What do you get when you combine Barbie, Karoake (sorta), and your iPod? A piece of junk that only a 5-year-old can love!
My mother-in-law got my (delighted) daughter the above gift the official title of which is “Barbie Dazzling Duets” and the official description (as swiped from the Toys R Us site) is “The Dazzling Duets dual singing system is a fun way to sing along to your favorite songs with Barbie®.”
The description doesn’t say much now, does it? From what I can tell this is a cheesy sort of karoake machine that comes pre-loaded with six songs that of course my 5-year-old has never heard of (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun?) and a very weak-sounding amplifier that is activated when she sings into the microphone so she and Barbie can do their own duet.
You can also plug an MP3 player into the toy and play any of your own songs, which I guess would be kind of cool if the amplifier thing worked. It just sounds like a very poor quality speaker for the MP3 player. My daughter may as well be singing into a hair brush. Yes, you heard that right – my $250 iPod is now plugged into this $30 toy and is therefore quite vulnerable to any number of 5-year-old related mishaps. Clearly someone didn’t think this thing through.
DON’T BUY IT. DON’T BUY IT. DON’T BUY IT.
Notice I didn’t link to it? That’s because you need to run away from this. Far, far away. Get the image of this off your screen before your child sees it. This has no business being in your house.
I know my mother-in-law meant well, but this sort of toy is prime fodder for the Toy Graveyard (a.k.a., bottom of the toy box).
Leave a Reply