The Amazon reviews are terrible! I won't be quite as harsh.
My older girls each got one of these from a family member for Christmas. They each came with their own pump, and we took them out to pump them up that day. This part went fine - you just have to lube up the "spout" on the pump really well to get it to go all of the way in the valve, and then make sure it stays while the pump is running. It took about 5 minutes to get them fully blown up (although we kept them a bit smaller than the maximum 3-foot diameter). Once blown up they're a very thin, translucent, almost rubbery plastic. I wouldn't exactly say they "look like a bubble," but I see what they were going for...
Then the girls went outside to play with them, and one of them hit a bush and immediately popped. MAJOR bummer! None of us thought these were indestructible (and the instructions even say as much,) but to have it pop within the first minute of playtime....no fun at all. Reading through the Amazon reviews, we were far from the only ones to have this happen.
Once the one popped, my other daughter didn't want to keep playing with hers because she was worried hers would pop, so we deflated it to be able to bring it home. Meanwhile, I looked through the paperwork that came with the Wubble and found out that for $6.99 (shipping + handling) I could send in a piece of the ball and receive a "free" replacement. The relative who had bought the balls felt bad and offered to get her another one from the store, though.
We did end up finding a replacement, for $12.99 (and not including the pump) from a local big-box store. Then both Wubbles sat, for a couple of weeks, in their boxes. One rainy day I asked my girls if they wanted to blow them up and they said yes. So we did, and they tentatively rolled them around a bit, very nervous about popping them. The pictures below are from this day, and you can see that the Wubble isn't blown up anywhere near it's full capacity - we had read that keeping them smaller made them more durable (and less fun, but my daughters insisted). Ten minutes later they didn't really know what to do with them....they didn't want to take them outside (after the bush incident,) and I wasn't going to let them throw them around inside the house (and even then, they were nervous about what they could hit and pop). We left them blown up though and they've been sitting in the corners of their rooms ever since.
I will say, my little one (18 months) thought it was pretty cool to see a ball taller than her! I think she had the most fun rolling them around.
So, the stats:
PRICE: On Amazon for around $23 right now, with the pump. Found for much less in the store, without the pump.
REAL LIFE PICS:
PROS:
- neat concept
- easy to blow up
CONS:
- not durable at all
- not a whole lot you can do with them
RECOMMENDED: Eh.....I can't really. Maybe if you find one really cheap, it could be kind of a neat novelty gift for a younger kid (but then again, they're not exactly known for their gentleness...)
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