Review on Step2 Spill Splash Seaway Water Fun: Hours of Splashing Adventure! by Danny Zapata

After testing a variety of watermarks for our 18 month old son I settled on this one. It's definitely mediocre in terms of action (twirl the starfish and flip the characters off the springboard or catapult spoon), but the main reason I went for it was the two-tiered design and neutral natural colors (and the umbrella! lol). With that in mind, I decided to update this basic design to how I envisioned it. There is an outlet of the waterfall, but there is no waterfall! If you don't scoop up enough water from the bottom up to get over the crest of the waterfall, it won't cascade into the lower green tank. And even on the box is a picture of this "waterfall" depicting it as something that should happen frequently, but no, only under the conditions I spoke of before. To fix this I drilled a hole in the lower green tank and ran a clear rubber hose to a water pump that drains the lower water and returns it to the upper tank. I covered the hole with Yookidoo's Musical Duck Race, which also uses water to create a beautiful fountain effect that you can change by simply switching ducks. Another issue I couldn't leave alone was the wobbly starfish. It's easy to knock it off the stand. It spins, but only if you spin it by hand. I wanted it to rotate automatically (to add more moving objects for fun), so by churning the water I directed a small current to the "fins" of the starfish below. The last upgrade I wanted was some sort of water fun that fills the upper pool instead of just flowing in to fill. I found the perfect toy that even complemented the seawater theme; It's called Waterfall Water Station by Ninano. Normally you had to pour water from above to make the octopus' eyes move, or spin a water wheel, but having diverted the water through a system of pipes and hoses I now have it running continuously for unlimited enjoyment too. A few trips to the hardware store, some plastic pipe and fittings, and within a few hours I had something I could definitely be proud of! I gave the original item a 3/5 rating. For just a fancy tiered tub, $70 is a bit steep. It's easy enough to assemble. Some people have had trouble with self-tapping screws, and rightly so. The instructions only mention using a screwdriver. It's just horrible, if I didn't screw in the screws with my cordless screwdriver, I'd be swearing all the time. The plastic is pretty solid and the little guides don't help enough. Also, there was an issue with the wobbly starfish and the jump platform, which also comes off easily and the toys barely sit on it. All in all I think this is a good buy for anyone looking for something similar, just know what you see is what you get.