Kinderglo Portable Fun and Safe Rechargeable Night Light, Bear

Roughly 9 months ago, we had a violent, windy storm that caused our front door to shriek in the wind. From that night on, our 2 and 1/2 year was absolutely terrified at night. She had never had any trouble going to sleep before, but after that she was up out of bed a half dozen times or more each night, visibly frightened of the dark.We tried keeping the overhead light on, and letting a radio play, but both only provided temporary relief. I also didn't want her to sleep with her room completely illuminated at night. Enter the KinderGlo. We knew she needed a better night light - one that made her feel like she wasn't in the dark at all, but I didn't want to light her entire room. A night light she could hold in her hands seemed like the perfect solution.The first night or two, we used the rotating light function, because we thought it would fascinate her. And it did. But after that, we worried it was too distracting, and she was staying up later than we wanted. So we began to ask her what color she wanted, and then we'd set the color. At first she preferred green, but the last few months she's always chosen red. Other reviewers are right about some colors being brighter than others. Red is nice and soft. I don't believe she has gotten out of bed once since we purchased it.The only con can also be viewed as a pro. The bear is very easy for the child to turn off and on, and to change the color. The only reason this is a con is because we would choose a color, bypass the 30 minute timer, and then after my daughter went to bed, she'd decide to change the color again. When she changed the color, the 30 minute timer would be reset, which meant the bear would be off 30 minutes later, and she would wake up in the middle of the night in a dark room crying hysterically. After we explained several times that changing the color made the bear turn off (it would be very difficult for a small child to hold the button long enough to bypass the timer again) she seemed to understand and stopped messing with the color setting.Now for why this product doesn't have five stars. After reading all the reviews, I expected the bear to stop charging, or the light to stop working. After all, we've bypassed the 30 minute setting each and every night, which means the bear has run all night, every night for 8 straight months. Which is why I was days away from writing a glowing review. I was certain that if the bear was still working after 8 months, it would continue to work. Well - it likely still works, but the light mechanism inside has detached completely, meaning we can't turn it on to find out. My daughter has faithfully placed it back in the charger each morning since we go it, and we've never allowed her to play with it, but it has fallen out of her bed a handful of times (as anything in a child's bed would do from time to time). It has never been mistreated in any way, but a few of these short falls must have been enough to dislodge the light from inside. We currently have a request for a replacement from KinderGlo, as we are still inside the year warranty. I will update this review with fewer stars if we have difficulty receiving a replacement.UPDATE: We received a replacement in record time, which meant my daughter only had to go without her light for two nights! But the replacement bear had the same issues as the first. The light mechanism dislodged, and this time it happened just a few months later. Because of the same defect occurring again, I've reduced my review from 4 stars to 3. I considered contacting the company again for an additional replacement, but we were now outside the 1 year warranty and I wasn't sure if I would get a service charge. My daughter was approaching 4, and no longer seemed to need the light to sleep. My parents had also purchased my son a Kinderglo Dinosaur light (he was always envious of his sister's bear) and I figured if one of my younger children required a night light, they could use the dinosaur. And while the dinosaur is going strong 9 months after purchase, it's important to note that it rarely leaves its charger.

We bought two of these bear shaped Kinderglo lights for our sons to use. They love watching the colors change, and my oldest insists that the bear sits on "his seat" (the charger) when he's done with it. The charger has a light that changes from red (charging) to green (fully charged). Since the lights are LED, the charge lasts a long time, and they do not need to be charged daily.I've been very pleased with these. They seem to be fairly high quality, and are very rugged and durable, but the plastic has a bit of give to it, which makes them more suitable to sleep with than other similar chargers. The boys can also use these as toys during the day and just play with them with the light on or off.The different colors do have different brightnesses, and we do sometimes have to take the bears away to get the boys to go to sleep, or else turn the color to red (the dimmest). But the boys currently take any excuse to stay up, so it may not be the bears' fault.We bought this as a replacement for the TykeLight brand lights, which are a similar item but not as well made. Also, the Kinderglo plastic is MUCH softer and gives more than the TykeLights. Between the two, the Kinderglo is very much the better product.The only problem I had with the Kinderglo product was that the charger did break within a week. I contacted the company, who told me that they had had a batch of bad chargers from the manufacturer, and they shipped me two replacements immediately, at no charge. The replacements have not had a problem, and their customer service was EXCELLENT. I highly recommend.UPDATE: After using these longer, they did break. I had to contact customer service again (again, very good service) and they were kind enough to ship replacements. I purchased a total of 3 of these (two in June 2011 and one in January 2012) and was shipped two replacements (plus a couple replacement chargers). However, some of the way that they broke was definitely due to my destructive preschoolers. They threw the bears across the room, down the stairs, and just were horribly rough with them. They also tried to pick apart the chargers. So, actually- it is very surprising that they did not break them sooner! If you have a non-destructive child, these would be great. If your kid is really rough on things, they will probably break eventually. I currently still have one that is working, and I am saving that for use in the baby's room, as she can't hold anything yet. :)Also, something I did not mention in my first review... the TykeLight products require you to choose to have them turn off and only have the auto turn off feature in one color, while the Kinderglo products default in all colors to fading off after 30 minutes and you have to choose to leave them on by holding in a button for 3 seconds. We preferred this as the boys know how to turn them on. Some people may prefer the other way, though.Update #2: My daughter got old enough to use the one remaining bear, and slept with it for about a week before the bear cracked. My guess is the plastic had gotten brittle with age, but she did also beat it against her crib walls, so that may have something to do with it as well. In any case, the last bear is now dead.In summary: EXCELLENT customer service, but the quality of the products isn't as high as you would expect for the price.