It’s not often we get a toy out of the box and my children are in fits of laughter within minutes, but that’s what happened when we opened Juno. Find out what why my daughters love the interactive elephant toy in this review of Juno My Baby Elephant.
Juno isn’t the smallest of house guests at around 27cm tall, but I guess that's pretty small for an elephant really, there is nothing small about her personality though. From the Wildluvs range by Spin Master she responds to touch and interacts with her mouse and peanut accessories reportedly making over 150 sounds and movements. The more time children spend interacting with her the more she learns.
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| Juno making my daughter laugh with her cheeky personality |
How To Set Up Juno - My Baby Elephant
Open the cardboard box and you will find a purple and blue elephant, a large plastic peanut, a mouse toy, a “Wildluvs zoo postcard”, a quick start care guide and an instruction booklet.
To get Juno started she needs 4 AA batteries in the compartment in her tummy (you’ll need a small cross head screwdriver to get in), then flick the switch to on (position O) and you are ready to play.
How To Play With Juno - My Baby Elephant
Juno has sensors in her forehead, each cheek and mid trunk which detect touch. She also has a sensor (or “detector”) on the end of her trunk which knows which of the two accessories are attached and a large button on her back.
When she is first turned on Juno will hide behind her ears because she is a shy baby, but she can be coaxed out by touching (or petting) her cheeks and her forehead. When you interact with her sensors she makes noises and moves her trunk, ears, eyes, head, tail and front legs around.
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| Juno is shy when she comes out of the box and she hides behind her ears |
Things to try with Juno
The instruction booklet talks you through all the different ways you can play with her, but it is fun just to play and explore to see what she will do. The more you play with her the more she will learn and she also seems to do things that aren’t mentioned in the instructions, she even hugged my daughter with her trunk! I still don’t know how that happened, and my daughter's face when she realised was total amazement.
Here are some of the ways you can play with Juno
Try giving her the peanut (by lining up the connectors on it with those on the end of her trunk). She will either eat it or throw it away (which makes my children laugh lots).
Enter training mode (by pressing the button on her back while she is holding the peanut) and depending on which sensors you press you can get her to: bow down, wave her trunk around, give a trumpet fanfare or dance.
Enter games mode by pressing the button on her back while she is holding the mouse toy. She will play different games depending on if you touch one cheek, both cheeks, her forehead or trunk. The games include peekaboo, singing and building a tune (where she starts a tune and you can finish it by touching different sensors).
Enter cuddle mode by bending her legs back so she is in the sitting position. Pet her trunk and she will give you a kiss.
Press and hold her back button when she isn't holding an accessory and she will dance.
If you lose Juno’s accessories then you can still enter the special modes through a series of actions, check out the instruction booklet to find out how. If you have lost the instructions too I can’t currently see them available to download from Spin Master so I have written the key bits at the end of this post.
I got Juno out to check a few bits while writing this post and she didn't seem to be interacting normally, instead she would hide behind her eyes and start snoring. It turns out her batteries were going and she was back to her normal self when I put in new ones. It’s hard to know how long the batteries lasted, but I’m sure they would have done better if my children actually remembered to turn Juno off after playing with her! I have now put in rechargeable batteries. The Spin Master website suggests batteries will last 1 1/2 to 2 hours of continuous play.
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| Giving Juno her mouse toy |
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| Juno playing with her mouse toy |
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| Juno playing with her peanut |
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| Stroking Juno's trunk |
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| Hugging Juno and being hugged back by her trunk |
What age children is Juno My Baby Elephant suitable for?
Juno is recommended as suitable for 5 years plus and while younger children than that undoubtedly enjoy watching her and interacting you do need to be a little careful. I managed to get hit in the face by her trunk which moves quite fast, but my daughters haven’t had a problem, even when they go in for hugs. Maybe Juno just likes them more than me? I’m only allowing my younger daughter to play with Juno when she is supervised.
While most of Juno is hard plastic her ears and trunk are fabric so will show dirt or signs of wear over time. Juno could also get damaged if picked up without care or if she is dropped, older children will probably take more care resulting in her lasting longer.
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| Laughing and having fun while reviewing Juno the interactive elephant toy |
How quickly will children get bored with Juno?
Juno holds a lot of appeal for children. Firstly she is very endearing and my children had an instant affection for her that shows no sign of waning a couple of months later. There is also a good range of activities you can do with Juno if you know how to access them. The instructions talk you through what to do, but it’s a lot of fun just playing with her and discovering for yourself. Juno's development over time helps keep things interesting too.
How long children play with Juno for will vary from child to child. It is probably best suited to children who like to have a little bit of guidance and direction when they play or those that like to be in control and be a teacher.
I am confident that Juno will be in the top toys for Christmas this year because she is cute, fun and pretty smart. I am also confident that my children will still be playing with her at Christmas.
Have you lost the instructions for Juno My Baby Elephant?
You can work out most of the activities through trial and error and through following the instructions for entering training and games mode given above.
How to enter training mode if you have lost the peanut:
While holding Juno's left cheek press her back button quickly twice.
How to enter games mode if you have lost the mouse:
While holding Juno's right cheek press her back button quickly twice.
***Disclosure: We were sent Juno my baby elephant to review. All thoughts are those of mine and my family's except where information has clearly been taken from the instructions ***
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