This post contains gifted items in exchange for a honest review.
If you have been following me for a while, you’ll know how much we love books, and audiobooks. We have a couple on CD, and I tend to put them on in the background whilst Molly plays instead of screen time. We were ever so kindly gifted a Toniebox starter set and 3 figures for Molly to try out and I was so excited to receive it.
What is a Toniebox?
Toniebox is a child friendly audio-system. The box itself is soft and squishy – perfect for those little hands to hold if they want to. It also means, if it happens to be knocked onto the floor, it has a better chance of surviving!
Toniebox
Charging Station
One Creative Tonie
Setup Instructions
A starter set will set you back around £70 with several colours to choose from. There is purple, light blue, green, grey, red, and pink. The Creative Tonie you receive will be dressed in a onesie of a matching color. We were gifted the pink one, so our Tonie was also dressed in matching pink! The Creative Tonie allows you to create your own audio adventure. You can upload your existing audio files via the Toniecloud at my.tonies.com or use the Tonie-App to record your very own stories, songs or messages. It can hold a whopping 90 minuets of audio, so you can mix it up and make it really unique.
This item is perfect if you’ve a family member who is away, or works away from home/ late nights a lot. They can record themselves reading a bedtime story, so that when they are away, it can be played every night to make the child feel like they are right there with them.
Then, you can collect little figures called Tonies. When these are placed onto the Toniebox, they play your favorite stories and songs. We were kindly gifted the Penguin, which plays Christmas songs and carols. Simba from The Lion King which plays the story and the songs, and then we were gifted The Snowman, who plays the beautiful story of The Snowman as well as The Snowman and The Snowdog.
How Does Toniebox Work?
Toniebox combines a wireless speaker with the same kind of technology you’ve probably come across before through Disney Infinity. You place the various figures (Tonies) on top of the Toniebox and it will play the audio associated with it. They are slightly magnetic, so you can pick the Toniebox up without dislodging the figure. If you remove the figure, the audio will stop.
You don’t need WFI to listen to anything on the Toniebox, you only need WIFI during the initial set up of the box and any time you add a new Tonie to your system or update the content on a Creative Tonie so the audio can download. Set up is super easy, and it is explained step by step in a little booklet that comes with the Toniebox. Once everything is set up, you can take your Toniebox and use it anywhere!
Volume is controlled by the two little ear like shapes on the Toniebox. The larger ear increases the volume and the smaller ear decreases the volume. To switch chapters, gently tap the side of your Toniebox. Then to fast forward or rewind, carefully tilt the Toniebox. Super simple. Battery life is approximately 7 hours, depending on how loudly you have the audio playing!
We LOVE the Toniebox so far and have been using it every day whilst playing. We are looking at getting Molly some more of the Tonies because she is just as obsessed! If it stops whilst shes playing, she will come over to the box, and ask swap out the characters so it starts again. Then return to whatever she was doing. It is honestly the perfect alternative for having the TV on in the background, and I couldn’t recommend it enough!
