Side by Side Comparison of: Lifetime vs Little Tikes vs Squirrel Products vs Pure Fun

So, we also bought a Lifetime full playground (like 1K), and would you believe it, the kids spend more time on this than the main playground (probably because it's lower to the ground). It would be really great if they could add controls for the 2nd seat though too. We only have 2 kids - sometimes arguments have broke out over the controls (they are 4 and 2). Probably not so ideal for taller kids over 5...

It took my husband about 2+ hours to put this together, but it was worth the wait. The kids (2, 2, and 5) love it and play with it in all sorts of ways. Guests love it, too, and often haven't seen anything like it. So far I've seen no rusting, and, despite rain, it's in good shape. We'll see how it does in snow!

This is an amazing purchase. It can be used by anywhere from 1 to 7 kids (sometimes adults get on too).I like that it adjusts to a lower height for little kids so it doesn't "teeter" too much to hurt them and can also be put at a higher hight for older kids.The dash is super cute and kids love flying it as well as rocking it like a teeter totter. If you have space in your yard or school, this is a fun addition.

This is our second Lifetime playground product. We bought the Big Stuff Adventure Play Set earlier this year, and for Christmas, we wanted another good quality product like the play set for our home playground. My wife chose this Teeter Totter. It arrived promptly and was delivered to our front door step in a large cardboard box.All parts were present, along with the instruction manual. On Christmas day, my teenager girl and I began working on it on the front porch. Although one person can do most of the work alone, I would recommend one other adult or teenager to assist to make it a bit easier and speed the construction process along.We finished it within a few hours and had it ready for our two toddler daughters to play. It is very durable, and this weekend it supported four toddlers playing on it with no problem. I noted that the children loved to explore the different seats and I could tell their imaginations were literally going wild with the airplane cockpit.Once constructed, it was easy for two of us to carry it around to the side yard where the other playground equipment is. I wouldn't recommend one person trying to carry or move it, although the "skids" do slide on the ground fairly well. It is now part of our family playground, and the kids love our Lifetime products.This was a great purchase!

I have a daycare, and the kids are in love with this piece of equipment. It offers hours of entertainment for a variety of ages. It was well worth the money.I have the Lifetime Monkey Bar Adventure Swing Set with 9 Foot Wavy Slide as well, and since that offers activity for the older kids mostly, this Teeter Totter gave our outdoor play space balance and more opportunity for the younger kids.As far as assembly - I am 5 ft tall, not very strong, at the time 38 weeks pregnant -- and I was able to put this together on my own with the help of only an 8 year old. That being said, the instructions stink. I got it together just fine, but really could have used some better instructions!

We purchased this and the Lifetime GeoDome climber to put in our backyard for the kids when our old playset had to go. It did take about an afternoon to assemble (maybe 4 hours total?) but my husband did it by himself and didn't need assistance. The kids started playing on it right away and the neighborhood kids love it. We have kids as young as 1 and as old as 8 happily playing on it together. It is sturdy and I really like that the earthtone color is not obnoxious in our yard. Nice detailing on the pieces to make it more "plane"-like. Very happy with this purchase and would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a nice teeter-totter for the yard for a wide range of kids.

Potential Fun: 5 stars (still too early to tell)Quality: 5 starsParts: 3 starsAssembly: 4 starsWe have an average sized 2 year old and an average sized 4 year old. I'm glad we put it on the lowest setting as it's perfect for the 4 year old. This toy is for ages 3-10; the 2 year old doesn't really get it and just likes to spin the propeller that he can barely reach and doesn't like it moving. But the 4 year old loves it and my legs are sore from teeter tottering with her on such a short teeter totter. But I'm confident we'll get several years out of this and the kids will grow into being able to both play with it. We're testing it out at the kids' birthday party next week, so we'll see how a larger number of kids play with it! Overall, it seems very sturdy and I believe it will stand the test of time.There are no spare parts! So when 2 of the plastic pieces came broken, we had to figure out where we could do without them. We're also lucky we didn't lose anything in the tan bark during assembly. Also, one of the metal pieces came all scraped up on one side. It's not obvious now that it's assembled. If it rusts after some rain, we will need to send it back. If it's just cosmetic, we will just keep it as is.I thought assembly would be terrible based on the reviews, but it wasn't so bad. My husband and I followed the advice of other reviewers and completed assembly in 3 1/2 hours by having me work ahead to build sub-assemblies or working in parallel when we could so nobody was ever sitting idle. Here are our tips:As others have said, don't tighten things until it says so in the instructions (it will be written with text; where it clearly doesn't want you to tighten, there's a hand symbol and where it's ok to tighten, it shows you the Allen wrench)Here's our order of operations, assuming that Person #1 is stronger and Person #2 is capable of putting together sub assemblies: --> Part 1: Person #1 builds front of frame while Person #2 builds back of frame, both put it together. When Person #1 tightens all the screws, Person #2 starts to build the blue frames. --> Part 2: while Person #1 puts the screws into the blue frames, Person #2 can start building wing sub assemblies from Part 3. Each person can attach a separate chair at the same time. When Person #1 tightens the chairs, Person #2 can attach the front bar and chain.*****Tricky Part***** When it's time to put the fuselage onto the base, it's tricky to get the bolts into the holes. We used the teeter totter motion and tilted the plane to be able to apply pressure in a particular direction, which helps to get it in. 2 people are definitely required to use this approach.Part 3: When Person #1 is tightening the screws that attach the fuselage to the base, Person #2 can finish building the wings. Both people are needed to attach the wings. When Person #1 is tightening the screws, Person #2 can set up the screws attaching the wings to the wing supports and get started on the tail flaps. --> Part 4: When Person #1 tightens the screws on the tail flaps (takes a while since bars block the wrench from spinning all the way around), Person #2 can build the cockpit/propeller sub assembly (instructions say to attach the cockpit before assembly, but it works fine to do it out of order). Work together to attach it and tighten the screws. You're done!

Nice durable playset. Had to contact Lifetime to send a missing part (had two left hand parts and no right hand one). No hassle getting the replacement. I do see a little rust at one welded joint... Will watch that and may call for a replacement part.

This is a pain to put together. The directions are not as clear as they could be so I found myself undoing and redoing a lot of screws. Thankfully all the pieces were there and the packaging was a tad excessive with every piece being wrapped in plastic. The airplane dashboard did not have any predrilled holes, but for the most part everything lined up well with minimal force. The kids love it, so now that it's said and done building I am happy with the purchase.

This is an awesome addition to our back yard play area. My 3 year old LOVES it and will play on it himself for long periods of time. Right now he plays on it by himself, but his little brother will love it too when he gets old enough. Just expect that it will take a long time (many hours) to put together and there will probably be several "workarounds" and the need for a drill because the holes don't line up, holes aren't drilled all the way through, etc. Aside from all the time it takes to assembly correctly, this is a great toy and worth the money!

We are very happy with this teeter-totter. It was very time consuming to put together, however! My husband and I did it together over the course of three evenings. I estimate that we spent 6+ hours assembling it. Even though it was time consuming, we were happy with the level of detail the instructions provided -- it was very clear and we rarely had questions on how things were supposed to go together. Once assembled, we have been very happy with the toy. We bought the Earthtone colors and were surprised at how great it looks in our yard...not an eyesore like some toys. The kids love it! We have only had it for 1 month, but already have had up to 7 kids on it at once...it is very sturdy! We have even had some adults try it out (including ourselves) with no issue. It does kill the grass of wherever you put it, so keep that in mind if it will be going over grass.If it was easier to assemble, I would give it 5 stars. We are very happy with this purchase. Good value for the money!

We purchased the Ace Flyer for our 2 and 4 year olds as a Christmas morning surprise. I was on the fence about going with the earthtones version over the brightly colored version. We are very happy with the earthtones. The teeter-tooter looks much better than it does in the photos.The teeter-totter was well packaged in a thick double-layered cardboard box. All of the parts were also wrapped in a light plastic to prevent scuffing during shipment.Assembling the base and fuselage took around 45 minutes. Attaching the wings didn’t go quite as smooth. I am guessing I spent around 2 hours simply getting the wings attached. I don’t consider my troubles with the wings a design flaw or an issue with the instructions. The fuselage was likely just a bit out of alignment making it difficult to attach the wings. After removing some of the previously installed bolts (they were all loose, but there was still not enough “play” to get the wings attached) I was able to complete the assembly.The teeter-totter ships with just about everything you will need to assemble. In addition to the provided 3/16th inch allen wrenches, you will need a couple of ½ inch wrenches or crescent wrenches on hand.I had trouble with a couple of the provided bolts such that I stripped out the hex head before I was able to get the bolts tightened. The soft zinc bolts are pretty easy to strip out if you one tries too hard to force them into place. I assumed I didn’t have these two bolts properly aligned when I started threading them into the equipment. Upon removing the bolts with hefty pliers the following day, I observed the threads were in good health. I tossed the damaged bolts in the trash and acquired a couple of stainless steel replacements at the local big-box tool store. The new bolts screwed in without issue. (The damaged hex heads were likely due to the ball head hex driver I had been using. The ball wrench didn’t fit in quite as deep as the standard hex driver and when it slipped it probably damaged the bolts.)

The kids like to play on it, but the propeller keeps falling off when they spin it. It is already starting to fade from the sunlight and we have not had it a year yet.

Kids love this plane! Took awhile to put together but sturdy overall. However after three years in the yard several bars rusted through and had to be removed. Would recommend some type of clear coating around the joints to minimize rust over time. Overall great product and price but it will rust over a few years.

Somehow when I read that it goes side to side AND up & down, I thought that it moved in two directions. This is NOT the case. The teeter totter wings rock it side to side. I thought the cockpit would also go up & down to give the feeling of takeoff & landing which it doesn't. The small kids like it. NOT for big kids. I had a terrible time assembling it. I thought that I would never get the steering wheel on! The directions were confusing in parts. Example, it stated to use a philips screw driver to install the phillips head screws into the seat bottoms & backs...they were a hex head that needed an allen wrench!

we got this for our 3 year old as a birthday gift but had tremendous difficulty assembling the steering column due to an ill-fitted washer. We contacted the company for a replacement but this still did not seat appropriately, which then led to stripping of the threads and our airplane never really took off because, really, what fun is this without a steering wheel/propeller?very frustrating for us and our little pilot.

I bought this for my young children to play on (ages 4, 6, 8, & 10). The assembly was a bit challenging, but the airplane was great and the kids loved it. Unfortunately it is not as durable as claimed as the tetter totter portion rods bent after being used by a 10 year old who weighs 60 pounds and an 8 year old who only weights 45 pounds. Our attempts to fix this have been unsuccessful, so unfortunately the airplane sits idle and has lost its charm. Anyone else had that same trouble with some repair ideas?

This toy is just awesome. My kids run to it every time they go outside. The creator and engineer did a fantastic job and everyone who sees it loves it as well. My kids will be crying when I have to throw it out in 3 years.The company ruined it with cheap materials. The bolts are made of soft metal and strip so easily that they come with a warning on the manual. The engineer included enough attachment points so that it's unlikely the bolts will ever snap under normal use but they already are allowing a little too much movement causing scratches in the paint leading to more rust at the attachment points.The metal tubing came with bits of rust on the ends right out of the box. I've had it a month and the extension of the rust is already spreading. What a waste of a great toy.I'm afraid this is a "do not buy" unless you're prepared to repaint with Rustoleum and possibly spot weld it on arrival. It's a shame because it's such an awesome toy. I plan to weld and paint it just to get it up to quality so I can preserve my investment and not have it turn to junk in my yard.

It's a great item, but as always some assembly required. My husband is great at putting toys together that I purchase for our daughter. However after he put it together the manufacturer did not drill holes in both wings. Now we either have to drill it ourselves or figure out how to contact the manufacturer to send us to replacement parts. I will update this review if they make it right.

Came ontime, it has damage on the left wing paint, looks like a used

The directions were 5 stars.The fun it will probably create, 5 stars.The shoddy machining work pre-drilling the holes for the bolts.. 1 star.The machining work is terribly in some spots, that the screws have to go in at an angle.The bar connecting the propeller and steering wheel is horribly messed up. I'm considering buying a bar from home depot and drilling the holes myself. The propeller and steering wheel are at a horrible angle that it looks ugly.1 star also for advertising that the product doesn't get hot in the sun. That is a flat out lie.Maybe in the winter sun in snowy or cold weather it will stay cold.

way too hard to put together color is good kids like it very heavy to unpack package needs to be more durable. I bought two of these! After one week of use the propeller and steering wheel fell completely off of one . Then the next week the other one fell off! These were put together by two different people at two different times at two different locations.I am a little upset. Is this manufactors defect? Any body else had these problems?

It fell apart and cracked within a year. I had to spend over $100 getting extra parts (nuts and bolts) and still wasn't able to save it. It was cute while it lasted - but don't expect a long life

Easy to bend. The seat and pole under the seat broke. Small children, should not of been that easy to break. Used three times