This honest and in-depth kid’s audio player Toniebox review covers everything you could possibly want to know about the popular kid’s Toniebox toy. It is a great screen-free alternative that helps keep kids entertained and happy.
As a Mom of three children ages five and under, we have purchased and used our Toniebox for the past two years. It is the most used toy in our house and comes everywhere with us. It is the perfect screen-free alternative for home, the car, and even schools to have.
This unsponsored, honest, and thorough review explains what a toniebox is, where you can buy Tonieboxes, how they work, what songs and stories are offered, and more. For other children’s product reviews be sure to also check out this W4 Wonderfold wagon review.
This post may contain affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate as well as a member of other affiliate programs, I may earn a small compensation from qualifying purchases. All opinions and recommendations are my own.
Image Credit: Gabriel Tover
Honest Toniebox Opinion: Is a Toniebox Worth It?
In my honest opinion, a Toniebox is 100% worth the money. It is an amazing screen-free product that will keep kid’s attention for a long time. It is great for all ages (both my 1 and 5-year-olds love it equally as much), is a good price when you compare other similar products, has a lot of content selections, easy to use, is super durable, and is great for brain development.
As a Mom of three children, it is our most used product. It makes for easy Christmas and birthday gift ideas, doesn’t take up a lot of space, and is very portable. The characters are cute, the content is appropriate for all children, and kid’s will love picking out different Tonies.
What is a toniebox?
A toniebox is an audio player made just for kids. It includes a soft-sided box base with a speaker and “Tonies characters” to go on top. Each Tonie plays corresponding songs and stories to go along with the characters portrayed. There are hundreds of Tonies characters to choose from, including characters from popular movies, baby and toddler songs and rhymes, holiday Tonies, and favorite storybook character Tonies.
- New and innovative audio player for kids 3+ that is great for bedtime stories, music, and education.
- Screen-free listening experience that inspires your kids’ imagination in ways that over-stimulating flashing screens do not.
- Easy to use design that even the youngest children can operate independently.
- Playback starts automatically when Tonies audio characters are placed on the Toniebox. Pressing the ears changes the volume. Tapping the sides changes tracks.
- Bundle includes a red Toniebox, charging station, Chase, Skye, Marshall, and Playtime Puppy Tonies. Additional Tonies can be purchased separately.
Toniebox Features
Tonieboxes are soft sided. They have speakers on two of the four sides. The other two sides have important features to help them work. If you hit the left side of the Toniebox it jumps to the previous track. If you hit the right side of the Toniebox it jumps to the next track.
Tilt a Toniebox to the right and it starts to fast forward a few seconds at a time. Tilt it to the left and it rewinds a few seconds at a time.
A Toniebox has two ear shapes on top of it along with a hard square to put the Tonies on top. The smaller of the ears helps to turn the volume down while the larger ear helps turn the volume up. The harder shape on the top has a magnet built in to help the Tonies stay on top once placed.
Each Tonie has a unique magnet in the bottom that communicates with the Toniebox to tell it which Tonie is connected. Once placed onto it begins playing.
The toniebox also includes a headphone jack on the top. You can plug in a pair of headphones and children can listen to their music quietly. If you have siblings and want to listen to the Tonibox quietly, you will need to purchase a separate headphone splitter as there is only one jack.
A Toniebox comes with a circular charger that you just place the Toniebox on top of. The charger plugs into the wall and the Toniebox sits on top. You can still use the Toniebox while it is charging and it is easy for children to set on the charger independently. Once fully charged a Toniebox can last for up to 7 hours before it needs to be charged again.
How to Set Up Your Toniebox
To set up your Toniebox you should start by downloading the Toniebox app. Connect your box to wifi following the directions included. Making sure your phone is on the same Wifi connection you should start placing your Tonies onto the Toniebox one at a time.
The box will start by flashing blue. Keep it on the Toniebox until you hear a dinging noise and the light on top of the Toniebox will turn green. You should now see the Tonie character in your Tonie library. Once a Tonie is in your library you can fast forward, reverse, and play your Tonie over and over again.
What age is a Toniebox for?
According to the Tonies website, the Toniebox is made for kids ages 3+ due to choking hazards of smaller pieces. In my opinion, a toniebox is appropriate for children as young as 1 all the way up to age 10. I’ve never found any Tonies or parts to be too small or a choking hazard to my babies.
They have Tonies characters made specifically for babies (such as the Disney lullabies Tonie) all the way up. My children are 1, 3, and 5 and are still super interested in and love our Toniebox.
The Tonies characters each have individual ages that they are appropriate for listed but this is just a suggestion. Many of the Tonies listed 4+ were still great for my younger children as well.
How Much Does a Toniebox and Tonies Cost?
The Toniebox starter kits range anywhere from $100-$190 depending on how many Tonies come in your starter kit of choice. If you only get the bundle with one Tonie it is $100. If you get the bundle that comes with 8 Tonies it is $190.
You can almost always find a promo code on Tonies.com to bring this price down. Amazon and Target also run a lot of good sales on the Tonieboxes. We purchased ours on Black Friday for $70 for the starter kit with 1 Tonie.
Tonies characters range anywhere from $15-20 with most being $17.99. This is an increase from when Tonieboxes first came out and all of the Tonies were about $15.
Occasionally the Tonies website will offer a certain percentage off or a buy 3 get a 4th free promo. Keep an eye on their site for these promos to get a great deal on more Tonies characters.
Toniebox Accessories
Aside from the toniebox itself, the characters, and the charger you don’t need any additional accessories to use it. All of these items come with their starter kits. However, you can purchase fun accessories from their website.
Available accessories to go with the Toniebox include special shelves to store your box and accessories, a case to carry and keep your Toniebox and characters safe and help them bring them places, a topper to go atop of box and change the style, Tonies headphones and more.
What is a Creative Tonie?
One awesome feature of the Toniebox is the creative Tonies. Each creative Tonie character has 90 minutes of space on it where you are able to record your own messages, songs, stories, and more. They come in fun kid character designs like an astronaut, fairy, pirate, and more.
If you give other family members or friends access to your creative Tonies and they are willing to download the app on their phone they can record messages and send them to your child’s creative Tonies to be listened to as tracks.
We have family friends who live in other states that we send messages back and forth to using both our creative Tonie and theirs. We’ve also had grandparents record bedtime stories and send them to our creative Tonie. These are some of our children’s favorite Tonies tracks to listen to. Once you understand it is easy and quick to record and send messages.
There is also a spot on the Tonies app where you can find additional content (a lot of seasonal content) and songs that are free to load onto the creative Tonies.
How much time is on each Tonie character?
Each Tonie character has about 15-60 minutes of content on it. The songs and tracks range from 2-5 minutes and the characters switch back and forth between songs and tracks. The Disney Tonies tend to have a little less content on them and run 20-30 minutes while the musical songs Tonies tend to have 40-50 minutes or so of content.
Each individual Tonie will tell you on the description how much time content actually is included on it.
Do you Need W-Fi to Use the Toniebox? Just How Portable is it?
You do need Wi-Fi to set up and connect your Toniebox as well as to load the characters initially. Once you’ve loaded the characters through the app and wi-fi you do not need to use it hooked up to the wi-fi.
We’ve brought our Toniebox in the car, Grandma’s house, hotel trips, Airbnbs, and more all of which do not have the Wi-fi hooked up and it still works great. It is the perfect toy for travel and entertainment. You could even bring it on an airplane if you bring along headphones.
Our Favorite Tonies Characters:
As a Mom of three children both girls and a boy, we currently have over 25 Tonies in our collection and it continues to grow each birthday and Christmas. The following are some of our favorite Tonies:
- Encanto: Includes a lot of the awesome movie songs and the Movie story
- Poppy: Alternates between great songs and different Trolls stories
- Toddler Songs Puppy: Great choice for ages 1-2, includes lots of popular toddler songs and some fun unknown ones as well
- Cars: Catchy songs and the movie story
- Lilo and Stitch: Two great songs and the story from the movie
- Daniel Tiger: Great songs that help learn skills and a few stories from different episodes of the show.
- Olaf: Songs and stories from the different Disney short Frozen films. Super catchy songs.
Toniebox Pros:
- Screen-Free Entertainment
- Portable
- Easy to use
- Cute characters
- Lots of song and story choices
- Durable
- Makes future gift ideas easy
- Perfect for children of all age
Toniebox Cons:
- Can be expensive
- Each character costs extra money
- If you lose a Tonie you can’t listen to it again
- Not Bluetooth enabled
- Needs Wi-Fi connection for set-up only
- Songs are not the originals from the movies – they are remakes
Toniebox Review: Our Favorite Toy For Kids
Overall, a Toniebox is the best screen free alternative toy you can buy for your children. It allows children to listen, sing, dance, and enjoy the Tonies content and characters. It has a lot of content options, is easy to use, can be customized with fun family and friend messages, and is perfect for kids of all ages
Our Toniebox is our kid’s favorite toy and comes everywhere with us. It is portable and they each have favorite Tonies that we listen to over and over again. As a Mom, I love the included content, and am happy knowing that it is all 100% appropriate for my children. I find myself singing along to the songs and enjoying the stories as well.
We purchased our Toniebox for our kids for Christmas over a year ago and it has lasted through everything (including my 1 year old’s throwing phase).
I love that the Tonies characters are small and the perfect price that we can give them as gift ideas for Christmas and birthdays and our children are still so excited to get more Tonies (and I love that they are not big and collect additional clutter in our already full house).
To purchase your Toniebox you can head over to Amazon, Tonies.com, or get them from any major retailer like Target, Walmart, or Meijer today!
For additional kids item reviews check out this Wonderfold Wagon W4 review or this Zipadee Zip Swaddle Review. Both are great items for kid’s and babies.
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