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No, thank you I hate beautiful things.
Value: 15/20 Functionality: 19/20 Usability: 20/20 Aesthetics: 18/20 Bubble Energy: 19/20 Total: 91/100
Last summer, when parents all over the world were trying to figure out how to keep their children entertained without summer camps, screens or Chuck E. Cheese, a toy appeared time and time again as a sane protector of epidemics: bubble Bubble. Yes, it's like in a 99-cent bubble tube. Soon, parents began to use bubble gloves, giant bubble wands, bubble lawn mowers-anything that can make children happy with rainbow-colored soapy water outside. At the same time, we collectively began to turn our backyard into a mini amusement park, creating outdoor movie nights, inflating bounce houses or buying mini swimming pools. So really, Little Tikes’s newest toys for summer 2021 are a natural evolution of these trends: pop-up foam parties for kids.
This gadget is aptly named FOAMO and looks like a Blippi blue-green projector for children, except that it emits mountains of microbubbles. And I don't care how old you are, how fresh your saliva is, or whether you are wearing a bathing suit, you will feel scared the moment you see the kids start jumping in. It's frivolous, ridiculous fun-we can all use it after we have all spent a year.
Related: 30 best outdoor toys for kids, by age
The setup is simple-in fact, we went from unboxing to knee-deep foam in less than 15 minutes (yes, I timed it). The design itself is excellent: everything is contained in a plastic storage bucket, which doubles as a basin for soapy water when in use. I'm ready to fight a lot of metal rods and curse under my breath (that is, my reliable strategy for assembling anything, whether it's children's toys or IKEA furniture), but it's intuitive. You assemble the tripod, lock the blower, connect the pump to the bottom of the storage box, and then fill it with water and the included FOAMO solution. Although I know that the law of diminishing returns will work, it is worth seeing the unbridled happy expressions on the faces of the children when the bubbles start pouring out of the machine.
This machine sells for $180 and a 0.75-gallon refill bottle costs $20. FOAMO is not something you buy on a whim on Tuesday. But considering that the cost of renting a foam machine for a party is between US$250 and US$1,000, this is a much cheaper option. (Of course, it may not be as strong as Bubble Daddy, but it will provide enough foam to entertain your pods for a day.) Considering the cost of trampolines, Power Wheels cars and other backyard splurges, it is not bad.
A bottle of the solution lasted us for more than an hour, although we realized that we could easily stop the machine every 15 minutes or so and let the children play with foam until it deflated, and then start it again to extend its life. FOAMO recommends to follow a water to solution ratio of 5:1, but when we try to mix at 7 or 8 to 1, we still have a lot of high-quality bubbles.
Another victory for this gadget? I was not out of breath, and kept blowing bubbles to entertain the children. In fact, I can sit down and drink a glass of rosé wine and watch them enjoy making foamy snowmen and smashing bubble walls.
If you plan to host a birthday party or a picnic on the 4th of July with your family, it can easily become the main event. You don't need a bunch of other activities to make everyone happy.
Okay, so a challenge for kids and bubbles is to keep bubbles away from their eye sockets (and mouths, because why do kids want to eat everything?!). Although the solution is non-toxic, hypoallergenic and biodegradable, putting it in the eyes is still annoying. If this happens, the company recommends flushing the eyes with water for 10 to 15 minutes. We found that we only need to rinse quickly with water, and then the children rushed back into the foam, you know, hit the foam into their eyes again. You can also put on goggles for them when they splash around.
Oh, if you want to know: Fortunately, the foam does not leave any film-like residue, and it is easy to clean everything with the spray of a water hose.
This is the kind of surprise you will have at a party that everyone is talking about a few months from now. And it may inspire you to start your own FOAMO rental service, because obviously you can make a lot of money in this field.
Related: 15 fun family vacation ideas
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