Nice toy, but toddler mildly interested
586146
My toddler at times liked throwing this more than playing with it.  Love the wood construction and colors, but it didn't keep his interest very long, once he figured out how to get them in and out.
173896
My daughter LOVES Lamaze toys, so many crinkles, colors, things to chew on. This little guy is adorable, but he doesn't have much to offer in terms of fun things. He doesn't squeak, crinkle, rattle, or anything. He has one chewing/teething toy and that's about it. I'd imagine once she is a bit older she will enjoy him more, but for younger babies I'd go with the Moose, Giraffe, Doll, etc.
1871748
My almost 1 year old son loves this toy. He will play with it for a good 10 minutes, and that is long for an almost 1 year old! However,  I feel it could be a little more appealing,  it is kind of basic for the price. But he likes it, so that is all that matters.
3379502
This is a nice toddler toy.  The colors are bright and the balls fit easily where on the top.  There are plenty of them so even if you lose a few (likely with the little ones) you still have some left over.  The dinosaur is large (about as tall as my 18 month old when she sits next to it).  It doesn't do a whole lot, but my kiddo still enjoys it regularly for 10-15 minutes before moving on to something else to play with.  Overall, it's a nice toy, but a bit big if you have a small space.
3628060
We got this for my son's first birthday, but the recommended age is 18 months+. Our little guy loves to press all the buttons to open the windows and to shuffle the characters, but he doesn't quite follow the directions Elmo gives yet. Elmo will ask you to open the yellow window or to find Cookie Monster. My biggest complaint is that there's no on/off switch. When we first got it, we would have to stow it away to get our son to go down for a nap or go to bed, but Elmo would keep on talking revealing its whereabouts. Also, we keep it in a toybox and if anything hits any of the buttons, then Elmo starts chatting away. Another strange thing about this toy is that the green paint rubs off onto other toys in the toy bin.

Pros: fun, addictive toy for a toddler
Cons: no on/off switch, pretty loud, paint rubs off onto other toys
490135
I bought this as a newer toy for my second son, seeing he gets most of his toys hand-me-down from his older brother. Of course, older brother wants to play with it (2 yrs old). My youngest is only 3 months now so it's not really age appropriate or even the right size for his hands, but he likes to look at it and gets pretty excited about it.
177522
My toddler started showing interest in this toy shortly after he turned 2. He had some difficulty at first and needed assistance, now he is almost 2 and a half and loves it !! He plays with it almost every day. The only problem is the lid, it does not slide well, especially to close it.
1689999
Elmo gets mixed reviews in our house.  Both my almost 3 year old and 1 year old were very excited when he arrived, and wanted him out of the box immediately.  They liked him the 1st day, but after a couple days, they have already lost interest.  As others have mentioned, the age on the toy is 2-4, but I feel like the hats are tricky for my 3 year old to put on herself, and that sort of frustrated her, even though she was able to master all of the commands/games rather quickly.  As a mom, I think he is really cute, and I like the variety of games.  My only mom critique would be that since she isn't able to get the hats on easily, she gets frustrated. We were lucky to be selected by Bzz Agent and Playskool to try Let's Imagine Elmo out for free.
578057
This Brio train set is a nicely detailed and sturdy toy that keeps my toddler engaged for long durations. There are a few things that I would like to call out:

1. This train is compatible with Thomas, Imaginarium and other standard wooden railroad tracks. However, there is a slight curvature on the sides of the cars, about half an inch above the wheels. This increases the width of the train set a bit - so not all bridges with side rails may allow the cars to pass through freely. Ours needed a light nudge at the leading end of the bridge to continue its journey. We tucked in a small piece of paper on either side of the bridge where the side rails meet the wooden track, so that the plastic side rails stay wider and do not bend inward at all. Problem solved!

2. As some others have noted, there is noticeable power difference between the forward and reverse directions of the engine car. Our train is able to easily pull (forward drive) up to two additional wooden cars. But when in reverse drive, the train is generally slower with just the two cars, there is an increased propensity for the cars to go off-track at curves or interchanges and climbing bridges is painstakingly slow. I would imagine that one would be happy with the bi-directional feature if used on level tracks only.

3. The On/Off switch (that also doubles as the forward/ reverse toggle) seems to require a good amount of force to operate. I believe that the sensitivity of the switch has gotten worse with time, and my 3 year old is now unable to switch it off or change direction. I also find it difficult to operate the switch. Interestingly enough, I always end up switching it from forward to reverse before being able to 'stop' the switch in the 'Off' position.

4. Contrary to some other reviews, I like that the flip-up parts of the train are removable. They do not come loose when the train is operated, or let's say, if the train falls off a bridge on the set. But at the same time, if you step on the train or if the toy is thrown, these parts are separated, thereby preventing breakage. They fit right back without any hassle.

Overall, this is a nice passenger train with great looks and reasonably good battery life
4884138
Playskool could film an ad using my 10 month old's reaction to seeing this in action for the first time.  He squealed with delight, grinned, clapped his hands, and immediately wanted to interact with it.  Obviously gains the attention of its target audience.  My 3 year old is also interested in the toy, so I'm assuming it has "legs" and will provide entertainment throughout the toddler years.

Here are my cons:
1. It is noisy.  The music is loud, and there is no option to lower or shut off the volume.  I find this really annoying, and will probably either tape over the speaker to muffle it, or even dismantle the toy to see if I can shut the music off internally.  Would be great to have a volume option - seems like a no brainer.

2. The pneumatic air action lasts only FIFTEEN SECONDS (yes, I timed it), before shutting off and requiring another activation.  I assume my 10 mo will figure out how to restart it eventually, but right now it shuts down and he wanders off unless I (or his big sister) sit and restart it.  Come on, couldn't we have had 30-60 seconds of play??

3. Only three balls are included, and they are bound to get lost or damaged.  Five or six balls would have been nice.

Otherwise, this is a lot of fun, although I am glad that I got it on Amazon's huge pre-Xmas sale and didn't pay regular price for it.  For less than ten bucks, it was a great deal.
4803266
We enjoy this book but my toddler who just turned two is starting to lose a bit of interest. It's also a bit small, even for a toddler. But yes, we enjoyed it between 14 and 22 months of age!
657638
We haven't had the toy very long, but so far my 28 month old loves it. We had to sit with our son and show him how it works, but after a while he was making sure he lifted the gates for the train and put the load on the trailer.

Cons:
-It's large, so it didn't fit on our fairly large round table. We were hoping it would fit so our crawling 9 month old wouldn't take it apart so easy.
-The hand crank only goes one way and the train can't go up the spiral which means the train only goes one way.
-The hand crank ramp is frustrating for the toddler that would like to see the train go down.
-like another reviewer, there needs to be more bumpers because the "+" pieces allow the train to de-rail. And, the train doesn't give the toddler much room to use it the way they'd like. We rearranged the pieces to get rid of the bumper problem and you could use wheelies and get rid of ramp to allow toddler to use there own imagination.
95000
My daughter likes it, but I am not sure if it's going to play with it for more than a month or two.
1832814
This toy seems to be popular with my toddler. He is just starting to learn the shapes, and care enough about doing them properly. He also uses it as a bucket. Once he masters it I might get one of the nicer wooden ones. No complaints though. It's a proven educational concept.
485306
Interactive removable parts for young kids to play with. Probably not ideal for under two and a half year olds.
350910
My 2 year old daughter received this toy as a gift and she generally likes it.  It is easy to set up and use on the computer.  She likes that it knows her name, but I wish that it had more options for songs to put on the Elmo.  Also, when setting up the daily schedule, you can't do "30's", it has to be on the hour (ie: if your child wakes up at 6:30, you couldn't set it for that, it would either have to be 6 or 7).  Other than that, it's a very cute toy that I would purchase again!
2585662
We saw this product on a youtube video that my 2 year old son likes to watch.  It has turned out to be one of his favorite toys.  He pushes the tail handle down slowly so he can analyze the motion - so I think with that in mind there is some educational merit to this product as well.  One things, and it's not a big deal; sometimes the snake head stops short of the track, which frustrates him a little bit.