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Blue Hat Toy Company Little Tunes MP3 Player by Blue Hat Toy Company
Digital Photo Product DetailsManufacturer: Blue Hat Toy Company Brand: Blue Hat Toy Company Product features: - Bring the wonderful world of music to your child with the Little Tunes Digital MP3 boom box
- Interactive toy boasts 20 pre-recorded songs for children to enjoy right out the box
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Blue Hat Toy Company Little Tunes MP3 PlayerCustomer Review: A true MP3 player for little ones Summary: 5 Stars
This product is the only actual MP3 player I've been able to find for preschoolers. So many other products hint that they're MP3 players (aka MP 123, FP3, etc) or in some cases even SAY MP3 on the package when they don't actually play MP3s at all (SHAME ON YOU PLAYSKOOL!). From the other reviews, it sounds like this manufacturer might have some bugs to work out of the system and maybe we got lucky with the first one working no problems. I got ours from JC Penney's, they were selling there for $30 before Christmas (I used a $15 off coupon on mine tho!) and they're selling for $20 there as of today (12/26/2008). It connects with a standard mini-USB cable and my XP computer recognized it as an MP3 player/external hard drive immediately, no problem whatsoever. I down-converted a few songs to a lower bitrate so they'd take up less space on the player (not that it's an issue yet - my kids are at the stage where they want to hear the same song over and over again anyway so I only put a handful on and removed the ones that came with the player). The kids have been playing with it nearly constantly for the last 24 hours, can't really say much to the durability yet but they're not being gentle and it's still working fine. I did notice that the display model at the store had the volume knob missing, tho who knows how that happened and if someone "older than recommended age" for the product did it on purpose (which, having tested it with my own hands before handing it over to an 18mo - aka someone "younger than the recommended age" - the volume knob feels pretty darn secure to me - and that piece is large enough to be borderline on the choking-hazard-danger scale anyway, it'll fit in his mouth but not likely down his windpipe).
The only concerns I have (and they're not enough to lower my review to 4 stars instead of 5) are: the battery screws are fine-thread and take FOREVER to (un)screw - if you've got a power screw driver you might want to use it here (tho be careful not to over tighten and strip the screws!). Also, I put fairly freshly charged 2500 NiMH rechargable AA batteries (it needs 4 AAs) in on Christmas Eve while wrapping it, it showed that it only had one bar (out of what looks like 3) worth of battery power and today stopped playing with a "low battery" warning on the screen. I replaced with another set of fairly freshly charged 2500 NiMH AAs (we have a lot of them around our house, being an eco-geek family) and it's again showing only one bar worth of battery power. Haven't tried other batteries, it may be that it doesn't like rechargable batteries. As much as my sons are enjoying this product (and the apparently amazing deal I got on it, given what the lone seller is selling them for as I write this), I'd happily invest in rechargable lithium batteries for it if that's what kept the thing running without my having to open the battery compartment regularly.
Definitely will be recommending this product to my friends whose kiddos are nearly wrecking the parents' MP3 players.
As another reviewer mentioned, it does have a headphone jack and the volume isn't annoyingly loud even at full blast.
Description of Blue Hat Toy Company Little Tunes MP3 PlayerLet your little ones enjoy some tiny tunes of their own! Blue Hat's fun, colorful MP3 boom box is ready for playtime with kid-friendly controls and an working LCD display ? just like what mom and dad listen to! Model 1617011.
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