Tomy Play To Learn Mr Colour Maker Colour-Teaching Toy [Toy]

We were really excited about the chance to play with the new TOMY toy, Mr Colour Maker. This is a brand new toy which teaches children about colours (basic colours blue, yellow and red) and how to mix them to make purple, orange and green.

The toy comes in the typical for TOMY robust yet colourful and friendly presentation with four colour pots, one big one with an attached brush, and three small ones with the basic colours red, yellow and blue, all with friendly funny faces on the front.

By pretending to pour a colour from a small pone into the big pot the child will make the big pot light up accordingly and follow its instructions to mix new colours (like purple, orange and green). The toy is quite noisy and interactive and will ask in a lovely friendly voice for certain individual colours or to mix a new one and praise if the child gets it right or say things like:"Ooh I'm all muddled up now. Pick me up and pour me out". In a third play mode the big pot will sing as lovely rainbow song while the child keeps stirring the paint brush in it.
I really liked the idea of teaching colours and how to mix them without the whole mess of real paint and water everywhere.

The toy immediately caught my little toddler boy's (27 mths.) attention and curiosity and he got really stuck into it trying to find out how it worked. He particularly loved the rainbow song and soon only wanted to listen to the song, trying to sing along himself.

There are a couple of disadvantages with this toy though, I'm afraid.

The toy will only sing the rainbow song as long as the brush is held or stirred inside it and stop as soon as it is pulled out of the pot - which happens easily due to the short lead and while trying to sing along.
Instead of buttons to switch the toy on or to change from colouring mode to song-mode, you have to open and close the big pot's lid. This seems to be a very strange thing to little ones, as they're used to toys having buttons and enjoy working them out by themselves. My little boy just didn't make the connection between closing the lid and the nice game he'd just been playing ending all of a sudden and got quite frustrated at times, so a proper play with the toy required me there most of the time.

He also just had the natural impulse to close the lid after successfully mixing a new colour - but of course instead of getting his praise like "Great! You've made PURPLE" , the toy started in a different mode altogether.
When in the colour-mixing mode, the toy will also require the small pots only to be held above the big pot, in a `pretend pouring' movement, but my boy just enjoyed putting the little pots into the big pot. This however will confuse the toy and it will not recognise which pots have gone in, e.g. putting the little red and blue pot into the big pot will NOT make it purple, the little pots have to be outside the big pot AND you need to stir with the brush first.

Another problem is the lid as such really, as it is attached only very loosely to the top of the pot and falls off very easily. It then has to be put on again by an adult - which will make it change the play mode again. Confusing!

So overall a nice idea and a lovely colourful presentation but a few flaws in the logic of the toy didn't make it a big runner with us and I've chosen to show my little one how to mix colours with some real paint instead.

My 3 year old son absolutely loves this toy. It is fun and educational at the same time! It has taught him about mixing colours to make other colours and makes him laugh when it sings. It is aesthetically pleasing also, being bright and attractive to look at, and is also strong and durable - withstanding rough play with little boys! Would highly recommend as he never gets bored of it.

My daughter (2.5 years) loved playing with this toy. It has a lovely friendly voice & can be in English or French. She enjoyed shaking the smaller colour pots over the big pot & stirring it with the paintbrush to allow Mr colour maker to light up. Mr colour maker will light up with the colour pot you shake over it & when you stir it you can make other colours. The smaller pots are red, yellow & blue so allows you to mix orange, purple & green. If Mr colour maker doesnt register the colours it glows white or says im all in a muddle.

the only downsides to this is each time the lid closes/opens it changes the play mode so this is a little annoying when my little girl kept shutting the lid which would stop what we were doing & jump to s different play mode. the lid does keep coming off which means i had to keep putting it back on for her. the paintbrushes cord isnt long enough & it looks like an icecream so my daughter kept pretending to lick it!

I think it is a lovely little toy however & great for teaching basic colours & allowing mixing of colours. my little girl did get excited each time mr colour maker & the paint brush lit up.