Bright Starts Spots and Stripes Safari Gym Review
We bought this play gym for Toby after trying a terrible one from Lamaze. We were looking for something that would entertain him and help him develop his coordination and attention skills.
The gym was very easy to set up and was ready to use in minutes. On the surface, the gym is very attractive. It has black and white spots that are great for capturing the attention of very young babies when they can only see high contrast. Some of the attachments are also black and white which again is ideal for a small baby. In addition to high-contrast black and white, there are a variety of colors on the gym arches and the actual play mat. Toby loves looking at the colors now that he is a little older.
The gym comes with various attachments. The best by far is the musical tiger that is attached to the top of the gym. The tiger has 20 minutes of music and flashing lights. Toby can sit and watch them for hours! He waves his little arms and legs when he’s on and the closest he’s ever come to laughing is while he’s lying down looking at the lights. He yells at us if the sound and lights go out so he must love it, in fact he gets more smiles than his dad or me! The musical tiger has 3 settings and 2 different volumes, one setting plays some musical melodies (warning: it will hum these melodies to itself, sing them and even dream about them), and the other setting will play nature sounds: birds, cricket, etc. Toby’s favorite is music as the lights flash more. The third setting is a touch sensitive version of the tunes, it turns off after about 30 seconds of not being touched, not useful now but I imagine it will be great once Toby is old enough to notice. The tiger is also great because he is removable, which means that he can come with us in his stroller, his hammock and in the car. I’d say the tiger alone is probably worth the money we spend at the gym. My only criticism of the gym comes here: it would be great to be able to put the tiger on silent and still have the lights on. After a while, listening to the same songs over and over again can get a bit annoying.
The gym comes with quite a few accessories, as I said before some are black and white and some are colorful. One of the best things about the gym is that you can install these accessories wherever you want and move them around as much as possible, this keeps Toby on his toes. It also comes with extra hoops so you can attach your own toys, there are many different places you can hang or attach the items. Toby’s second favorite toy is what we call ‘Jingly Tiger’. As his name might suggest, Jingly Tiger jingles when hit. Toby loves the sound it makes and his coordination has improved so much since Jingly Tiger hangs over him on the mat. The gym also has a zebra rattle that’s hanging over Toby right now, but I suspect it’ll make a great stand-alone toy when he’s older. Other accessories include a butterfly and leaf teethers which are purely decorative at the moment, though they do make a fun sound when they bump against the other dangling toys. Toby is a bit young for snappers, but the leaf snappers in particular feel lovely, so I imagine he’ll be a big hit once he’s old enough.
The gym also comes with a removable mirror that can be attached to the side of the gym, again I think this will be more useful when Toby is a bit older. The last thing that comes with the gym is a giraffe pillow. This is meant for when your baby is trying to do mini push-ups. The idea is that the giraffe can be placed under your baby’s arms for support. I’ve tried it several times with Toby and he’s not very impressed, I think it’s a little early. That said, the only place you’ll remotely entertain the idea of lying on your stomach is on the gym mat.
The gym also folds in half with the arches still attached, making it very easy to transport or hide away. The arches are also removable for when baby is a little older and just needs a comfortable mat to sit on.
Overall, the mat is one of the best purchases we’ve ever made, we use it several times a day and it’s well worth the money. Sometimes if Toby is having a hard time settling in, or if I need to get on with other things, I can put him on his mat and he’s entertained. Most of the time, he falls asleep on his mat (and then wakes up to yell at you because the music has turned off), so I often put a small pillow under his head and a blanket over him and let him sleep for a while. a little. I would definitely recommend this mat from newborn and I imagine it will be great until Toby is several months old. I wish we had bought it earlier instead of the one we bought first.
I give the Spots and Stripes Safari Gym 9/10