Two Words, One Answer.
Classics® becomes
 Melissa & Doug Classic Wooden Abacus $14.99 I've owned this for a year and my son has gone from just watching me move it around as a newborn, to rolling the balls, to sliding them back and forth. Its great because it makes sounds, its large and colorful, and moves. The choking hazard warning comes from the fact that the wooden pieces used to hold the thing together are inadequately glued. Today, my 18 month old son finally succeeded in getting the top wooden dowel to rotate. I took the toy away and was able to confirm that with a little prying on the wood, the metal bars would lose alignment and be able to release all the little balls (which at least have a hole in them, but, still...) I drilled a hole slightly smaller than the threads of a drywall screw down the center of the dowel, and one slightly larger than the threads - just slightly smaller than the head of the screw - in a matching location on the outer (left and right) two wooden pieces. By doing this, I was able to tightly fasten the dowel with a screw at either end without having any of the head of the screw stick out of the wood. Now, the dowel cannot rotate at all because of the additional friction on its ends imposed by the screw. I will be monitoring the base of the unit to make sure that the wood does not separate here either, but if it does, a similar solution should remedy the problem. I give this toy a 5 in everything except durability, where it gets a mere 1. It's too bad America's "disposable culture" doesn't allow for the concept of repairability - it was easy to fix with tools everyone should have in their home or apartment.  Become the Other $11.98 This mid 90's offering from The Ozrics is another psychedelic progressive rock feast for the ears. I have the re-mastered version and like the other releases it really sounds fantastic. This album starts out a little slow for me as the first few tracks don't really blow me away, but the second two thirds of the album is classic Ozrics with plenty of fantastic instrumental progressive rock workouts. Ozrics albums tend to have a lot of sameness about them and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between them, but if you like what the band does you will probably like this album. |
|
