Overview

This dollhouse is a great bet for little ones who love to pretend but aren't quite ready for tiny, detailed accessories.  Figures are a great size for little hands.  The house is sturdy, assembly is minimal, and the set is portable.

 

Accessories

Talk about built-ins.  Most of the furniture for the Surprise & Sounds Home—bunk beds, kitchen stove, toilet, a couch, and the like—is attached to the house itself.  This is a dollhouse meant for toddlers, so there’s (thankfully) not a lot of small pieces. 

 

The Surprise & Sounds Home also comes with a movable table and three chairs along with three play figures.

 

Assembly

Surprise & Sounds Home, we love you for your easy assembly.  No more than 15 minutes needed.

 

It’s a little annoying to remove the Surprise & Sounds Home from its plastic packaging, pretty much in the same way it’s always annoying to deal with plastic packaging.

 

After that, you pretty much just screw in a hinge.  Done.

 

Not-so-expert tip:  You’ll need a Phillips-head screwdriver. 

 

Play Value

This house was made for little hands.  The play spaces are relatively shallow so that the preschool set can easily reach all of the built-in furniture. 

 

There’s not a lot of furniture arranging to be done here; only the table and three chairs are movable.  The rest of the furniture and fixtures are attached to the house itself.  This is great as far as avoiding the drama of losing parts goes; less great if you think your kiddo will really want to spend a lot of time arranging furniture. 

 

The house is surprisingly (and sometimes subtly) detailed—fruit and cheese and eggs molded onto the counter; a teddy bear and dog on the bunk beds; toothpaste and a comb on the bathroom sink. 

 

The oven and refrigerator open and close, as does the toilet.  There are sound effects and phrases linked to various pieces of the dollhouse, like the oven (“Our food smells delicious!”), refrigerator (“What should we have for a snack?”), iPod (“Come dance with me!”), and toilet (“Wash your hands and they’ll be squeaky clean!”). 

 

But the absolute best accessory is the alarm clock.  Push down this little piece of purple magic and you not only get a nice catchphrase (sometimes “Time to get out of bed sleepyhead!”), it also causes the bunk beds to actually dump any lingering children out of bed. 

 

There’s a little bird on the outside of the house.  If you move it, you can make various scenes pop up in the windows.

 

The included furniture and figures are sturdy.  If you want to move beyond the included three, there are plenty of other options, like Tessa & Kitty, Chris, Josh & Mia, Donald & Daisy Duck, or a Disney Princess set (or if you’re feeling like it’s never too early to get those little brains thinking about careers, you could also go for the Veterinarian, Librarian, or Farmer).