Ultimately my 8 year old son loves it but the mouthpiece is a little tricky to use. The plastic is hard and not very comfortable compared to some other dolls. It's just something I noticed when I tried to use it and I haven't told my son about it because he loves it no matter what and it doesn't seem like too much of a problem for him other than, that he changes puppets during a game of puppetry because his arms get tired.