As a parent, giving your time, energy and love to your kids is one of the most important things you can do. That not only includes taking care of them and providing them with whatever they need, but also playing with your children and sometimes even joining them straight into the “land of make believe”, which is where they can truly give wings to their imagination. As all parents of young children probably know, children are naturals when it comes to growing their creativity by dreaming about new worlds and fantasy stories. With that said, if you’re a parent looking for a fun, creative and educational way to keep your young kid(s) entertained, then you should definitely take a look at the Toniebox Playtime Puppy Starter Set.
The Toniebox is an interactive audio system for children aged three and older that’s designed to play children stories and music on-the-go, featuring simple child-friendly controls and up to 7 hours of battery life.
To be a little more specific, this interactive audio system works together with little hand-painted audio characters called Tonies, which can be magnetically attached to the top of the Toniebox.
Each Tonie character already comes with a children’s story or a set of children’s songs already pre-recorded into it, and there are a ton of Tonies to choose from, including some of the most popular characters ever from Disney Movies or traditional children stories.
Designed to foster the imagination and active play of children ages three and up, the Toniebox is just about everything that a young explorer’s growing mind needs to truly imagine the many fantasy worlds in all the different and most popular children stories!
Now, let’s have a more detailed look at the Toniebox and check out exactly how this wonderful interactive audio system for children is designed to work.
DESIGN & SPECS
Starting with the unit’s size, the Toniebox comes at a fairly compact size in the shape of a cube, as it is designed to be held be children, measuring just 4.72 inches long by 4.72 inches wide by 4.72 inches tall.
And since this interactive audio system is meant to be used by children, the Toniebox also has a child-friendly design with soft-padded rounded edges, featuring a snuggable fabric exterior that makes the device fairly soft to cuddle with, even when held by tiny and more fragile hands.
More importantly, the unit also features a durable and long-lasting construction, even for rough-play, and that goes especially for its internal components, because once again, it’s designed to be handled by young children.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
As said before, the Toniebox works when paired with one of the company’s Tonies, which are little hand-painted audio characters that can be magnetically attached to the top of the Toniebox in order to establish an NFC (Near Field Communication) Connection with the device.
That said, as soon as you (or your little ones) pair the Toniebox together with any Tonie, the Toniebox will immediately come to life.
Each Tonie character will comes either with a children’s story (to tell) or a set of children’s songs (to sing) already pre-recorded into it.
As our review unit is none other than the company’s Toniebox Playtime Puppy Starter Set, know that this Set comes with the Playtime Puppy Tonie, which respectively comes with a set of children’s songs pre-recorded into it, which together can offer your kid(s) around 52 minutes of music-listening time.
The songs pre-recorded in this Tonie character include:
- The Wheels on the Bus,
- If You’re Happy and You Know It,
- The Muffin Man,
- Jack Be Nimble,
- Itsy Bitsy Spider,
- And More!
INTERFACE & CONTROL PANEL
Moving on to the device’s interface and built-in controls. Once again, since this is an interactive audio system for children, the Toniebox also features simple child-friendly tactile controls that are specifically designed for little hands.
Right at the side of the device, we have a large speaker unit that’s neatly covered by its snuggable fabric exterior layer.
At the top side of the unit, we have its NFC Magnetic Surface (for placing a Tonie character on it). Additionally, there’s also a built-in Headphone Jack that can be used for having your kid listening to a Tonie’s pre-recorded children stories or children musics in Quiet Mode, because obviously, every now and then, parents also need a little peace and quiet.
Finally, we also have a set of little Ear Controls at the top-side of the device, which conveniently put the control of a Tonie’s storytime (or music-listening) in the hands of your little one(s).
On that note, know that squizzing the Toniebox’s Ear Controls allows users to raise or lower the device’s volume.
Alternatively, tapping these Ear Controls to the sides allows users to change between chapters (for Tonies with stories) or tracks (for Tonies with musics), while tapping and holding the Ear Controls outwards allows users to fast-forward or rewind.
BATTERY & BATTERY LIFE
For its power, this interactive audio system for children comes equipped with a built-in rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery that can offer you up to 7 hours of battery life.
Then, whenever you need to recharge the Toniebox’s internal battery, all you have to do is to connect the device’s dedicated Charging port to its included Charging Station.
Lastly, it’s also worth mentioning that as soon as the Toniebox finishes reading the content (children story or set of songs) from a Tonie, the device will immediately trigger is Sleep Time function, meaning that it will automatically turn itself of and go to sleep in order to save on battery-power.
THE SMARTPHONE COMPANION APP – The mytonies App
Finally, we’d also like to talk a little about the mytonies App, which is available to download for free for iOS devices (iOS 9 or above) and Android devices (Android 4.4 or later).
Note that the Toniebox won’t require any sort of Wi-Fi Connectivity after its initial setup. Via the mytonies App, parents can easily adjust different settings like maximum volume and access rights, and configure the Toniebox to work with any (or specific) Tonie(s) within a customizable / configurable Collection within the App, even when used on-the-go.
In addition, the mytonies App also allows users to use the Toniebox together with the company’s unique Creative-Tonies (sold-separately), which can be used to upload family singalongs, stories from grandparents and family, or whatever sort of audio parents prefer to record on their kids’ Creative Tonies.
(Note that each Creative Tonie boasts boast enough storage space for up to 90 minutes of audio.)
For this, parents and their kids can use a Recorder function, which will allow them to record stories and/or songs that will be stored in their Creative-Tonie for a truly custom Toniebox experience.
Moreover, the App also comes with a Library that parents can use to keep track of all of their kids’ recordings and content, where they can also make edits, change the order, or even assign that recorded content to different Creative Tonies. This Library also allows parents to decide with content is most appropriate for their little listener by simply filtering that content by age.
Last but not least, the App also gives you access to the Toniecloud, where users can store up to 400 hours of their recorded audio-content (stories told by parents or other family members as well as family songs)
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
Inside each Toniebox Playtime Puppy Starter Set package, users will find: their Toniebox, along with the device’s dedicated Charging Station, a Playtime Puppy Tonie, and an Instruction Manual.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Toniebox is an interactive audio system for children aged three and older that’s designed to play children stories and music on-the-go, featuring simple child-friendly controls and up to 7 hours of battery life.
To be a little more specific, this interactive audio system works together with little hand-painted audio characters called Tonies, which can be magnetically attached to the top of the Toniebox.
Each Tonie character already comes with a children’s story or a set of children’s songs already pre-recorded into it, and there are a ton of Tonies to choose from, including some of the most popular characters ever from Disney Movies or traditional children stories.
All in all, the Toniebox is designed to offer young children a screen-free listening experience that can greatly inspire your kids’ imagination in ways that over-stimulating flashing screens would never do. It’s the perfect story-time companion for tiny hands and young, active imaginations.
If you’re interested in getting the Toniebox Playtime Puppy Starter Set, know that each set is priced at just $99.99, and you can get it in one of six lovely colors (Red, Pink, Light Blue, Green, Purple, or Gray). You can order yours online right now, directly from Tonies’ official USA shopping page.
Last but not least, know that the Tonies’ shopping page also has many different hand-painted Tonies for you and your kids to choose from, including some of the most popular characters ever from Disney Movies or traditional children stories, such as the Lion King Tonie, a Tonie that plays A Christmas Carol, as well as Despicable Me, Cinderella, characters from the movie Cars, and many, many more.
On that note, we’d definitely recommended parents and their kids to have a decent look at all the current Tonie options available.
