It is hard to believe I’ve been writing toy reviews on this site for almost five years now! We are finally at that age where my youngest child is five – and we don’t play with all of our toys like we used too. We recently started going through some of our older toys and I realized I didn’t write a review about some of the best toddler toys we had – and I wanted to make sure we shared our experiences with them.
One of those toys we didn’t review would be the Fisher-Price Code A Pillar – which is basically this cool Robot Caterpillar toy that you program to move in different directions! My children have had a lot of fun playing with this toy over the years, and they still laugh when the plan they had for the toy doesn’t go like they thought it would.
So, here is our quick review of the Fisher-Price Code A Pillar Toy – and I think after you read it, you will see why we had to include it in our Best Toddler Toys Series!
Table of Contents
Quick Fisher-Price Code-A-Pillar Toy Overview
Let’s start with just a basic overview of the Fisher-Price Code Caterpillar toy. This toy is recommended for children in that 36 month and beyond category – which is perfect for that young toddler that you want to find an educational toy for. It weighs about 3-pounds with all the pieces – and it comes with 1 motorized head, 8 segment pieces that attach to the head, and a green and red plastic “destination” circle pieces.
The motorized head has little wheels on the bottom, a big button that you push to play with the toy and get it moving, big eyes, and two antennas that give it that cute caterpillar look. The on and off button is also at the bottom of the toy. When you push the big button on the motorized head piece the eyes light-up and it makes all sorts of sounds and music.
Like we said above, there are also 8 different segment pieces that come with this toy that attach to the motorized head. Each segment will do something a little different. The standard set includes 3 move forward segments, 2 turn right at a 90-degree angle pieces, 2 turn left at a 90-degree angle pieces, and 1 sound segment piece. Each of these pieces can be attached to the motorized head and each other. You can attach them in any order you wish. We should also note it is really easy to attach or detach the segments. Once you show your toddler how to do it, they aren’t going to have any problem doing it on their own – which is exactly what we like as parents!
These segment pieces will control how the motorized head moves. The forward segments move it forward, the right and left turn pieces make the caterpillar turn – and the noise piece makes it stop and party!
The fun part is setting up the green destination circle as a starting point and the red destination piece as the end point – and seeing how effectively you can setup the segment pieces to get you from point A to point B! My children loved doing this, but also just moving the different segments around to get the code-a-pillar moving. Toddlers will love chasing this toy around from place to place!
We should note that while moving the Fisher-Price Code-A-Pillar is going to have lots of flashing lights and colors – the segment that the code-a-pillar is currently on will be lit up – and it is also going to make a lot of noise as it moves around!
It does require 4 AA batteries to operate – and we found the battery life to be strong on this toy.
This was a very popular toy with my two sons – and as parents, you have to love how this toy works on fine motor skills, teaches cause and effect, helps develop critical thinking, planning, organization, and other skills that we are always trying to teach to our kids…and this is accomplished in a fun way!
List of Fisher Price Code-A-Pillar Extension Packs and Pieces
There are some extra pieces that can be bought for the Fisher-Price Code-A-Pillar; mostly in the form of extra segment pieces. Those extra segment pieces include:
- Go Forward Extensions Pieces
- 90-Degree Left Turn Extension Pieces
- 90-Degree Right Turn Extension Pieces
- 360-Degree Turn Pieces
- Silly Sounds & Lights Extension Pack
- Sleepy – which makes the Code-A-Pillar have soft lighting and make a snoring sound
- Wacky – which makes the Code-A-Pillar stop and make silly sounds – also makes the eyes light-up in a fun pattern.
- Happy – which makes Code-A-Pillar stop and play happy music – also makes the eyes blink in a fun pattern.
- Basic Extension Pack – Extension pack that includes 1 Go Forward, 1 Right Turn, and 1 Left turn Extension.
These extension packs aren’t required to make the toy work – but they can be a really fun addition. Especially, as your child gets older, and they really want to make the Coding Caterpillar even longer! We never bought more extension packs because the 8-pieces it came with was enough for our children to really enjoy – but the silly sounds and lights extension pack would have been a fun addition!
Our Final Grade for the Fisher-Price Code Caterpillar
This really was a great toy in our household – and I’m going to be sad to see to go since it is about time for us to pass it on to another family who will use it! The Coding Caterpillar was played with…sometimes roughly played with…for about four years and still functions well today! We love that durability – and that is a pretty common occurrence with Fisher-Price toys.
We loved watching our children chase the caterpillar around the room, we loved them trying to figure out how they were going to get the caterpillar to land on their goal space, we loved watching our children move the goal space as the caterpillar was moving to ensure they won, and we loved the educational value that this toy has.
All of those factors together make this a clear-cut recommendation for our list of the best toddler toys and we would also give this toy a gold star rating for all of the joy it has brought!
Other Toys on our Best Toddler Toys List
We have a number of different Toddler Toys we have included on our list of the best toddler toys. Here are some of the other very popular reviews we did:
- Dancing Robot BeatBo Review
- Touch and Learn Activity Desk Review
- 30 Best Toddler Transportation Toys Reviewed
- The Best Little People Toys Reviewed
Hopefully, these reviews will point you in the right direction for your next toddler toy purchase!