Ring stackers are well, boring, and not interactive. I’ve had the old-fashioned Fisher-Price Rock-A-Stack (who hasn’t?), but aside from simple instruction and play, there’s not much to it. In this house we adore anything “Leap Frog” and the Stack & Tumble Elephant is a big hit. She sings about numbers, shapes, and colors as well as says that’s she’s happy. The sneezing is absolutely adorable! Now, this is one Elephant that will need a bit of supervision and help. I’m finding that performance can be a bit quirky or temperamental at times. One thing that’s a must is keeping the Stack and Tumble Elephant on a level surface AND keeping her trunk straight up before starting. If not, it’s hard to sequence the rings as the nose dips and the rings fall off. The sequencing is not always consistent and sometimes after pressing the tail I get the same two concepts in a row. Also every now and then if a ring goes on at a slight slant nothing happens. For example I’ll get colors then numbers, but have to play around to get the shapes. The only way to get the color / number / shape sequencing is to let the Stack & Tumble Elephant go completely through a sequence before trying to move to the next. The tail lever needs to be pressed (the rings fall off), then the nose needs to be pressed, and repeat until Elephant tells you everything she knows about these colors, numbers, and shapes. Below I’ve listed some of the phrases, but there are a few more. There are no specific instructions save a brief introduction, a line drawing of the Stack and Tumble Elephant and a couple of cautionary notes. The numbers / shapes / color “performances,” are actually sequenced. If say when working with numbers, I go from two to five, the Stack and Tumble Elephant will let me know it’s a five. There are sensors on her trunk that tell Elephant which ring was placed. Our little ones love it, but for optimum performance Elephant could use a bit of tweaking. When an adult helps, there are fewer quirks. The ears make a great clicking sound and can be twisted this way and that. The little color sensors on the trunk will “announce” the number when touched. There is a volume control (a must in some households), which I find quite handy. This can be a great instructional tool or a simple toy. No matter what purpose Elephant is used for, she’ll be a huge hit! •► PHRASES: Achoo, let’s play! Put rings on my trunk! Press the tip of my trunk! I get the sniffles from colors, but I love them, don’t you? Colors make me ah, ha, ah-choo! Orange, purple, red, yellow, green. You make me happy! Twist my ears! I like you! I get the sniffles from numbers, but I love them, don’t you? Numbers make me ah, ha, ah-choo! One, two, three, four, five. Yeah, one two, three, four, five rings. Can you find the ring with the number three? Ooopsy, daisy, there go the rings! I get the sniffles from shapes, but I love them, don’t you? One circle. Two hearts. Three triangles. Four squares. Five stars. There are also a variety of noises as well.
