Unlike some of the other reviews I've read, our hippo gobbles pretty well. Not only does he gobble blocks, but I've seen other objects pop up into his belly.
That said, this is by far one of my daughter's favorite toys. I bought it for her when she was around 9 or 10 months old. We have other Peek-a-Blocks at home which she really enjoys, so I figured that if she wasn't really into the hippo, she'd at least have new blocks. Well, it turns out she LOVES the hippo, and plays with it daily. It's given her so much confidence and has probalby been strengthening her muscles all of them, since she not only walks with the hippo, but swings it around as well! Hey, it's got to be durable if it can stand that much abuse.
We haven't tried the ride-on conversion as of yet, but as far as I can tell, she enjoys playing with the blocks and she's delighted for being so mobile.
All in all, I'd consider this toy a pretty good value for the money. At less than $25, you get a walker, a ride on AND a set of blocks. Not bad in my book.
Before you buy this though, ask yourself: do I want to encourage my crawler who already gets into everything to be even more mobile? Really, shouldn't we be doing everything we can to keep those kids as immobile as possible? I don't know about you but the keep-up-with-your-toddler exercise plan is wiping me out. Our 9 month old daughter was already pretty mobile but had just started to cruise and wasn't great at it. Well along comes Mr. Hippo and forget it. She's toddling all over the place now and it's only a month later. At first he was a little too fast for her but now she can keep up. Our dogs go running when they hear old gobble-and-go clipping across the floor heading straight their way.
On the "gobble" topic. He doesn't exactly gobble that well, it's true. The mechanism that pushes the blocks from his "mouth" to his middle is very soft and turns very loosely so sometimes the blocks just sit against it in his "mouth". Hey, that's okay. If your kid is like mine and loves shoving her hands anywhere and everywhere at least you don't have to worry that they'll be "gobbled" or pinched or whatever.
Overall though, he's one sturdy little hippo. He's been rammed into furniture, and into aforementioned pets repeatedly (not repeatedly into the pets though, as I said, they learned to flee early on) with no damage. So if you really want to help that little mover and shaker to move even more, go for it.
Buy Gobble & Go Hippo Now
We are huge peek a block fans in our home, so when this toy came out, I went right out and got it for our daughter's first b-day. We played with it right away, but I was not impressed! Of course the blocks are great, but Mr. Hippo doesn't eat up his food like he is supposed to, my daughter has a hard time pushing him cause the handle is small, and to top it off, she has a hard time riding on him cause she is very tall and just can't move her legs right when she is on him. As excited as I was to purchase this toy, I will be returning it as soon as I can. We are going to get her something a little more suitable. I would not reccommend this toy, and am kind of disappointed by Fisher Price with this toy. (I am still a huge fan of Fisher Price though!)
Read Best Reviews of Gobble & Go Hippo Here
We bought this toy for our daughter at 8 months old..she was already cruizing around the furniture and when we brought this home she went to town..she loves pushing it around the floor and into the walls and everything or one else that gets in her way..Now that she is 11 months old and is walking on her own she still loves to push it around..the only thing is it doesn;t always pick up the blocks but she doesn't mind a bit..I love the way she can just push it around and have fun while it keeps her entertained...as for the riding part great on bair floors but for carpet we find it doesn't work as well...It helped our daughter learn to walk early and to me it was wrorth it all the way...great toy for the money
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This is a super cute toy and we couldn't wait to get it home and try it out. Unfortunately our whole house has hardwood floors and the blocks don't "pop" into the belly unless you run the toy over them really fast. We took it over to grandma's house and tried it on her carpeted floors and it worked better but the blocks still get stuck. (Fisher Price should've used a harder plastic for the prongs inside the mouth to force the blocks into the belly, the soft rubber just bends.) It also rolls a little too fast for my 10 month old who is just learning how to walk. However his 16 month old cousin absolutely looooves it and runs all over the house sucking up the blocks and anything else that will fit in the hippos mouth.
These are so messy! I like the idea of my baby eating on her own, but to me it's not worth the cleanup. Not only does she get the food, especially banana, all over herself through the mesh, but that mesh is extremely difficult to clean and needs to be replaced often. I used mine once or twice and never again!
