I'm not a huge fan of Baby Einstein stuff, but my son loved this octopus as an infant. We would play the songs for him again and again and he seemed to like it. One thing they don't show you is that the underbelly of the octopus is colorful and a baby likes to look up at the BOTTOM of the octopus, not just the face part. We hung this toy (has a velcro strap on top) over our son's bassinet when he was awake during the days. When we took it down to play with it with our son, we would sometimes spin it around while he looked at the bottom of it. It held his attention so he must have liked it.
It is soft and (I thought) a decent size. It's true that it doesn't "sit up" well for long. It ends up getting kind of floppy-headed and its head will lean back on its legs when it's set down on the floor. This doesn't affect its use in any way, it's just an annoyance for those of us who keep trying to get its head to sit up nice.
The songs are played by pressing on the head. It IS really sensitive, but that's so a baby can make it work. The color words are played by pressing the circles on the feet. They are too difficult for a baby to work.
I didn't mind the music, although I agree with one reviewer who said one of the songs reminded her of circus music. There is one song which is kind of frentic (I called this one "the crazy song"). The music is very electronic sounding, not soothing. This toy is definitely designed for play time.
My son is almost 2 now and we still have the Octoplush. Here are my observations after having this thing for so long:
1) The toy will go crazy when the batteries are low. Before they stop working, they seem to make the toy act bizarre and work in weird ways. If your Octoplush is acting up, it may be the batteries need to be changed.
2) The songs are long (as one reviewer pointed out). But you can stop the music at any time by pushing one of the buttons on the feet. It'll say "blue" (or whatever color you push) and then be quiet.
3) My son can barely get the feet buttons to work even now. I can get them to work just fine (it's not broken), but even a young child (not a baby) has trouble with it.
4) It's true that you can choose English, French, or Spanish for the color words. That's great, but I can speak enough French and Spanish to tell that some of these words are pronounced so poorly that it's hard to make out what the little electronic voice is saying (some of them make me laugh). Don't expect your child to "pick up" all these words while blithely playing with the Octoplush. The quality is not good enough for that. If the recordings were better (which would be easy for the company to do), then maybe so. This is the main reason why I don't give this toy a 5-star rating. I think this is its biggest fault...the poor quality of the recordings for the words (including the English too).
But that being said, this toy only costs about $12 so I think it's well worth the price.
My daughter received this toy for Christmas. It quickly became a favorite of hers and therefore my husband's and mine as well. Baby girl is 9 months old now, and this guy keeps her entertained during diaper changes, toweling off after a bath, or anytime we need to put her down for a second to grab a diaper or a change of clothes. She has really put him through his paces and he holds up well. He's been spit up on, chewed remorselessly, even chucked into the diaper pail and he always comes out unscathed.
My daughter is 4 months old and we have to take this toy with us whenever we visit friends of family. It plays music fine for her and the colors work. The only problem we have is that she listens to the music so often that the tunes get stuck in your head.
This toy is 3 languages, most toys are only English and Spanish and I specifically purchased this because it goes to French as well. My son's aunt is willing to teach French to him and this toy will help Mommy practice with him!
We received this toy at our baby shower, and were thrilled to get it. However, when we first started using it with baby, we noticed that it began to say the wrong color associated with the wrong foot. we would press the red foot, and it would say yellow. or press the white foot and it would say purple. Sometimes now, I'll just be walking by it, without pushing anything, and it will shout out a random color. Obviously, this isn't teaching our daughter anything!
Our twin boys loved 'Ollie the Octoplush' from one month onwards -- they believe Ollie talks to them, they respond to his cheerful face, babble back and brighten with wide smiles at the tunes. At six months they self-activate color buttons on Ollie's arms and hug him for comfort. Good to alternate between the 'color talk' and music, they'll learn colors in French and Spanish as they grow. The underside of each arm is satin fabric in its corresponding color. We are VERY selective with developmental toys and Octo is one of our best buys so far! - Octopus - Baby Einstein - Toys - Language'
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