Leapfrog's Leapster Explorer

We were in the store recently and Matthew found the display for the new Leapster Explorer.  We weren't in any hurry that day, so I allowed him to play with the display model for a while to see if he liked it.  Well, he loved it!  He was able to try out Toy Story 3 and Penguins of Madagascar.  Both games are appropriate for his age, and challenge him to learn new things.

Matthew already had a Vtech V.Smile Pocket that we got him 2 years ago and he also had the Vtech Vmotion system that hooks up to the TV.   We made a deal that he had to go through the games that he no longer plays and sell them and his V.Smile Pocket on ebay to earn the money for the new Leapster Explorer.  He was able to earn enough money to buy the system and a new game!  He chose Toy Story 3. 

Leapfrog also offers LeapFrog Connect.  This allows you to hook up the Leapfrog Explorer for added content.  I was able to also download demo versions of The Penguins of Madagascar and Mr. Pencil Saves Doodleburg.  You can also buy Leaplet cards to download more games, ebooks, videos and more.





 Parents can also see their child's progress on the Learning Path.  You can view the results in a few differen ways.  You are able to see the amount of time that the child has played the game, the types of questions they answered, the percentage they answered correctly, and more.

I love being able to see his progress.  And I can utilize this as a way to reinforce and supplement some of the skills he is learning in preschool and at home.  There are characters that he loves and it fosters an interest in learning.  In the past, I have allowed him to play Nintendo DS, but what I have found with him is that it tends to lead to aggressive behavior when he reaches levels that he can not beat.  The Leapster Explorer adapts to your child's level.  So the content will remain challenging and encouraging without becoming impossible.  It also integrates with online content that we can play together in Leap World.  His favorite right now is a game with a scale where you balance the weight of various things or people.  He thinks it's funny to put an Ape, dog and Piano on one side and a bowling ball, mouse, and motorcyle on the other.  But he learning also about weights and measures because he sees the heavier side go down.  There is also a mode where they give you two objects and you choose which is heavier.  Another game involves sorting items for recycling by paper, plasic, or aluminum.  Which is a skill he can use at home in real life too.

Overall, a very good toy.  It's regular retail price is $69.99.  There are plenty of sales and coupons out there as well.  I used two coupons at Target while it was on sale and got it for $39.99 using a Target coupon and a Manufacturer's coupon. There is a $10 coupon on the back of some of the falvored Cheerios boxes right now.

This mom approves this toy!

Leapfrog Customer Care

After a long stretch of bad luck, I finally found good customer care!  Leapfrog went above and beyond to help a rather loyal customer of theirs.  We have plenty of Leapfrog toys in our home.  To fully appreciate what Leapfrog did for us, let me tell you the story of my Leapfrog Didj.

I purchased my son's black Star Wars version of the Didj direct from the Leapfrog website in November 2008. I also got two games - the Star Wars game and the Foster's game. It was pre-loaded with Jet Pack Heroes. It worked fine for several months. I do not remember exactly when, but I do believe it was probably last June 2009 that I hooked it up to the Leapfrog Connect website to check progress, etc. I was required to run an update. After the update, the Didj wouldn't work at all. First, it just wouldn't read cartidges, so I ran it again, thinking perhaps I disconnected too soon or something. After I ran it again, It didn't power back up. I tried changing to new batteries and that didn't work. I tried looking up similar problems to see if there was a fix or something that others experienced. I didn't have time to call customer care about it, so I put it up on a shelf so that my son wouldn't see it (out of sight out of mind - he's three. And yes, he actually does play the games on his own). I somehow managed to also forget where I put it.

I finally just found it last month. I had put it on a shelf completely out of my own view. Now that I had it again, I put fresh batteries in it and hooked it up to the computer to try and see if a brand new update might fix the problem. When it was plugged into the computer, it did power on. I was able to run the update and my son could play Jetpack heroes because it was pre-loaded on to the system, but he couldn't play the cartidge games,  I tried cleaning the cartridge, but that didn't seem to work. I just get the little Didj character scratching his head telling me that he can't read the cartridge.

I happened to post about it on the Facebook fan page and the nice gal that moderates the Facebook page suggested that I call customer care for a replacement.  I was suprised because I felt that it had really been too long to expect anything from Leapfrog.   But I gave it a try.  Basically, they told me that since it was out of the 90 day warranty, I was out of luck.  So, just to keep the Facebook moderator in the loop, I told her what had happened when I contacted customer care.  She then took it into her own hands and I had a new Didj in my hands within a week!

The timing was pretty good because as you may have noticed from a previous post, we are having our living room repaired.  So this "new" toy will hopefully help to keep his mind off of the fact that our house is in complete disarray!  He was pretty excited to get his Star Wars game in there and start playing again.

Matthew was really happy to see his new Star Wars Didj.  Hopefully this one will last a lot longer!  He has already started to download new micromods and spend his rewards.  I only wish I knew how to transfer the things he had earned on the old Didj.