when we received it as a gift for our 14 month old son. What better way to learn animal sounds and hand-eye coordination? Until of course, the puzzle started making these animal sounds. And never stopped. The animal sounds are HORRIBLE. They're electric, raspy, and downright miserable. More so, the puzzle makes this sound at about any time, it seems to have motion sensors or light sensors or something, so whenever, we walk past our son's play room on the way to the kitchen, a pig "oinks" or what passes for an oink. Finally, the red handles on each puzzle piece look pretty low-quality and I'm afraid of them falling off (choking hazard!!) the puzzle pieces.
Overall, the product looks great, and would've been perfect for our son had it not been plagued with so many horrible animal sounds. Take the battery out and enjoy it as a simple puzzle, in which case, it then costs too much.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Don't Buy!Jan 10, 2011
By Cindy
Good idea but very poorly executed. Sound sensors seem to be triggered by darkness so go off when anything covers the sensors. Thus, you don't have to put a puzzle piece in its correct spot to hear its corresponding sound (i.e. if the horse puzzle piece is put over the dog spot it will bark). This flaw makes the product useless as a educational toy. Sound sensors also go off when room lights are turned off and will continue to go off randomly until lights are turned back on. Batteries must be removed to prevent this from happening as there is no off/on switch. The sound quality is also very poor.
 UniqueJan 11, 2012
By Linda M. Tynan
"Linda Tynan"
I bought this puzzle for my grandson a year ago and was very pleased with it, he was one at the time. I am very pleased to say that now he is two and still enjoys the puzzle but at a much higher developmental stage!!!!! I purchased this as a gift and will purchase it again in the future as need arises. Great product.
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based on 12 reviews
