Soft Landing - Joyrides - Sit-in Childrens Character Rocker - Hippo

Sheds the mane and tail a little but its lightweight and our toddler loves it

I bought this almost a year ago for my son (16 months at the time) I was so excited to get it because it was so cute. And I wanted him to be able to rock comfortably in a chair type richer without falling off or even rest on the neck part to make it even more relaxing. When I gave it to him it was hard to use. He couldn’t get on or off of it himself and when he did the fur was in his face bad and he couldn’t really rock it himself at all. So I gave it some time for him to grow into it. He is over 2 years now and still can’t really get on it and when he does the rocking is rough. I think the wood needs to be longer because it is very clunky when he rocks on it. I understand the way the wood is done. It has a curve on the ends to act as a sort of stopper so it doesn’t rock too far. But because it is so short it just jolts him back and forth hitting those curves mid rock (if this makes sense, it’s hard to explain) My daughter actually accidentally broke the neck and it is leans more forward now but actually it made it better because now the hair isn’t in his face like it was (and the hair is VERY scratchy) I’m going to take it to my grandpa and see if he can’t help me fix or replace the wood with a longer one that will allow him to rock in it with ease. Also the foot rest on it is in a really weird place no where near where his feet would go or will ever go I don’t think. It is so cute and have loved it for “looks” in his room so this is why I’ve kept it hoping he will grow into it. I bought it hoping he would rock in it and be able to rest on the neck and not have to worry about falling off of it. But he really can’t use it at all and the rocking is so clanky that he doesn’t enjoy it. So I’m a little disappointed but hopefully I can fix it myself. I just want others to know how difficult and unpleasant it is for my son to use. He’s maybe gotten on it 3 times and always gets right back off. I think at the time at Christmas last year I paid a little over $100 for it so I guess I expected it to be better quality than it is. But it’s virtually unusable the way it came One last thing I think the description says it’s for up to 8 years? Know that this is not true. It’s true my 8 year old at the time could sit on it, sure. It didn’t buckle underneath her weight and her bottom fit in the chair part. But there is NO way she could rock on it no way haha I really wanted this to be a nice and comforting thing for my son to use (I myself love to rock it’s very soothing) but I didn’t get this out of this product. Darn! Maybe others will have better luck