Fisher Price "The Farmer Says" See 'n' Say Review

If I were a rational person with a consistent behavior pattern, I would despise HRH's See 'n Say. This toy is plastic, noisy, and made by Fisher-Price - a troika of demerits. However, I am a silly person given to unpredictable whims, and I love the See 'n Say. I had one as a child and there is nothing like seeing your own enjoying something you used to play with.

Fisher-Price has made some major improvements - my See 'n Say was huge and operated with a pull string.  If the string broke, it couldn't be fixed. The new See 'n Say is about eight inches square, and vaguely barn-shaped. In the center is the familiar wheel with the animal pictures all around and an arrow in the middle, but this wheel has a faceplate that flips back and forth, creating twice as many animal options. In addition to the animal squares, there is a quiz square and a song square. The best improvement of all is the lever on the right side which has replaced the pull string. This is a much more user-friendly toy for a baby, since the smaller size makes it easier to hold and the lever is easier to pull and sturdier than the string was.

The See 'n Say is excruciatingly loud and screechy, and it has a tendency to land on the same sound over and over again. HRH adores the songs, which are two of the most earwormy snippets of bluegrass-juvenilia I've heard. If it weren't for the nostalgic appeal that has me so infatuated, this toy would have met an untimely end months ago.

Any baby old enough to laugh at funny pictures and sounds will enjoy watching you play with the See 'n Say for them. My daughter was able to hold this on her own at about seven months, but couldn't coordinate holding it with pulling the lever until her first birthday. At sixteen months, she began to purposefully turn the arrow to the pictures and pull the lever to hear what animal makes what sound. At two and a half, she is interested in the quiz and feels proud of herself when she identifies the animals correctly. I foresee the See 'n Say taking quite a beating and continuing to function long after I am so sick of it I wish it would break.