I wanted to love this puzzle. I loved it online, and since I am not much of a fan of the Melissa and Doug brand, I thought this puzzle and the others by DwellStudio would be great. I have other Dwell Studio products so I thought this was sure to be a great puzzle.

Pros:
- Cute images
- Shapes are easy to remove from the board.

Cons:
- We purchased two puzzles and BOTH arrived with smeared paint. Not a big deal, but I expected better from this company.
- The colors are MUCH darker than you are seeing in the picture on Amazon. I know that monitors vary, blah blah, but honestly, the green looked light green or bright green in the picture and is actually much much darker. Overall the colors are darker and not bright and engaging, which is what you would want for a young child.

Overall, I was very disappointed by the dark, drab colors and the smeared paint so I returned these puzzles. A bit sad, as I really loved them in the pictures online.

**Please see my update at the bottom of my old review.

My twin 9-month olds, like all babies of that age, love to show when they're displeased by throwing something. When they try that with the Bendy Ball, most of the time they forget why they got upset.

This cute thing can be bent while holding and you can put your fingers inside it. Plus the ball inside that you can't quite get out has a little ball inside it that sounds like a bell almost. If you want to throw it to show your displeasure at something, you'll end up putting your fingers into it first. Those distractions are priceless.

By the time baby finally rolls this ball, it is with a positive frame of mind, and she wants it back to try again.
I can see that this durable little toy is going to be used in many ways and constantly. It's a lot of fun to roll their way and see how they try to figure out what to do with it.

Beyond that, the colors are great. The 5 outer caterpillar parts on diameter are cute. I think this is an educational toy that teaches about hand manipulation.

**Update 11/23/2013:
Wow, has this toy changed! One look at the photo and it's obvious it changed. It now looks like a cheap hard plastic with a shiny surface and less intricate shape. What I got and my girls enjoyed back in 2009 was a denser non-reflective rubber-like toy that wouldn't hurt if it were thrown by one toddler at another. My twins threw it at each other and nobody cried. I had this at 5-stars because it deserved it at that time.