Manhatten Toys Infant Stim-Mobile Review

I bought this for my son at Christmas when he was 2 months old. I liked the idea that it had simple, yet interesting images. I also liked the fact that the images faced my son. (Most mobiles have objects that only face the parents standing by the crib. What good is that?) He has really loved looking at it, especially when we make it move.

Unfortunately, it does not move on its own. Therefore, we had to keep moving it and bumping it to keep our son fully interested. Furthermore, when we would try to make it sway or spin, the suspended arches had a very limited range of motion.  We found that using the extending links (supplied with the product) enabled us to move it more easily, but we still had to do it ourselves.

We used the extending links when we first put the mobile up in our son's crib because he was still small. (The extending links are like the links of a necklace that clip on between the main arch and the arches that hold the cards.) As our son grew and could reach the cards, we just kept removing an extending link so he could keep enjoying the mobile without pulling it down or breaking it. We eventually had to take the whole unit down when my son learned to unscrew the knob that kept the mobile anchored to the bed. (He couldn't reach them, so he found another way to get at them.  I wonder if MacGyver started out that way.)

Some reviewers at amazon.com have found that the cards fall off easily. My experience was just the opposite. When I wanted to change the cards around to give my son a different view, I almost had to rip the thing apart in order to get the cards off. You see, the cards are made of thin, yet very stiff plastic.  Each card that attaches directly to a plastic arch has a hole through which a plastic knob from the arch pokes. The bottom (or horizontal) cards each have two slits cut in them so a tab from the top (or vertical) card can go through the horizontal card.  I found it difficult to pull the top card off of the arch.  However, I found it even more difficult (nearly impossible) to pull the horizontal cards off of the vertical ones without twisting the tab from the vertical cards to an almost unusable shape.  Thus, I decided to leave the rest of the cards alone.

Here is a final list of this products good points and bad points.

For the good: My son liked looking at it, especially while it was in motion. It was a good distraction when he was crying or doing something we didn't want him to do. I liked the fact that there were cards facing my son as he was laying down in the crib. There were extending links that enabled us to bring the cards closer to my son when he was smaller and raise the cards out of his reach as he got bigger. The cards did not fall off so my son could not hurt himself on them.

For the bad: The mobile only moves when a parent moves it. (And that was the part of the toy that my son liked best--when the cards moved.) Motion is severely limited unless you use the extending links. I found the cards to be difficult to change without ripping up the toy.

I hope this has been helpful.