Is it an apple? Is it a vampire? No – it’s Timmy Tickle Baby: the Nipper Clipper distraction app review

Bubby D and the Wee Man have a new favourite thing – and his name is ‘Nimbleby’.

Ok, it actually isn’t Nimbleby but despite my continual advising them otherwise, the Wee Man and Bubby D insist it IS the name of the game and that’s final.

Regardless of what you’re calling it, the Timmy Tickle Baby distraction app – although it seems quite simple at first look – has given them hours of fun already. And not just distraction from having their nails clipped with the Nipper Clipper…but basically distraction from everything.

Me: ‘Wee Man, please put on your pants…’
Wee Man: ‘No! Nimbleby!’

Me: ‘Bubby D, it’s 5am, go back to sleep…’
Bubby D: ‘Mummy, Nible-eeee?’ (Accompanied by frantic pointing at the iPad).

They really are quite obsessed with it.

Happily it’s now reached the point where they’ve realised that they will get to play with Nimbleby as a reward for listening to Mummy, rather than being distracted initially and refusing to cooperate with any parental requests in the first place. Which is a relief.

Watching them play with Timmy Tickle, I can kind of see how they’re drawn in.

The app begins with a jaunty little tune and the Nimblebean company logo (that’s why they call it Nimbleby, y’see?), to which Bubby D bobs up and down in a little dance routine she’s invented (we call it, unimaginitively, the ‘Nimbleby Dance’).

Then follows an advert for the Nipper Clipper – which you can skip if you’re already aware of the benefits – and then a choice of three play options.

The sequence for each option is the same – Timmy Tickle (who is an orange octopus) morphs himself into a variety of fruits and characters including banana, apple, strawberry, pirate, vampire and cowboy; and then pictures associated with that fruit or character begin falling down the screen at a variety of angles, followed by upper and lowercase letters of the first initial of whatever word is being portrayed.

The difference between modes is how you get this to happen.

On auto mode, the characters, pictures and letters sequence automatically, continuing on a loop.

In baby mode, on the other hand, they react to the noises that your little one is making – so the pictures won’t begin falling until your baby makes a noise.

And in parent mode, Timmy Tickle is voice controlled so you need to speak the word which then activates the sequence.

Wee Man and Bubby D love the parent mode best.

They love trying to confuse Nimbleby (‘hahahaha I said POTATO not STRAWBERRY!’ the Wee Man shrieks in delight, whilst Timmy Tickle sits there looking somewhat bemused and refusing to shower himself with fruit).

They love being in competition to get Nimbleby to ‘rain’.

Bubby D has even learnt how to say ‘strawberry’, ‘apple’, ‘cowboy’ and ‘banana’ (all words she didn’t have in her vocabulary before) well enough that Timmy Tickle recognises them and rewards her with a show. (She has learnt how to scream ‘yeeeehahhhh’ as well, even though that’s not a necessary command!)

The concept is simple and well thought out; the pictures are detailed without being overwhelming, and they’re lovely and colourful.

In the words of the Wee Man ‘we want more Nimbleby!’

So I reckon its obvious that the Timmy Tickle Baby distraction app gets a big thumbs up from us 🙂

Oh, and did I mention its FREE?

You can get it here 🙂