A Finleypotamus, A Kierbear and a Clipo Hippo

If you are new to the blog, you may not know why it's called Potamus Prefers. It's simple really, I like to give my boys nicknames.

When my oldest son, Finley, was a tiny baby, I would rock him over and over and make up songs to sooth him. I would just sing whatever would pop into my head. One of the songs I made up at the spur of the moment was a song that went, "Finley, Finleypotamus, you are my dear..." and so on and so forth to the theme of the "The Ballad of Davy Crockett". It just popped into my noggin, but it stuck and he is now our Finleypotamus or Potamus for short. My youngest, Kieran, was and is such a chubby little cuddle bear that he became our Kierbear. This review blog is a spin off of our personal blog, "The Blog of Finleypotamus and His Little Kierbear".

That being said, I enjoy finding toys, stuffed animals and clothing in a hippopotamus theme. You betcha I was super excited when I was offered the chance to let him try out the new Playskool Clipo Hippo.

Here is a video review of him right after naptime when I gave him his new toy.

For the rest of the day, every time I would put the Clipo Hippo up, he'd find it and bring it to me to play with.

From Playskool:

"Roll out the hippo and encourage your little one to build all sorts of colorful creations with interlocking, peg-covered CLIPO parts. Whether it’s standing still or being rolled around, the purple hippo is filled with fun! Open the hippo’s mouth to “feed” it blocks, or just have fun adding and removing them from the storage area. Kids can attach blocks to the hippo’s back, or to its wheels. Curiosity and delight will grow as toddlers design their own creations again and again. When playtime is over, all the pieces store inside the hippo!"

I aim to find educational toys for the boys and I give this one my stamp of approval because the parts seem to be the perfect size for my son's hands. In addition, it can be played with in more than one way. His favorite way to play with his Hippo right now is to empty out all of the Clipo parts then push him all over the place. I don't think he'll get bored with it easily. There are also lots of other Clipo toys and pieces sold separately that we can add to his collection over time. I really like that the pieces can be stored right in the toy when playtime is over.

The Playskool Clipo Hippo from Hasbro comes with 20 Clipo parts and is recommended for 18 months and up. It won a 2009 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Toy Award. You can purchase it for $20.99 here and is also widely available where toys are sold.