We got two electronic "geography" toys around the same time this "map-oriented" toy and the "globe-oriented" VTech Little Einsteins Globe. The globe was brand-new, a gift for my son's third birthday (he shares his toys with his sister, who is almost 6). The See n' Say was a $1.99 bargain I picked up at a secondhand store.
Guess which one we like more?? Guess which one they use more?
This See n' Say is great, if somewhat basic. It is actually two map toys in one; there's a different map on each side one shows the whole world, while the other side focuses only on Africa and Asia. The visuals are compelling, with 3-d holographic images for each country. There aren't many countries represented perhaps 7 or 8 on each side?
One weird feature is that each side really is separate there is an on/off button on each side, and turning ON one side automatically turns OFF the other side. I don't know why one button couldn't have done the job for both sides.
The toy doesn't offer a ton of facts, and some are questionable: "Kenya is a famous country in Africa" was the best fact they could supply for that country. You may or may not enjoy the "music" selections for each country; they are made-up tunes in the style of each country's traditional music. Children can also learn how to count to five and pick up three words/phrases in each language: hello, goodbye, thank you.
So it's rock-bottom in terms of features, but I think that's okay with my kids because we don't have a lot of electronic toys so they can savour the play value in it. Compared to some I've seen, this one is relatively tasteful. Loud and repetitive, sure but both kids not only enjoy playing with it, they have indeed memorized just about all the locations on both sides.
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