Ocean Wonders Musical Aquarium Crib Attachment

We bought the previous version of the Ocean Wonders aquarium in 2002 for our first child. It served a lot of functions: soothing white noise to fall asleep by, a day-or-night toy by the crib. Our firstborn loved it. Nicest of all, it made the transition to his toddler bed much easier. We wanted our second son (born last september) to have his own, and we were glad to see that a new version was coming out because we assumed the new model would be an improvement. This is not the case.

For starters, the new version is a MAJOR hassle to put together. The old model was one unit with a panel in the back for putting in batteries. Its one thing for battery replacement to require a screwdriver, but this contraption has a seperate battery case that attaches to the rest of it by an OUT OF SIGHT screw that you have to line up PERFECTLY to get the device to work. It took me two hours to find this screw. If that wasn't enough, you have to do this while the batteries are out and while the thing is attached to the crib or you won't be able to get it to stay in place! It is as if the designers were trying to find the clunkiest way possible to set this up.

Secondly, the new model is much bigger and much brighter than the old one. While this makes it more of something to play with, it also makes it useless for soothing nighttime use. The size makes it more than a little intimidating for a newborn, but the brightness makes it useless for nighttime.

To be fair, there have been some improvements over the older model. The sound quality of the songs is much better both in fidelity and tambre (it doesn't sound like a cheezy synthisizer). The ocean sounds (which are the best sounds) are still there and sound good.

Overall, I would not recommend this product. See if you can find one of the earlier model floating around.

We purchased this a few weeks ago and so far are very happy with it. I actually think the seperate battery compartment is great because I keep rechargables in it and when they go dead I just pull up the toy and pull the battery compartment off and you don't have to take the whole toy off like with the older model. We had the older model for my other child but the water dried up in it and it was always a pain the change the batteries. I think this new one is alot better. I like that it has a volume control and the other noise it makes when the fish are going around actually helps put my baby to sleep. When we first put it on his crib he couldn't stop staring at it and making all kinds of cute baby sounds! He just loved it! I do suggest putting batteries that you can recharge though because it does eat up the batteries. As far as the light in it, I don't find it to be too bright, I think its very dim actually and my baby has no problem falling asleep to the bubble sounds and music. Overall, very very happy with another Fisher Price item!

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I agree with other reviewers that the older model was better in many ways, but this version is still priceless for putting baby to sleep. We had the original model FP made, which had softer lights and much quieter motion sound, as well as our favorite feature --the lights going through actual water to create ripples of light on the ceiling. I was crushed to find that this version no longer had that feature. And also, like others have said, it is much more of a hassle to move. We take it whenever going to my parents or another friends' house where napping will occur. You have to take the entire battery compartment off with a screwdriver and a small amount of swearing each time.

That said, my daughter is nearly two and still goes to sleep with her aquarium every single night. We keep the motion turned off for a more soothing lullabye, but she like to turn it on when she wakes up and wave to her "fishies" as they swim by.

Our original one had screws that rusted, so it had stopped working by this age. This one, however, I can see being used for a couple more years sitting on a shelf by her bed as a sort of toddler boom box. :0)

The other improvement that would be great is a remote to restart it from outside the door.

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The parents here have already said it, this product is a huge disappointment from the original model. My son loved his aquarium, but it began to leak so I went out and bought this one (really had no choice since I wasn't able to find the old model). Assembly was a huge hassle----I'm still scratching my head at how FP could have allowed this design to pass! It has a very loud mechanical sound to it that clunks and the light on it is so bright. I woke up to its horrible sound this morning at 5 AM! It's going back today.

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I purchased this new model of the Ocean Wonder Aquarium because I needed a second for Grandma's house, and my daughter loves the original. What I did not like was the battery back that attaches outside the crib. If you have to take your mattress out of the crib to change sheets,etc,it would be extremely time consuming to remove this toy because the battery pack is screwed in. Also, the movement of the fish is much louder than the original design. I ended up returning this toy because I was very disappointed. I love all my other Fisher Price products, but this one is not worth the time or money.