Little Tikes Roll ‘n Pop Vac

Um, I Think You’ll Need More Than a Vacuum To Remove Those Spots Worm…

Early on, Worm began mimicking us doing house chores.  The light bulb in our heads went off.  What if Worm was on a program to brainwash encourage him to enjoy cleaning?  How much time, money and weekend spare time would we recoup if we could train our son to clean our house!  The first step to getting Worm involved was obvious.  Give him kid’s sized tools that look and feel like their adult sized versions.

Voila!  In one conversation with the grandparents and a wave of their magic credit card, a Little Tikes Roll ‘n Pop Vac showed up at our door.  Worm was excited.  We were more excited.

With any child’s toy, a parent doesn’t want little Johnny or Susie playing with something that can maim or damage their prying little fingers and toes.  Hence, this vacuum doesn’t have any external moving parts other than the two wheels on the underside of the base.  It’s really safe for their big ideas on using their small digits.  Besides that, it patented cleaning action performs far better than the most expensive Kirby vacuum out there.  (I hope you know I’m kidding.  It doesn’t pick up anything except fairy dust and elf farts.)  Like the name suggests, the vacuum does roll and pop a bunch of little colored balls and glitter around when pushed.  It makes noise, too, which all kids love!

Even though it’s mostly plastic, this thing is built tough.  That’s one thing I really like about the product.  My son is pretty careful with toys, so he will probably never test the limits of the Roll ‘n Pop’s durability.  The colors are pretty gender neutral.  Plus, there is a neat little hand vac for kids that have a serious cleaning streak in them and can’t stand not to leave any nook or cranny unclean.

The Worm is about 34 inches tall and you can see how he compares to the size of the vacuum.  (He is a little over the 1.5 years old minimum age recommendations listed by Little Tikes.)

The real question is “Does he use it?”.  Not really.  When I put it in the middle of the living room, he’ll push it for a minute or so.  He never looks at ease maneuvering it around and in most cases, he will drag it away backwards to make space for his other toys.  Sometimes he flips the switch and expects it to turn on (like my vacuum), but nothing happens.  That’s when he gives me the look of “Dude, WTF?  It’s broken.” and puts it away.

Overall, the vacuum is a decent buy.  The price is right for the Roll ‘n Pop Vac.  I wouldn’t pay more for it.  If the handle tilted down and there were two more wheels on it, I think my boy would play with it more and get the joy out of vacuuming the house that his father does.  Though with any toy, it’s hard to guess what one child likes and another child dislikes.  I know mine is a clever little man at 21 months of age and he knows it’s not quite like my Dyson.  So in our case, we may need to take a shot at something a little more functional…or give up on our ‘free housecleaning forever’ dream.

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Overall Rating:  6 Worms

Ease of Use: 3 Worms  (It’s a bit awkward to push around.)

Performance:  7 Worms  (The balls roll and pop around inside the vacuum when pushed…so I guess it performs as described.)

Features:  5 Worms  (It basically just rolls and pops.)

Durability:  10 Worms  (It’s solid.)

Manliness:  7 Worms  (Times have changed ladies.  Vacuuming is definitely manly.)

Retail Price:  $26.99

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Pros:

Sturdy.  Cute little hand vacuum detachment.

Cons:

Switch doesn’t do anything.  No front wheels on the vacuum makes it hard for kids to push around.

Things I would modify:

Make the switch buzz, blink, glow, whistle, anything.  Add more wheels so it actually rolls over the carpet…For the handheld, make it easier to roll over the carpets and couch.

Where to find:

Little Tikes Website