Mickey? Cinderella? I guess they couldn't decided so they morphed them...

I’ve always thought this clock was a little weird. It’s a Disney Princess Clock, thus the pink and purple (everything princess is pink and purple), but the main graphic element of the clock is the head of Mickey Mouse! I mention this oddity because this was the first phase of my moving from the traditional red and black Mickey Mouse addiction to the Princess side of Disney. I had this on my desk at work (along with all my other princess junk—very professional—maybe not, but it was a lot of fun!). I used it for the radio functions and occasionally the alarm to remind me to leave on time. As a radio, it’s just marginal as a alarm it’s fine and fun.

Shaped like a large pink egg with knobby feet, it looks more like a squatty rocket ship. The digital read out is a green led on black background—large and easy to read. The top is the snooze button so it looks like a hat on top of the egg. It’s totally plastic so it weighs very little—probably less than a pound and takes up very little space.

Controls
There are control buttons on both sides and the front and twenty preset station options (10 AM and 10FM). Once you find the station you want you press and hold the tuner button. Once you’ve programmed all that you want you toggle through them by pressing the tuner button. It also has a search and seek function.

The buttons themselves are small and a bit difficult to depress but they are in a logical sequence. Everything having to do with the radio—tuning, volume, preset buttons, etc., is located on the left side. The right side has the clock set/alarm set button, and type of alarm button.

The big Mickey in the middle holds the most-used functions like the radio on/off button and just below it is the alarm on/off button. Below that are three buttons, side by side, to change from AM to FM and to cycle through the preset stations. Mickey’s head is also used during the alarm functions—press up to move the hours—hour by hour or hold it for faster access to the hour you’re looking for.

Features
• It does have a sleep-timer so you can listen to your favorite station for a preset amount of time and then it shuts off.
• It offers you the option of regular time and military time—perhaps a fun way to teach military time to a child, but otherwise not a useful feature for me.
• The snooze button gives you an additional 10 minutes of time—you can keep “snoozing” as long as you like—just keep whacking the top.
• The sleep timer function is too short in my opinion. Unlike many clocks with this feature, you have only one option--10 minutes. I’ve never fallen asleep in 10 minutes so this is another feature that wasn’t for me.
• You are able to select from two LED brightness levels—high or low. I like my “real” alarm clock which has a dial so I can choose anything in between high and low. Low is too low in this case and bright is too bright—in the office I leave it on bright or I’d not be able to read it under the bright lights but I guess it could double as a nightlight in the bedroom.
• Along with the time, the 0.9” LED screen shows you by the use of tiny icons when your alarm is set, the radio is on and which frequency it’s on, etc.

Antenna
Mounted inside the battery compartment it can be pulled out and moved around for better reception. This isn’t the traditional extension antenna but a flexible wire about 6 inches long. I find I need to do this to get any of the FM stations in my area, but that’s not unusual for where I work.

Power
It is corded and uses a standard wall plug but also require 2-AAA batteries for the clock backup. This keeps the time and your preset radio stations intact should there be a power outage. Unfortunately there isn’t a low battery indicator so you’ll just have to remember to change them every once in awhile to assure the feature works for you.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
You can set the alarm to wake you to the last radio station played or to one of the princess sounds—these aren’t the princess voices although the box makes you think that you’re going to hear the voice of Snow White, Ariel, Cinderella, Bell, and I think Tinkerbell. What you actually get is birds chirping which I’m guessing represents Snow White, giggling over ocean waves which must be Ariel, a magic wand or pixie dust sound which may be Tinkerbell (while officially not a princess she’s often added by Disney), and someone giggling which may be Cinderella or Bell and someone saying la…la…la….I’m not sure which one it’s supposed to be. If you’ve ever tried one of the Disney Sound Books you’ll know exactly what these sound like—tinny, terrible-quality audio, that’s muffled and not terribly exciting.

The radio worked well for the alarm function but I never found the special sounds loud enough so I’d never count on them to wake me-- I only played with them when I first bought it and then switched to the radio for my alarm function.

History
This clock was released as a whole line of Disney products available at large retailers like Target in 2003. At $29.99 I thought it was too expensive, but a gift certificate from a friend made me buy it anyway. This is part of the larger line of “kid” electronics like DVD and TVs shaped like Mickey and more. Targeted to an audience of 6-12 they’ve actually become very popular with the Disneyana crowd.

Cleaning
A bit of dusting seems to be all its needed so far.

Features
• Features 5 different Disney Princess alarm sounds
• Digital AM/FM radio
• 20 radio presets
• Large LED display
• Snooze and sleep timer

Specifications
Size (in inches): 5.0 x 5.8 x 6.54

Manufacturer’s Info
Made by Memcorp which is a subsidy of Memorex
Recommended ages: 6-12 years

Final Thoughts
Would I buy it for a Disney princess fan? No, I’d wait as a better one with real voices will probably be along soon.