Going through the play cupboard…

… I found our old “Bounce Bounce Tigger” game. And as there were two really little ones around, I pulled it out and changed the batteries. Now this toy is a lot like Buckaroo I remember as a child; except rather than a spring-loaded donkey, it has a Tigger which you need to load up with picnic hampers ( know as picnic hamsters round here), pots of honey, scarves and a grinning bee. Put too much on and Tigger pops up scattering his stuff and making boing-boing noises. This started the giggles, which in two years old kids is contagious.

After such giggles, over a quarter hour of stacking him up, I find it hard to dis’ the game. Giggles are so precious, and I’m glad I found it again. But it is a one trick pony, it bounces, its funny, and then it goes back in the cupboard. Truly great toys often seem to have multiple uses. Lego makes most things, dolls-houses become palaces or teddies get imbued with thier own personality. I spent a few days as a child taking apart my Buckarooand winding the spring until I created what I called ‘Destruction Donkey’; but Tigger doesn’t easily lend itself to this kind of tinkering.

Saying that, if you were to find a nice one on sale, or down at a charity shop; and you had a 2 year old to entertain, I’d suggest you take the plunge because of its one redeeming feature, its sensitivity slide. Down at its base it has a slide which goes from rock like stoicism to butterfly trigger, which can be surreptitiously twiddled during play. It gives toddler a chance as succeeding and feeling good about themselves, and that’s a very good thing.

tag... play for today, 2up, toys