Go! Go! Smart Animals – Zoo Explorers Playset From VTech {2014 Holiday Gift Guide}

There’s something about toy rhino’s that young children just seem to love. When I was five years-old, I remember playing Hungry Hippo’s for hours on end, or until I got really hungry myself. Okay, I know a hippo is not a rhino, but c’mon, they look alike, right? 

Well, the hero of Go! Go! Smart Animals – Zoo Explorers PlaySet from VTech is one cute rhino that plays music and phrases when children press his light-up button, push him along the track, or ride him over one of the seven Smart Point locations that are dotted around the play set. The toy is set in a zoo that your children themselves can assemble and configure however they want.

The aim of the game is for kids to not just explore the world of the play set, but also the world around them. They get to interact with the toys, learning about animals, including their names, traits, habitats, and the way they look, and they also get the chance to be creative by re-configuring the track however they like, whilst at the same time enhancing their motor skills. Moreover, they learn more about colors too, as well as music and sounds.

The Go! Go! Smart Animals Zoo Explorers Playset really is a perfect toy in the sense that the hero is a cute animal that plays jingles, repeats phrases to children, and exists in a colorful, imaginative world that it can explore through the child. As well as the track, there is also included an elevator which the kid operates, a mountain slide for the rhino to slide down, and a spinning water tank that is operated by a turtle. It essentially means an array of fun characters and locations, and oodles of fun.

My six year-old daughter has played this toy for hours on end, she just loves the fact she can control the rhino, taking him out for adventures, and she also loves the educational phrases like ‘P is for Penguin!’ This is the kind of fun information children can learn from watching educational television shows aimed at kids, but seeing them interact with toys like this is far more rewarding. The child learns the basics of the animal kingdom, and with 80+ songs, melodies, sounds and phrases packed into the toy, there is absolutely no chance of boredom. 

Better still, your child gets to use their imagination and creativity at a very early age with this toy, creating scenarios and stories in their heads. For example, my daughter sometimes pretends she’s going to the zoo for the day, whilst other times she pretends she’s building a new park. She’s even started asking me when we can go to a real life zoo. I have to tell her maybe until the spring comes. 

There is also the option of connecting other Smart Point animals that are sold separately in the Go! Go! Smart Animals toy. You can also connect it to the Go! Go! Smart Wheel at an extra cost too, making the zoo even larger and thereby really optimizing your child’s creativity. 

Go! Go! Smart Animals Zoo Explorers PlaySet takes roughly 15 minutes to assemble first time around. The instructions are a touch daunting but if you follow the pictures, you’ll be okay. You’ll need x2 AAA batteries to power the play set, which are not included with the toy. The play set is remarkably durable, and the buttons are roughly the size of a toy piano.

**Disclosure: I received a sample of the product to facilitate this post. No other compensation was provided and all views and opinions stated on this post are 100% my own.