More complicated than Learning Resources Funny Phone Family Game should be. The Funny Phone had the potential to be an awesome toy. Such a neat concept. In reality, it’s kind of complicated. The phone talks a LOT which burns batteries and can bore the kids who just want a clear command or prompt to keep the game moving. There is also a whole bunch of dialing you have to do in this game. First you dial a 7-digit number from a list that connects you to one of 10 different places you may want to call (toy shop, library, pizza place, etc). There’s an answer on the phone, which is usually very silly, and then you have to dial again a number between 0-9 to get the actual challenge. You do the challenge (pretty easy), then dial again to check if you answer was correct. If so, you can get rid of one of your tokens by feeding it into the phone’s mouth (the player who first gets rid of all their tokens wins). Then you move on to the next player and again, a bunch of dialing ensues with a lot of talking by the phone. I wish the phone would talk less and there would be less dialing. As it is, there is not so much for the kids to do in between.

That said, so far my kids do love the Funny Phone (they just got it yesterday so it is a novelty for them). My kids are 3.5, 6 and 8. They don’t really want to follow the instructions of the game (for the afore-mentioned reasons: the game doesn’t have a good flow) but love just dialing the numbers and getting responses. I also see them using it as a regular phone toy (pretend calling friends etc). It’s a colorful, attractive toy and seems to be durable. As a GAME, it could have been designed better. I also shudder to think how many batteries it will burn in the long run.

Should you get it? Why not, but not for full price. I got it for ten bucks and am pretty pleased with that deal.

ONE WEEK LATER: The kids don’t play with this toy anymore. The game is not that fun. The phone sits in the playroom and is sometimes used as a regular phone toy, but no one is interested in playing the phone game anymore. I am removing one star from my original rating.

Very cheaply made. I would advise against getting this phone. It is not put together very well, e.g. the wire from the headset to the base does not have a good connection causing the voice output to go in and out, also when you hang up, the phone doesn’t detect it most of the time (for game purposes) so you have to push it down with your hands. Overall, it just feels light and cheap. The games that it plays are more complicated than they should be as stated by a previous reviewer. You basically have to dial from a set of preset phone numbers after it prompts you and then follow the next sequence of instructions in order to get it work properly. If you press buttons or hang up out of sequence, then it’ll either repeat the instructions or go mute. Without adult supervision, I doubt a 4-7 year old could figure it out.

Edit: If you plan on getting this phone as a fake phone for your kids….don’t. They’re smarter than you and will go for the real thing instead.

Kids have fun. Wasn’t sure how to rate this. The overall concept is very simple, and the activities easy enough where the cards are almost silly. The thing is, they are simple, so why did we never think to do them before? It does help spark some dinner time fun, but once we read through the cards, it’s not something we look back at. For example, one game is to do a round robin and each family member says a word in a different language. Another is to take something off the table and guess what is missing.

The kids do have fun with the games, and with some imagination you can do this one on your own.

Great Fun!. We just got this game and are having a blast with it. It doesn’t interfere with our conversation, it ends up giving us even more to talk about and lots of laughs!