Toysmith NeatO! Classic Toys Wind Up Diving Submarine

I first purchased this submarine for my then 6 year old son. He played with it outside in our outdoor pool. He used it almost daily, leaving it outside etc. Submarine worked all summer. As you might expect having been left outside, there was some fading and discolouration by September. We eventually lost two blades off the propeller, so though the submarine still winds up and moves, it no longer moves in a straight line. Submarine moves up and down, and is pretty resilient about bouncing into pool walls and siblings. (though do be careful with hair/swimsuit ties as they can get caught in propeller.) I have purchased this submarine a second time as my children loved it and for the price its hard to beat the hours/ months of fun my children had. I highly recommend.

Needs still water to work properly. Ours seems to want to act like a bobber popping up and down instead of actually moving forward. Needs a calm pool and all of the air bubbles out of it. It did it's job though kept my kids busy for a while trying to get it to work. Price is great, quality seems good and no batteries required!

I bought this as a bath time toy for my little ones. The operation is simple, just a wind up toy. I found very quickly that it's easier to wind it up under the water and just release it right away. If you let go of the windup key outside of the water, the propeller just spins and it done before you can get it to the water. The front fins toggle up and down on their own, which makes it appear as though the submarine is surfacing and then diving. It's a really cool effect for the little ones. I was surprised that this toy was so inexpensive. I expected to pay close to $20, so was happy to find an inexpensive toy that looked decent for once. My only regret is that I didn't buy 2, since my older one had the idea to see what would happen if they snapped off the propeller fans. I don't think it's the fault of the toy, though, but rather the curiosity of my kids.

This is a hit with the kids. It dives. It sits on the surface, but not always upright. It is not very durable. One of the propeller fins already broke off.

Considering the price, I wasn't expecting much. I was expecting something that fits into your hand, while this is quite a bit larger than that. I was expecting something that with one wind-up would probably travel 1/3 or 1/2 of the length of our bathtub. Instead, it moves the entire length and probably could go further if it didn't run into the wall. The diving action is fun and mine has no problem staying right side up. The trick is to gently hold the propeller as you wind it up, like the instructions say. Then dunk the sub and keep holding the propeller. You will see air bubbles exit. This creates ballast. Once the bubbles stop, release the sub. I love it as much as my son.

I purchased this for my 5 yr old grandson to play in the bath tub. It barely worked tipping over sideways at first then got it dive once and stopped working completely. I had thrown the box away or would have returned. Poor quality and not worth the money.

This is a nice-looking sub, well built, but as other reviewers have observed, the wind-up mechanism lets loose in all of two seconds or less. That means the sub barely starts to move when the prop stops spinning. The manufacturer needs to find a way to slow down the wound-up spring's uncoiling to make for a longer "run."

With a toy like this, you never know if it's going to work. This one does. Wind it up and it shoots all the way across a 15-foot pool, and could probably go another 10 or 15 feet. It runs underwater, then comes up to the surface and floats with just the nose and conning tower above the water. Someone wrote about getting one with a broken propeller. Mine was fine, and the propeller was sturdy enough for my 5-year-old grandson to play with it. He really liked it. This is just a guess, but I would be surprised if the wind-up motor was rustproof. I would try to keep the submarine dry when not in active use.