I-Fish Interactive Musical Companion

$40, Smart Toy

Teaches: a musical peripheral

CTR Rating: 72%

CTR Review

Sure you have a cool sound system, but no dancing fish? The I-FISH ($40, tigertoys.com) is an eye-candy item with no learning value. But it gets people talking. About the size of a large bluegill, the battery-operated (3 AA's) fish sits upright on a spinning base and has an articulated tail that flops whenever the base moves. It represents the top-of-the-line of Tiger Electronics' 'Interactive Musical Companions' released last year�namely i-Dog and i-Cat. The translucent fish body is laced with 13 LEDs that alternate between blue, green and red, and look much better with the lights turned down. The fish turns with any sharp sound or motion and continues to respond for about 10 minutes in one of four modes that range from soothing to hyperactive jolting; before going back to sleep. If there is no music playing, the fish makes default water noises. You can either plug in your iPod or MP3 player and hear the sound through an internal speaker. The included cable offers dual plugs, allowing you to plug in both your regular speakers or ear buds as well as the fish (which is a good thing because the fish sound quality is scratchy). A warning to the parents of preschoolers: this is not the type of fish that swims well in the bathtub. Note that Tiger Electronics has also released updated versions of last year's I-Dog ($30), I-Cat ($30), plus I-Dog Pup ($15) with no pass-through speaker function.