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| Photo of the Happy Hopperz Blue Bull. |
Say hello to my daughter’s new toy…the adorable blue bull from Happy Hopperz. As you can see from the photo he is very cute and I think my daughter actually thought he was a real animal. I say that because the first time she met him she very tentatively approached him and then stuck her hand out to pat him. Aagh, Bless her!
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| Photo of the Happy Hopperz Blue Bull. |
The Happy Hopperz are a collection of different inflatable animals that your child can sit and bounce on.
They say that the Happy Hopperz should help your child develop coordination skills, increase their balance control and strengthen their core muscles. Happy Hopperz say that they are only suitable for children over 36 months of age (due to the small bung on the toy being a potential choking hazard). My daughter was about 20 months old when she received this to review and she was too young for the toy. At first I thought she would be fine but due to the bouncy nature of the product I would definitely recommend waiting until your child is aged 2 1/2yrs to 3 yrs before you buy this. She has had a few near misses where she nearly fell off the toy and this is what makes me say wait until your child is older before you buy a Happy Hopperz.
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| Photo of the Happy Hopperz Blue Bull. |
As my daughter is still a bit young for the Happy Hopperz I decided to deflate him and put him away for when she is older. My mum says that they have Happy Hopperz at the school where she works and the kids love them! I’m looking forward to when she is older so she can bounce around the house on it properly. There are lots of customer testimonials of the Happy Hopperz and you can read them here.
I did have the Happy Hopperz bull inflated for about a month and when my daughter wasn’t playing on it we using it as a foot stool when we were sitting on the sofa. It’s just the perfect height!
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| Photo of the Happy Hopperz Blue Bull. |
The process of inflating the Happy Hopperz was quite easy to do. It only took a handful of big puffs and it was inflated. I always found that the feet didn’t inflate very well though and it didn’t matter how many times I tried to rectify this…it didn’t change. When my daughter tried to bounce on the bull the back legs always seemed squashed and she couldn’t bounce properly. I’m unsure if this is normal or if I had a faulty one. It could be that each ‘Happy Hopperz’ animal has a different kind of bounce as the feet are not the same shape on each character, or at least not as as far as I can see.
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| Photo of the Happy Hopperz Blue Bull. |
Through lack of space I decided on a few occasions to deflate the bull and I found this to be a time consuming process. Firstly because it was a near impossible job to remove the plastic bung and secondly because once I had deflated it I hand to stand and squeeze all the air out because it took so long to deflate by itself. I’m not happy that I had to resort to using a blunt metal knife to remove the bung as it is obviously not advisable around children or inflatables really, but I couldn’t find anything else that would successfully lever the bung out. It would be great if the team behind
Happy Hopperz could start to either include or sell a tool to make the process of removing the bung easier. After all not everyone, like myself, has the space to keep a bulky toy like this inflated all the time. The bung remover tool is already available elsewhere on the net but it is advertised to be used with a gym ball. It looks like it might work with the Happy Hopperz but I’m not positive. The tool can be bought for just 81p ( with £2.99 P+P) and if it works will make life with a Happy Hopper much easier. Click
here to see the bung / plug remover on the Gymballmax website.
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| Photo of the Happy Hopperz Blue Bull. |
I love the collection of different animals available but if I had bought one myself, I would have chosen the white cow which I think looks adorable. One thing I didn’t like about the Bull shaped Happy Hopperz is that the tail made it quite difficult for my daughter to get on it as it right in the way. However the horns on the bull were handy though as she could hold on to them when she bounced.
The Blue Bull and White Cow Happy Hopperz can be bought from Argos and other selected retailers however the rest of the collection are available on the Happy Hopperz website. The other animals available from Happy Hopperz are Pink Cow, Blue Cow, Black Cow ,Red Bull, Green Bull, Pink Dog, Blue Dog, Green Horse, Red Horse, Grey Zebra, Red Deer, Orange Deer, White Rabbit and Black and White Panda.
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| Photo of the leaflet which came with the Happy Hopperz Blue Bull. |
I am not very pleased to see conflicting information about the weight limit for the Happy Hopperz. In the leaflet that comes with the product it says it can withstand 200kg but on the Argos site it says 50kg. I do not know which one is correct but I am assuming that the leaflet is correct as that came with the product itself. There is a huge difference between 50 kg and 200kg!
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Photo of the leaflet which came with the
Happy Hopperz Blue Bull |
Overall I like the concept of the product and I think it is a much better idea than your ordinary round space hopper style toy Please bear in mind that my daughter is not really old enough to be playing on this properly so I cannot really say whether or not it is tough enough to withstand a 3 year old + bouncing on it and I also can’t say whether or not a 3 year old would enjoy playing with it. I would hazard a guess at saying that most 3 years olds love to bounce so there is no reason they shouldn’t love a Happy Hopperz!
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| Photo of the Happy Hopperz White Cow. |
I am delighted to see that the Happy Hopperz are manufactured from a PVC which is EU approved as being phthalates free and also the PVC contains no heavy metal elements . Also the Happy Hopperz are CE tested & approved. which gives you peace of mind.
The Happy Hopperz website has a bright and fun design and it is easy to navigate but I’m afraid I can’t stand the music that accompanies the videos on each page. It is a retro 1970’s (?) style music and it just makes me cringe. I don’t really know why but I can’t stand to listen to it. It reminds me of old home videos. My dislike of the music was easily remedied though as I just turned the volume off on the computer.. or you can individually mute each video.
Here is an example of the music I do not like.
If you would like to be kept up to date with news from Happy Hopperz you can follow them on
Twitter and
Facebook.
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| Photo of the Happy Hopperz Blue Bull. |
If you would like to contact someone at Happy Hopperz you can do so my emailing
sales@happyhopperz.co.uk or by phoning them on 020 8958 1138.
If you would like to see the list of Happy Hopperz stockists please click
here or if you would like to buy one online then please click
here.If you want to see the Happy Hopperz in action then there are lots of videos on the website and also the Happy Hopperz starred in an advert for Hyundai! You can see that video here.
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| Photo courtesy of Happy Hopperz |
Happy Hopperz retail for around £20 and upwards normally. This is much more money than a space hopper style toy which can be bought from as little as £5. Other than the fact they are free from nasty chemicals the Happy Hopperz have the main advantage of being easier for your child to sit on and thus they will hopefully tend to play with the toy more because of this. Happy Hopperz are a great way of getting your child to stay active and most importantly…tire themselves out before bedtime! At the time of writing this (June 2011) the
Blue Bull and
White Cow are currently on offer at Argos for
£17.99. They would make a great birthday present!
Great review, I was just about to buy this for my daughter and thought I’d look for some reviews first.
She is 17 months and although the Happy Hopperz – White Cow on kiddicare says 12+ I will hold off buying it for now.
It does look like great fun, just as you say for when they’re a little older!
Helpful review as I’m about to purchase a happy hopperz for my 2 yr old. I think the bull is for toddlers 2.5 yrs plus -there are smaller hopperz like the cow and the dog that are designed for 12 months to 2.5 yrs. if you go to the happy hopperz site it tells you the difference. Stuck which one to purchase as she’s just 2 but loves bouncing – may see how she gets on with the small one first if I can find it on offer!