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The Fisher-Price Kid Tough Portable DVD Player is a great concept – an easy to operate portable DVD player designed to handle being dropped. Sounds like a perfect way for young kids to watch their favorite DVDs.

My family has two of these, one of each color, and our kids love them (my two year old refers to hers as “my pink TV”). The DVD players look and feel sturdy and the buttons are all large and easy to press. At two and four years old, my kids can easily hold the players in their laps and they have no problems operating the controls. My four year old can open the player and swap the DVD out for another one without a hitch.

There’s just one problem – neither one of them work any more. Both units were manufactured in September of 2008. The blue one was put into use just after that, and the pink one started getting use back in the spring. Both players have been treated very well, the kids tend to sit in one place with them and about the only physical action the players have seen is the opening of the lid to swap DVDs. I’m not even sure that either one has ever been dropped. The volume control on the blue player won’t work at all (and of course, it’s stuck on off) and the pink player just flat out doesn’t work at all. Very disappointing considering what they were designed for and how expensive they were.

I need to call Fisher-Price and find out if they can do anything for me, but the product has been discontinued so I may be out of luck.

The Leapster 2 is a great hand held electronic game designed for preschoolers.  My 3 year old son loves his – he can operate it by himself, including changing the cartridges.  We had a bit of a crisis when the touch screen mysteriously stopped working.  Fortunately, it turned out that the touch screen just needed to be recalibrated. To recalibrate the touch screen on a Leapster 2, just use the following steps:

1. Ensure that a cartridge is not inserted into the Leapster.
2. Hold down the Hint button (labelled with a “?”) while powering on the Leapster. This will bring up a menu of options.
3. Press A (”Touch Calib”) this will start the touch screen calibration process. “Starting touch calibration” will appear on the screen briefly followed by a black screen with a white cross in the upper left corner.
4. Touch the cross that appears with the stylus pen. When you touch it, the cross will change to 4 dots and then a new cross will appear on the screen. Repeat this process for 5 crosses total – one in each corner and one in the middle.
5. Turn the Leapster off and back on again. The touch screen should now be working again.