My Pal Scout, Plush Pre School Learning Toy with Personalisation, Songs, Learning Puppy with Phrases and Lullabies, Suitable for 6 Months and 1, 2, 3 Year Old Boys and Girls

Bought for my son last Christmas. He was 10 months. At the time, I would say my 2.5 year old got more use out of it, but now at 18 months, he loves it. You can personalise it by plugging if in to the computer and choosing the child's name, favourite colour, favourite food and favourite animal. You can also choose which songs you would like it to play when they squeeze its paw, which is great for when they get too repetitive and annoying. Not all children's names are available as you must choose from a library, rather than inputting any name, although there are plenty to choose from. There is a paw to squeeze to sing songs, including a song about the child's name and one about their favourite things; a foot to squeeze for bedtime mode, so he will play lullabies for a chosen number of minutes to help your child sleep; and the collar lights up in four different colours when some songs are played. The other paw enables you to play games with Scout, like guessing an object he's describing, and the left foot switches him on and off. There is also a volume control inside scout on his battery pack which enables you to switch from high to low. Neither I find offensive, but low is quite quiet (although we have a busy house so may not be if you have less children!), so we usually have him on high volume so my son can hear him. We find that sufficient for night time lullabies too. A great little toy for a brilliant price that my son loves, and when he grows out of it, I can reprogram it for him little sister, so can get plenty of use out of it! He is very cuddly despite his battery pack and a good size too. Overall, a fantastic toy with some educational value that I imagine we will get a good few years of play from, at a cheap price. Well worth the money I think.

I got this for my nephew Riley and I think it was well worth the money (at time of purchase £15) My Dad thought it would cost about £60 when I showed him it. The product is easy to use you just plug it in to your PC via the USB cable supplied and then register for the Leapfrog website and then you enter your childs name and it then gives you the option of how you pronouce it, you then choose your child's favourite colour, animal and food which will then with whatever choice you made will make its way into the song and will sing songs with your childs name in it. You can choose which songs you would like at a time then after a while if you choose can take them ones and replace with other ones as has up to 30 songs and even has songs for the Christmas period or happy birthday. It also has 2-10 minutes of lullaby music you can play so you can help your child get to sleep. Also when plugged in to a PC you can print off song sheets with all the lyrics to the songs and also colouring in pictures of Scout and his friend Violet (the female version of the toy) for you child to colour in so it's well worth the money. My aunty was impressed that she asked me to order one for her grandson too. I think this product is well priced, fun and very recommended and I would purchase other Leapfrog products if they are as well made as this.

Fantastic toy for my baby and I'm sure this will be a firm favourite throughout his early years. Scout is incredibly easy to set up just plug the headphone jack into your phone or laptop, go to the webpage supplied on the paperwork and input your child's name, favourite colour, animal and food. You do have to sign up with an e-mail address but this is a very quick process and also they only have set names so if your child has an unusual name the chances are it won't be there, you can choose a nickname but again these are set names such as princess, sweetie pie and champ or you can ask Scout to spell your child's name instead. Favourite food, colour and animal all also have to be selected from a list, once set up you can sign back into your account, plug in the headphone jack again and change if your child's preferences change. Scout essentially has three settings - phrases, songs and night time songs. Scout's phrases are things such as 'can you think of something blue? I'm thinking of the sky' although he doesn't really leave enough time for your child to answer. The night time mode plays calming music for bedtime and the songs setting sings nursery rhymes and songs such as 'The Wheels on the Bus'. Scout's badge lights up when he is talking so it catches your child's attention and there are two volume settings so you can have Scout on the 'quiet' setting if you wish. My baby hasn't yet figured out that you need to press Scout's paws for him to talk but he loves that Scout sings to him and recognises his name when Scout talks to him so coos along, he also loves to chew Scout's ears. Would recommend to anyone.

Purchased Scout just over 2 years ago for my baby (then 4 months old). You are provided with a lead to connect to computer and to program his name and favourite things. This was an instant hit with catchy songs & scout is firm but cuddly teddy. This is a fantastic toy - it's educational toy. I can honestly credit scout with teaching my son how to spell his name at 18 months old! Unlike some musical toys which can take a while to figure out what each button does this is quick to work out as around a year old my son was able to press the buttons for what he wanted - game, song, bedtime music & off button. (But he rarely wants it off!) The bedtime tunes are soothing and can be set for 2, 5 or 10 minutes. Scout is a polite puppy too that says please and thank you though my son repeating 'please may I have a dog' still hasn't worked on us! Scout is a firm favourite in our house and we have ordered a Violet for my 2.5 year old son's little sister as I don't think Scout will be leaving his room anytime soon.....

My 3 year old son got this for his birthday and although he loves it and it is a neat toy, it really could have been technically executed a little better. I am hoping they send out updates via the USB cord to make his speech a little bit smoother and that they enhance the variety of "elevator" music available The USB cable that comes with Scout is incredibly short and I would recommend a second mini USB cable if you do not already have one for another computer peripheral. The customization process was straight forward and we had him done quickly. My only complaint is that you have to create a user account and the Internet is required but that's a minor compliant since Scout ships able to be interactive without being customized. Additionally, Scout has volume control on his battery box and is not obnoxiously loud even on his highest volume Scout is very, very soft and even with the battery box in his trunk, the puppy's body is soft and cuddly. My son spends a lot of his play time with Scout hugging him and petting him. Scout has three main features - Play games, Sing Songs, and Night Songs (the fourth paw is on and off): - The Play Games paw just chatters with your child. Asking him what his favorite color, animal and food is - Scout and Baby have the same ones after you program them. Scout also makes animal noises, talks about feelings "I feel happy, show me your biggest smile!" and engages your child in direct dialog. - The songs Scout sings are cute and the choices you make when customizing show up in the songs he sings. Poor technical integration is shown when any of the customized items appear in the songs - Scout sounds like he has a speech problem because the tamper and inflection of the customized objects does not match the song being sung. Also, the only music you can customize in this section is elevator music. I would like to see songs with words, more known children's songs (very surprised not to see "Baby Beluga") or the ability to add your own music to Scout. - The Night Songs paw is pretty cool. You click it once and it does 5 mins of the "night" music you choose when customizing continuously. Press it again, you get 10; once more and you get 15. Although our guy doesn't have problems sleeping, it might be a nice touch if your little one has some problems sleeping or being alone in the quiet. If you are looking for a chatty puppy - Get Scout or Violet.

My little girl has the smaller version of violet that she’s had since birth and she absolutely adores her so I was pleased to see there were other violet products on the market. Violet was easy to set up you just plug in the aux to your phone/tablet/laptop (this can’t be personalised without an aux port), go into the website and enter in the details about your little one to load onto the toy, it takes less than 5 mins. Now, I bought violet because it can be programmed with your child’s name and things they like, like favourite colour/food etc. However for me I feel a bit let down because when I plugged in violet set her up my child’s name wasn’t on the list. There’s an option for her to spell your child’s name and a “nickname” option but as nice as that is for their learning to spell, I can’t help feel a little let down by it, my child doesn’t have an obscure name and I think it could be improved by having a more comprehensive list of names instead of just common names like Emily and Thomas, maybe even a connected to search engine so you don’t have disappointed parents. Anyway, aside from that she sings lots of different songs and has 5 mins of bedtime music which is brilliant and a night light function which is great for little ones. Violet also tells your little one that their favourite things i.e watermelon, is her favourite thing too which my little girl loves as she feels like violet is a friend. Overall I love this product, I’m just massively disappointed that she can’t say my daughters name which is one of the advertised sale points of this item.

What a great toy! LeapFrog have surpassed themselves this time. There is no doubt in my mind as to why this was chosen as mother & baby item of the year! Although this is for 6-36 months, I bought this for our 6 week old daughter, it says her name, favourite animal, colour & food ( chosen from a list of options ). Granted, she doesn't have favourites yet, but with the ability to change the options as frequently as we like, there's no harm in hinting that her favourite food should be vegetables ;-) She loves her Scout, he speaks in an adorable little boy's voice, and is quickly becoming her best friend. Everyone we show thinks it's fantastic that he says her name, and with little songs about how they're best friends, and spelling out her name, we couldn't ask for more... Well, maybe one thing- it'd be nice if he said mummy/mum and daddy/dad as we think her first word might end up being her own name.. And we're a tad jealous! Knowing how great this is, I'd have happily paid more, it's a great investment and can be altered to be used with subsequent children too. 5 Stars & A++ from us.

Violet ( orher little brother) is a must have for every baby! Could not wait and bought it for my baby when she was 3 months old. Initially she could not really contol it until 4 months but she was very happy for the songs, the little light that comes from her tie and the fact that it calls her name. The only thing I don't like is that you can not add names to it. It did not have my daughter's name, so we used a short version of it-which was programmed in Violet. To set up-I had little bit of trouble...but all I did is to try it again and again and succeeded-with my iphone! For some reason ( read from other comments) the program does not like Windows 8. Now my daughter is 5 months old and can press her pawns, laughs when Violet spells her name and we sing songs together. The lullabies help her every night to sleep! Very calming-and it has 2 volume levels! Perfect! Will be still a useful toy once she can talk- to interact with Violet.