Homer versus Baby Annabell in the battle of the toys

Leading toy store Hamley’s, of Regent Street, London, kindly gave us seven of their top-selling toys for three disabled youngsters – Louise Doyle, 10, Elizabeth Yu, nine, and Jemma James, nine – to try out. This is what they thought of them

JEMMA

“I want to play with that one first,” said Jemma, who has a hearing impairment, as soon as she saw the Bratz Movie Stars doll and its silver sequins gown. The doll is dressed as a movie star and comes with a real film camera so that children can take pictures of her in various glamour poses.

A Bratz doll collector, Jemma was a pro at putting on the fur coat and posing her for her close-up. She then aimed the camera and captured the moment from several different angles.

“I like this one,” said Jemma as she brushed the doll’s hair and rearranged its gown.

The only way to distract her from Bratz was to present Barbie – The Princess Rosella Doll. But Jemma said she liked the Bratz doll better because it came with a larger hairbrush and because the clothes were brighter and more glittery.

Dancing Igglepiggle – a light blue soft toy that sings, dances and opens and closes its eyes when prompted – also received high marks from Jemma, who laid it down for sleep.

“It’s the visual signs that let Jemma know what he’s doing,” said mum Kim as Igglepiggle closed its eyes and enclosed its arms in over its face.

“I like him because I can play peek-a-boo with him,” said a delighted Jemma.

Unsurprisingly, Baby Annabell was also a huge hit. Jemma could hear and see the doll as she gave it a bottle and wiped its face with a tissue.

“It’s loud enough that it enables her to pick up the sound,” said Kim.

“I like it because it’s noisy whereas a newborn is probably not so noisy,”
said Jemma.

The Optimus Prime Voice Changer Helmet – a mask that goes over the head and transforms the wearer’s voice into a robot-like sound – though loud enough for Jemma to hear, terrified her at first. She also didn’t like that it was a “boys’ toy”. But once Kim showed her how it worked, Jemma laughed and gave it a go.

This cleared the way for the star of our visit – the Homersapien robot – a Homer Simpson robot that walks, talks, and moves each limb through a remote control with 20 green and red buttons. Jemma quickly worked out the remote control with a bit of instruction from her older brother, then took it away and moved the robot around the room, giggling all the while.

“Jemma does well with toys that have controls,” said Kim. “Also this one and Igglepiggle work for her because they are visual and they are interactive.”

ELIZABETH

Elizabeth showed her enthusiasm by diving right into the bag of toys and clapping her hands with glee.

Because Elizabeth is blind, she needs to feel the dimensions of each toy with her hands.

Igglepiggle, with its soft fur and fuzzy blanket, was a good starting point.

After her mother, Yaitchi, helped her feel Igglepiggle, Elizabeth laid it down and put its blanket over it.

She pushed the button on its foot, once she knew where it was, and smiled when Igglepiggle talked to her. She was happy to stay with Igglepiggle for a while.
Princess Rosella Barbie was also well received, and Elizabeth took to brushing her hair and making her dance and walk along the carpet. Although Barbie’s tiny shoes kept falling off, Elizabeth didn’t seem to mind putting them back on with Yaitchi’s help.

But when Elizabeth located and pressed the “magical gem” on Barbie’s necklace and the doll began to sing, she tossed her aside and said, “I don’t like that.”

Also a baby doll lover, Elizabeth took to Annabell immediately. She listened to the baby coo and suck its bottle and dummy, while whispering, “The baby has gone to sleep. Ssssh.”

When Annabell’s beanie came off, Elizabeth put it back on with help from Yaitchi.

Her imagination ran wild as she announced that Annabell had a tummy ache and would not be able to go out today.

A Thomas the Tank Engine toy, Musical Bubble Thomas, worked well for Elizabeth, too. A switch in the back of the tank engine makes the wheels turn and bubbles come out of its smokestack. She was able to find the switch on the back of the engine and liked to feel the bubbles coming out of Thomas’s smokestack with her hands as well as feel the wheels as they moved across the floor.

A surprise hit was Homersapien, the Homer Simpson robot. Although it was not completely accessible, in that Elizabeth could not operate the robot herself, as the remote control had too many small buttons with directions she couldn’t read, she did enjoy following its movements with her hands. The problem, though, was that he couldn’t walk very far because she needed to have her hands on him in order to track his movements.

She was slightly startled by Homer’s loud voice but got used to it.

LOUISE

Louise’s face lit up like a Christmas tree when she first saw Dancing Igglepiggle.

“Whoa, cool,” exclaimed Louise, “I like that he laughs, and he’s singing too.” She happily helped Igglepiggle on with its blanket and enjoyed pressing the button on its foot that set it off on its wiggly dance and song.

“Whoa, he’s moving!” she said.

But after a minute or two, Louise was eager to move on to the next toy: the Bratz doll.

Louise ran the tiny hairbrush through its long mane, but found it rather tricky to fit the doll’s little fur coat on, because it was very tight, and so decided to leave it off.

When one of the doll’s earrings fell out, Louise was able to fix it back into the tiny earring hole with a bit of help – though her mother Maggie said, “The little bits are hopeless, really. They don’t really work for us – I have to just take them all away. One, Louise’s co-ordination is not very good, and two, they just get lost.”

So it was on to Baby Annabell, which scored very high marks from Louise. “She’s cute,” she said as she took Annabell into her arms, rocked it to sleep and in turn fed it a bottle and gave it a dummy.

 “She loves this kind of baby’s baby,” said Maggie.

Less of a hit was the next toy, Homersapien.

“Gosh, this is rather complicated,” said Maggie. Each button has a tiny description above it, but Louise would need help with these and found Homer’s loud voice slightly alarming.

Next it was on to Barbie – Princess Rosella, with which Louise had some difficulty.

“The shoes are nice but they need to be glued on or else they will keep coming off,” she said.

The Thomas the Tank Engine toy also left something to be desired.

Maggie felt that it was too young for Louise.

“I might get bored after a while,” said Louise, although for the moment she seemed happy to play with Thomas.

The final toy was the Optimus Prime helmet.

Louise seemed keen to give it a try. But the mask came off as quickly as it went on.