11/14/2005
Elefun Review
I’ve never really done this before but I can’t help it with this one.
You know the commercial for EleFun on TV, the one that has the kids jumping around having a blast as the butterflies come out of the elephants nose that’s sticking straight up in the air. Yeah, that one that looks like it could actually be fun for kids.
That toy STINKS!
Don’t buy it for your kids.
Austin has wanted that thing for over a month now, and the 12th was his birthday, so we got it for him.
Here’s how it REALLY works:
You put the butterflies in and put the nose on. Then you turn the elephant game on and wait for like 5 minutes, then a single, sole, butterfly will come out. The butterfly drops to the ground (yeah, that’s right…drops. They don’t float around like the commercial shows), and you wait 5 more minutes for another butterfly to come out.
Then, if your kid is like mine, they want you to pick them up and hold them so they can hold their butterfly net at the top of the nose so that when a butterfly comes out they can “catch” it (really, they just miss it because it’s darn near impossible to catch them).
Then, you realize this is stupid, because the fan inside the dumb game isn’t strong enough to blow the butterflies out quick enough to make the game fun. All it does is create a whirlwind of butterflies inside the elephant.
So, how do we use the dumb thing?
We took the nose off and gave up on that all together. We just put the butterflies into the elephant, and then turn it on and put our nets right next to the opening where the nose would normally attach. Then we hope some of the butterflies fly into the net as soon as they come out of the dumb elephant. It only takes about 10 seconds to blow all the butterflies out of the elephant when the nose isn’t on, so then we just turn it off, put all the butterflies back in, and repeat.
Just as a warning: DON’T BUY THIS DUMB TOY!
Your kids will be sorely disappointed.
My Best Posts
Comments on Elefun Review »
I was just wanting to comment on your elefun response. I was
trying to find the actual commercial and stummbled apon this and
thought it was funny and would reply. Me and my husband had bought
that game for our kids this christmas and it works fine, they come
out nice and evenly and it way better time than yours does so i
think you got the rip off motor! But anyway the only thing that i
could complain about is the fact that they were super cheap on the
little so called butterflys, they flutter fine for us, and don’t
just drop to the ground like you say yours do but hey like i said,
you got ripped of somewhere along the line. As for the entertaining
part our children love it and our son loves to put them back in and
go all over again. Would i buy it again? No. But we’ve already
got it and all i can do to try and make it last longer is make some
more of their so called butterflys. All in all it’s not that bad to
complain about! HAVE A NICE DAY! OR SHOULD I SAY PLAYDAY! You
should be happy that your son likes it, isn’t him having fun more
important?
After returning the first elefun game because it would not blow the butterflies out, I am ready to return the replacement. My 3 grandchildren all wanted this game so badly, now, I have 3 kids crying cause they can’t catch butterflies. I agree with your comments of it taking about 5 minutes to blow out a single butterfly. I have put in 3 different sets of batteries thinking that might be the problem but, no, this darn thing is just a piece of junk. Never again!!!!!!
Sheryl
I just exchanged it for a new one also. While in the return line at walmart one of the other women in the line chimed in and said that they got one for their kids. It did work, but they had to buy the super expensive batteries to get it to work normally. She said it wasn’t worth it.
I exchanged it anyway, and have definitely noticed a difference with the new one, although, the batteries I have aren’t good enough to blow the butterflies out of the nose. But, at least with this one with the nose off the butterflies will come out.
I’m going to give it one more shot, then I’m done.
I am happy to read that someone else wrote in about the Elefun because the game needs to be renamed to eleNOTfun. Each “butterfly” took about 5 minutes or more to come out of the cheaply built game and my girls were very dissapointed to say the least. It was a rip off for $20 and I called the company to have my money refunded. This game is not really a game but a chore for the adult! DON’T BUY IT!
I diagree, I first bought this toy 10 years ago for our first daughter when she was 3 and she loved it! yeah you have to get the elephant’s nose up and you have to keep filling the thing with butterflies but my then 3 year old loved it. Now 10 years later I have another 3 year old and was excited to see the toy was still maufactured so I bought it again and it works fine. Yes, we still have to manually get the nose up and the game is over on seconds but the look on my childs face and the excitement she has over catching just one butterfly is enough to make me want to reload it again just to watch her have so much fun with such a silly little game.
I was reading this post, and had to enter my own. I purchased this game for my 4 year old daughter for Christmas. She loves it! It works perfectly, not problems with the butterflies not coming out, and I have yet to change the batteries (it is not almost June). My only complaint is that the thing did not come with enough butterflies. You can go on Hasbro’s website and order a bag of 30 for $3.50. That is not too much to pay for a child’s happiness!
You are so right. I just bought one and it’s seriously the worst toy I have ever seen and I was born in the 80s so I remember some pretty lame toys.
This is for anybody that reads the comment from June 08 and thinks they might give it a shot.
1. The hair bows oops I mean butterflies are just small pieces of fabric(similar to screening) cinched in the middle…oh ya, they fall right to the floor too.
2. The fan is garbage. After about 10 butterflies come out the rest get stuck and end up coming out one by one every few minutes.
3. They only provide 30 butterflies, and this is my biggest complaint. The commercial doesn’t show how many times they had to stop and reload the elephant
4. The nose has to be held up when you first turn it on. Doesn’t sound bad…if your kid is 4′ tall. So if you are buying this for kids to play together so you can get stuffdone, just know you are required to make the game work.
Alright, now if there are any parents who have a kid(s) on the spectrum, this is THE MOST frustration toy ever created. Don’t do it. Elefun is a $20 meltdown.