What You Should Know About the Dora Talking Kitchen
Nickelodeon hit it big when they launched their ever so popular Dora the Explorer series. Millions of toddlers each year spend their weekday mornings glued to their TV set watching Dora and her entourage successfully navigate through the jungle to achieve their missions. Of course with the success of such a popular series also comes a plethora of dolls, gadgets, DVDs and other toys all relating to Dora the Explorer. One toy that has really taken off from the series in the Dora Talking Kitchen. Play kitchens are always a hit amongst kids and having a Dora Kitchen is just that much more popular. I will discuss in the following paragraphs the pros and cons of this kitchen while alerting you to some price traps as well.
Overall this kitchen receives four stars. Is it perfect? No, but it definitely has put more smiles on the faces of toddlers than not. The Dora Talking Kitchen is small so it fits nicely in tight spaces but still has many of the desired features kids need and love. It comes with recipe cards that you can insert into the kitchen and then follow the maps instructions to whip up the desired meal. What I love about this feature is Dora says the words in English and Spanish helping to instill language learning skills. The downside to this feature is it's not expansive. Dora simply list the ingredients but doesn't go through the actions of preparing the meal.
If your little one loves phones like mine does she/he will love the play kitchen phone on this toy. Kids can get phone calls from Dora's best friends such as Boots the Monkey. The only disadvantage to this is Dora isn't accessible, only her friends. Why they chose to do this I don't know but all in all it is a cute addition.
The kitchen itself is lightweight and easy to assemble. Parents can rest assured that if it should fall over that young children won't be harmed as it weighs just a few pounds. Also along with the recipe cards comes a life size Dora doll that acts as your child's companion while cooking up their next feast. This little "extra" was definitely a plus in my book.
Even after so many years this kitchen still continues to be wanted by many. Unfortunately it is not the easy to locate. Many places no longer carry it and those that do have their prices pushed so high it just doesn't make economical sense. Yet, there is one place I have found that still carries this item and that is Toys R Us online. I don't know if they carry it in their stores but you can access this kitchen online for about $80.00
Overall, the play kitchen from Dora receives good marks. If you research on sites such as Amazon review you will find, that in general, the Dora Talking Kitchen gets a thumbs up.