The Review Smiths
Toniebox Starter Set Toniebox Starter Set
4.5
Toniebox Starter Set 4.5

The Toniebox is a screen free interactive audio device, this comes in the form of a speaker cube, made with soft sustainable fabric that is squidgy but fairly robust and can withstand rough use from little hands.

It features a headphone jack, LED display, built in battery and Wi-Fi connectivity and comes in six colours, green, purple, pink, red, blue and grey. The volume controls are really cute, two squeezy ears, one slightly bigger than the other allows the Toniebox to be turned up or down, a tap on the sides will skip the tracks whilst leaning it forward or backwards with fast forward or rewind the audio. The Toniebox come ready to go, to activate an audio adventure simple pop a Tonie on top and it will automatically begin, the starter kit comes with a Creative-Tonie, this little figure and be used to store up to 90 minutes of your own MP3s, audiobooks or recordings of your own narrated stories. The charging station is included which provides up to 7hours of continuous play making it handy for travelling, especially with the headphones and it can still play audio without needing to be connected to the internet.

Along with the Creative-Tonies (additional characters available from £11.99 each) there are the regular Tonies, these characters come preloaded with audio including stories, songs and educational nonfiction. There are over 140 Tonies to choose from include Disney, Paw Patrol, Pepper Pig, The Gruffalo, as well as classic fairy tales, lullabies and sing-a-longs with new ones coming out in the future. The majority aimed at younger listeners but there are a few that go up to ages 8+, both the Tonies and Creative Tonies are beautifully made, each with its own unique little character that has been hand painted and made from robust child friendly materials (suitable for ages 3 years and up). These little characters just need to be popped on top of the box, it is guided and held into place via a magnet and the story will automatically start to download (you will need Wi-Fi at this point) the story will start to play whilst the rest continues to download in the background.

The LED letting you know when its fully downloaded and it can then be played at any time without needing internet connection, the audio is downloaded from the Toniecloud. Via the app you can access the Toniecloud where you can customise the Toniebox and set up your Creative-Tonies. We love this sweet little storyteller, the characters are very cute and collectable, we just wish they were slightly cheaper as at £14.99 a pop the money soon racks up. Enjoying a good tale or sing song without the distraction of screens and blue light frees up children to play and dance along with the audio whilst at night-time the story time mode can gentle eases them off to sleep whilst keeping the lights down low and switching off automatically when its finished.

We also received some little Tonies to get us started;

Coco-

This heart-warming Disney story tells the tale of an aspiring young musician, who finds himself transported to the Land of the Dead on a quest to uncover the secrets of his ancestors. Young listeners will love to sing along to four popular songs from the Disney Pixar film.

Paw Patrol Chase-

With his truck and megaphone, this German Shepherd is always on the case, this 54min adventure starts when trouble strikes in Adventure Bay, where the six heroic pups, Marshall, Rubble, Chase, Rocky, Zuma and Skye are there to save the day.

Matilda-

This Roald Dhal classic is suitable for 6+, over 86 minutes it tells the story of five-year-old Matilda Wormwood, an extraordinary child with a magical mind. She has the most unpleasant parents, and a horrible headmistress who terrorises children for fun but soon she discovers that she has a very special power.

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RRP £79.95

A great way of sharing stories and songs without the screen time and even creating your own tales for the kids.
  • Strong, child friendly materials
  • Clear audio
  • Interactive controls
  • Collectable figures
  • Wide range of audio adventures
  • Automatically switches off
  • Screen and light free
  • Good battery life
  • Will work without WiFi after initial download
  • Make your own audio with Creative-Tonies
  • Tonies are a little pricey