Love the idea and my 2 1/2 year old loves it and uses it everyday. But the set up process took me hours as the instructions were vague. I also wish the app interface gave more info. Like how charged the thing is. My child was devastated taking it on a car ride and it died 15 min in. I would have charged it before but the website instructions say to wait till fully dead before charging. My kid is terrified when the tonie speaks to him! Lol. He prefers the creative tonie where he can choose what he listens too. He gets a bit discouraged when trying to change song. You really need to SMACK it and he knows he's not supposed to hit. When I try I smack it and the tonie falls off and he screams I hurt the toy. We like the toy, it's one if his favorites but on a daily basis ... MoreLove the idea and my 2 1/2 year old loves it and uses it everyday. But the set up process took me hours as the instructions were vague. I also wish the app interface gave more info. Like how charged the thing is. My child was devastated taking it on a car ride and it died 15 min in. I would have charged it before but the website instructions say to wait till fully dead before charging. My kid is terrified when the tonie speaks to him! Lol. He prefers the creative tonie where he can choose what he listens too. He gets a bit discouraged when trying to change song. You really need to SMACK it and he knows he's not supposed to hit. When I try I smack it and the tonie falls off and he screams I hurt the toy. We like the toy, it's one if his favorites but on a daily basis I am frustrated trying to help him navigate it. I wish it was more transparent in how to operate it to the parents through the app.

An ideal way to disappoint children

Won't connect to home wifi because you need a 2.4ghz signal and 5ghz is standard. So you need 2 mobile phones and have to use one to set up a WiFi hotspot, consuming mobile data and therefore money. Then you do a factory reset because that's what the instructions tell you to do to install a software update that will allow you to connect to your WiFi. This tantalising prospect, which for most devices is a given, remains out of reach, however. Worse still it won't now even connect to your mobile hotspot, rendering a very poor device, useless. If I don't get my money back I will at least get some satisfaction by going the full Basil Fawlty on it with a shovel. Utter, utter garbage. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Avoid!

The set up of this is a nightmare. I have spent hours trying to sort it out and still not managed to get it working properly. Tonies customer support is seriously lacking and difficult to get through to. They told me I needed to hotspot from two phones to override bad software on the brand new box. I completed this and still can’t connect it to the Wi-Fi. Avoid this product unless you have serious computer skills. I’m very disappointed and not the only one with these issues according to various Facebook groups.The figures look lovely and I’m sure my daughter would love this if I could only get it working! I might just have a faulty box but the difficulty getting tech support would be enough to put me off.

Doesn't Work

I read reviews here & elsewhere but had hoped they'd still not be a dodgy batch but they are as of mid Jan 2023. The issues:* It comes with a completely flat battery. As directed on Tonie's website I let it charge for 30min. It went flat again after about a minute.* I let it charge the full 3 hours & I couldn't even complete setting up wifi before it went flat.* instructions online & in the box say press both the ears for 5 sec. Wrong; it's 20 sec. After this a green light shows & it says welcome I need help with my set up.* both instructions then say to hold down both ears for 20 sec. Wrong; it's 5 sec. Then it flashes blue. Then you wait around 20 sec for the second noise then you can press continue to complete connecting the box to the app.* (this part ... MoreI read reviews here & elsewhere but had hoped they'd still not be a dodgy batch but they are as of mid Jan 2023. The issues:* It comes with a completely flat battery. As directed on Tonie's website I let it charge for 30min. It went flat again after about a minute.* I let it charge the full 3 hours & I couldn't even complete setting up wifi before it went flat.* instructions online & in the box say press both the ears for 5 sec. Wrong; it's 20 sec. After this a green light shows & it says welcome I need help with my set up.* both instructions then say to hold down both ears for 20 sec. Wrong; it's 5 sec. Then it flashes blue. Then you wait around 20 sec for the second noise then you can press continue to complete connecting the box to the app.* (this part will depend on your device) I found if my device has mobile data on then when the tonie wifi connects the device detects no internet & switches to mobile data. So I had to switch mobile data off & when it popped up with 'are you sure you want to connect to wifi with no internet access' I clicked 'yes'.* Finally the box is connected to the device! I go to type in my wifi password... The first time it flashed red & said 'my battery's going flat I am shutting down' & it did. The second time it just flashed red, didn't output the voice, & shut down.This is not "easy set up"! The fact the printed instructions, written website instructions & voiced & animated set up video state the first ear press is 5 sec, the second is 20 sec, when in fact it's the other way round makes me think someone swapped the numbers '5' and '20' around in the software coding! How did no one notice this!! Was no one testing the code in a test box before sending it out to the factory to be installed on all the boxes?!If this is a messed up batch rushed out for xmas they've ruiened their repretation & lost many customers versus running out of stock.I'm returning it & not buying a second for a friend's child. Very disapointed :(

Fantastic product!

I brought this for my son who is 3 years old as he loves the Gruffalo and I wanted to replace Television at bedtime with something calmer.I thought the price was pretty high for something that seems simple so I waited until it was on sale to purchase, I believe the product does a lot more than I’m aware of which I’m sure I’ll learn along the way! The money however was 100% worth seeing how much my son loved the product. It’s a great addition to the home. Friends recommended an Alexa instead as they were cheaper and did the same thing but I was worried about the other features of an Alexa and him accessing other things so this was perfect.My little boy loves to pick out the characters at bedtime and if he wakes up in the night he will put another story on himself ... MoreI brought this for my son who is 3 years old as he loves the Gruffalo and I wanted to replace Television at bedtime with something calmer.I thought the price was pretty high for something that seems simple so I waited until it was on sale to purchase, I believe the product does a lot more than I’m aware of which I’m sure I’ll learn along the way! The money however was 100% worth seeing how much my son loved the product. It’s a great addition to the home. Friends recommended an Alexa instead as they were cheaper and did the same thing but I was worried about the other features of an Alexa and him accessing other things so this was perfect.My little boy loves to pick out the characters at bedtime and if he wakes up in the night he will put another story on himself and go back to sleep.The box itself is durable and soft. My crazy boy hasn’t managed to break it yet and believe me I’ve heard him drop it many times! The characters stick to the top by a magnet so it’s easy for him to place them on the top, I was worried they just sat on the top and he would keep knocking them off.Overall it’s a great product which has endless on the purchases so it makes birthday and Christmas gifts easier for relatives as they will buy him a new story for it. It also makes him feel more comfortable when he’s sleeping away from home.

Fun And Friendly

Great gift for the kids. The box is lovely although it does take two (small) hands to hold so we've had plenty of drops. Seems to still work fine after a year. Would have preferred for it to come with a handle. Can't say getting it started was easy- took a while to get it to going with Wi-Fi connections etc. definitely need time to get it ready before giving it as a gift if you expect it to play straight away.Not keen on the function to skip to the next track as it requires patting it (quite hard for small children). The forward and rewind function is down by tilting it to each side and I found this ineffective. It only does a few seconds, no matter how many times you vigorously tilt.The characters that you can buy also make good gifts. Happy that it has a ... MoreGreat gift for the kids. The box is lovely although it does take two (small) hands to hold so we've had plenty of drops. Seems to still work fine after a year. Would have preferred for it to come with a handle. Can't say getting it started was easy- took a while to get it to going with Wi-Fi connections etc. definitely need time to get it ready before giving it as a gift if you expect it to play straight away.Not keen on the function to skip to the next track as it requires patting it (quite hard for small children). The forward and rewind function is down by tilting it to each side and I found this ineffective. It only does a few seconds, no matter how many times you vigorously tilt.The characters that you can buy also make good gifts. Happy that it has a headphone jack for headphones.Good for a home music/ story box with nice figurines for (I say) under 5y but will be getting something more portable with better controls as the kids grow.

Great For Toddler

We purchased for our daughter's 2nd birthday and love it! It was easy to set up via the app and creating our own recordings using the MyTonie was so easy! We also got a few extra Time Audio Characters to give more options. Audio quality is good. Good build quality; the soft covering feels nice and absorbs drops very well! The motion controls are a bit fiddly for a 2-year old but I'm sure she'll get more used to it as she gets older. Overall a brilliant product for bed time wind downs and long journeys!

Software Fault

Disappointed this has been sold without the correct software to set it up. The Tonie website even states the Tonie box purchased after October 2022 needs to have its software updated before it can be connected to your home Wi-Fi. To do this it says you need your phone to act as a personal hotspot and a further device to set up the connection. Even after doing this and resetting the factory settings as instructed we still seem unable to connect. We already have one for our other child which was so simple to set up but can't get this one going at all. Feels like this latest batch have been rushed out for Christmas without the correct software. We will be returning as just can't get it set up.

The Toni Box is a

The Toni Box is a high quality Wi-Fi based speaker system designed for children. It comes with a blank creative Toni character that you can upload 90 mins of content to.There are a variety of other Characters both blank, called creative Tonies for your own content and Story Tonies that are loaded with stories that you can buy. You can sit the character on top of the glowing square on the box and it will attach magnetically. The story or sound file will then play and when you want to stop or pause the story, just remove the character. You need to sync the content with the Toni box that you upload yourself by squeezing one of the ears until it beeps.You can then add the Toni to the box and it will play your newly uploaded content. Each character is a durable hand ... MoreThe Toni Box is a high quality Wi-Fi based speaker system designed for children. It comes with a blank creative Toni character that you can upload 90 mins of content to.There are a variety of other Characters both blank, called creative Tonies for your own content and Story Tonies that are loaded with stories that you can buy. You can sit the character on top of the glowing square on the box and it will attach magnetically. The story or sound file will then play and when you want to stop or pause the story, just remove the character. You need to sync the content with the Toni box that you upload yourself by squeezing one of the ears until it beeps.You can then add the Toni to the box and it will play your newly uploaded content. Each character is a durable hand painted figure which is themed to the story and there are cute designs like unicorns, fairies fireman, princess and clowns for the blank creative Tonies. It comes with its own recharging base and has a simple layout once you get used to it although it’s a bit fiddly to set up via the app. Also, it’s easier to let the box power off itself rather than turn it off as you need to turn the box upside down and then squeeze both the ears/ buttons to power down but It will auto shut off by itself if left unattended. I think It’s quite heavy and bulky for small hands to hold and for children to carry about. Fortunately it’s padded on the outside with a soft squishy material and feels durable if dropped. It comes in a range of colours. Red, blue, grey, green, pink and purple. You need a Wi-Fi or mobile hot spot connection and a downloaded Toni app to set up. You will also need two devices to set up the Toni box if you use a hot spot. One will be used to set up the box via the app and the other to create a Wi-Fi hot spot which is what we did. The little Toni characters come in a variety of styles and represent the story that is stored on them. You can also buy creative Tonies which are cute little figures with 90 mins of space on which you can download your own content via the cloud or storage on your phone or make recordings via the microphone embedded in the app. You can also invite friends and family to your Toni account remotely and give them permission to send files to your account which can be downloaded to the Tonies of your choice. The creative Tonies are about £12 and the story Tonies are more expensive and are about £14 each. Be sure to check the running time of each story character to get value for money as some are only about 30 minutes long while others can run for over an hour. Apart from the unorthodox and clunky set up , the box is brilliant for your kids or kidults and anyone who loves story time.

Third Tonie Box

We now proud owner of 3 Tonie boxes. They are much loved items in our house. Easy to use, my youngest has been using her brothers from no age. Really helpful if there's a story or song a little one needs to listen to on repeat as can load a creative tonie with this and have a much needed break. We take our boxes everywhere, on holiday or to Grandmas. They are used multiple times a day. I like that I can control the max volume on the app. The stories make nice pick up treats or rewards. The boxes themselves have been bought as birthday gifts for my children and the squeal of delight when my youngest received this recently, having her own Tonie box. Priceless.