Musical Building Snail

Part of Fisher-Price's Be-Bop Building series, this Buildin' Snail promises all sorts of smiles for curious, industrious babies. Ten chewable, stackable, soft-plastic blocks in different shapes and colors all fit inside this 10-inch-long snail's circular shell. A flip-open shape sorter on top lets babies drop the blocks down into the shell, figuring out which ones are stars, which are triangles, and which are puffy clouds. Just pop the 4-inch-wide storage shell off, and the blocks--along with the snail's goofy-looking head--can be stacked up on pegs on the rocking snail base. All that, and the friendly snail sings, too: when babies rock the base, a large button on the bottom triggers a bouncy, playful tune. --Paul Hughes