One of the first things we asked for (and got) was the Fisher Price Rainforest Bouncer. Not really sure why it was important to us, but for some reason we were actually able to make a good decision for once. The bouncy is awesome. Though I will say it does tend to grate on your nerves a bit with the noises it makes as Ashley beats the hell of of the monkey and the parrot.

Assembly was simple. 2 wire legs, 4 screws, a cross brace, and a slip cover which is what the baby lays on. Took about 5 minutes to put together, though getting the cloth onto it wasn’t exactly “slip on”, more like “pull with all your might on”. It takes 4 D-cell batteries, and it runs fine using rechargeable batteries as well. The play center part of it is detachable, and as such, can be left off for using just the vibration part, or to use the seat for other purposes, like tv time or feeding solids for the first time.

The base has rubber feet that protect whatever surface you might put the thing on, like on top of the table (baddaddy). The switch for the vibration is big and in the front, so no digging around. The play center arch just snaps right into the two holes on either side of the baby, and they even made it idiot proof by making 1 side square and the other side circle, avoiding the guesswork of how it is supposed to plug in.

The play center has two “punching bags”, actually hard plastic, which are a parrot and a monkey. There is a “waterfall lightshow”… LOL Its a bunch of plastic spirals that twist with light shining up them. Surprisingly though, there was a long period where Ashley thought the waterfall was the coolest thing in the world. There is a monkey that pops its head up and down, as well as a tree frog. Strangely, there is a little parrot on a spring that sits right on top of the whole thing, and I don’t really get what its intended to be for since it seems like there is no way in hell any baby would ever be able to reach that thing before they exceed the weight limit (which is 25 pounds). There are 3 buttons/switches, one button to control volume (3 levels), a switch for off/interactive/continuous mode, and a switch for the sounds music/rainforest sounds.

So far the uses have been:
Putting to sleep.
TV lounger.
Play time (wow does it get annoying to adults…).
Fart inducer.
Poop inducer.
Solid feeding seat when the bumbo is causing barf-baby.
Restraint device.

The Rainforest Bouncer was used a whole bunch to try to encourage poop and farts. It should actually be called that, “the poop and fart machine - rainforest style”.

The Rainforest Bouncer does have some issues.

One of which almost could be a deal breaker, but it may be that ours is busted. The volume button, which you press to cycle through the 3 volume levels works, but after a few minutes the volume just jumps right back up to max. You can imagine how annoying that can be.

Another issue is battery compartment. I know Fisher Price is just following industry standards of screwing the plate down, but lordy thats annoying. Every baby toy that has batteries currently has no battery covers on because of those stupid screws. Thankfully, leaving the cover off causes no issue to operation, and noone is any wiser since the cloth just covers the compartment anyway.

A strange design choice was to put the speakers on the front of the play arch thingy. Not facing towards the baby who wants to hear the sounds, but instead facing out towards the person (parent) who doesn’t want to hear the racket. Bizarre. Also the two speakers imply stereo, but I can’t quite figure out why you would need it.

Really though that is all I can come up with for complaints. It’s a simple enough device that delivers on it’s intended use, and maybe a little beyond. If you are looking for a bouncer, I would recommend it completely. Also, since there is a whole menagerie of Fisher Price Rainforest noise devices, you can make sure that you drive yourself completely insane with all the jungle squawking and bongos, over and over and over and over…

BabyCenter has a decent price on the Rainforest Bouncer.