The Alphabet Pal Caterpillar is a caterpillar pull toy aimed at young children aged 1 to 6 to help teach them learn the alphabet. It was first introduced in June 1999, then it was remodeled in June 2001, and then 2008. Alphabet Pal has 26 feet which each contains a letter of the alphabet from A to Z. The vowel buttons are colors red, while the consonants are colored yellow (B, F, J, M, P, S, V, Y), green (C, G, K, Q, T, W, Z), or blue (D, H, L, N, R, X). (In the 1999 models, the alphabet buttons had a specified pattern: red, green, yellow and blue).
Most of the Alphabet Pals have uppercase letters, though some have lowercase letters. Alphabet Pals come in a variety of colors, such as purple, green, orange, red or pink. Edison is on the caterpillar.
The Alphabet Pal Caterpillar takes three AA batteries.
Modes[]
The slider is a butterfly (2001 and 2008 models only). When turned on, Alphabet Pal plays an opening tune and says their opening catchphrase, "Hi, I'm Alphabet Pal". In 1999 models, the caterpillar plays an opening tune followed by the phrase "Hi, I'm AlphaBug!"
- Off - This turns off the toy. To preserve battery life, Alphabet Pal says, “Thanks for learning with LeapFrog, Bye-bye!", followed by a short closing tune, and then automatically turns itself off after approximately 20 seconds of non-use. (In 1999 models, the caterpillar automatically goes to sleep by saying "Bye-bye!" followed by a fun closing melody.) The caterpillar can be turned on again by pressing any button or changing modes. The symbol is the word "Off".
- Letter Names - Touch a letter to hear its name. The symbol is "ABC".
- Letter Sounds - Touch a letter to hear its sound. Starting with 2001 models, Alphabet Pal will not say inappropriate words, it instead giggles and says "That tickles!" (although you can press the button and interupt the sound) The symbol is a frog talking in 1999 and 2001 models, or a talking letter A in 2008.
- Colors - Touch a colored boot to hear the name of the color. The symbol is a crayon (or a paint palette in 2008.)
- Music (introduced in 2001 models) - Touch a letter to hear a song whose name mostly begins with each letter from Are You Sleeping? to Z-Wait for the Wagon. The symbol is a musical note.
- Edison introduces his name to the alphabet song (2001 only). Once he's pressed again for the second time, an instrumental version of the Alphabet Song will play. On the UK version and some foreign versions, when the button is pressed, Edison introduces his name to the alphabet song and then Alphabet Pal sings it.
- Alphabet Pal sings the Alphabet song when pulled.
Letters, Colors, and Songs[]
Letter | Color | Song |
---|---|---|
A | Red | Are You Sleeping?/Frére Jacques/Brother John (also known as "Where is Thumbkin", "Two Tigers", "Melody & Harmony" from JumpStart 2nd Grade, or "I Hear Thunder") |
B | Yellow (Green in 1999) | Billy Boy/Das Wandern ist des Müllers Lust (German version) |
C | Green (Yellow in 1999) | (Oh My Darlin') Clementine (also known as "Found A Peanut", "There are 7 Days" or “Happy New Year” and “What’s the Weather?”)/Arroz con leche (Spanish version) |
D | Blue | Did You Ever See A Lassie? (also known as "The More We Get Together", "Oh du lieber Augustin" ,"The Books of the Old Testament" or “Did you ever see my tail?”) |
E | Red | East Side, West Side (an excerpt from "The Sidewalks of New York")/Ein Mann, der sich Kolumbus nannt (German version) |
F | Yellow (Green in 1999) | The Farmer In The Dell (also known as "A Hunting We Will Go") |
G | Green (Yellow in 1999) | Greensleeves (also known as "What Child Is This?") |
H | Blue | Hey, Diddle, Diddle/Ein Männlein steht im Walde (German version) |
I | Red | I’ve Been Working On The Railroad (also known as "The Eyes of Texas")/El Cucu (Spanish version)/Jetzt fahr'n wir übern See (German version) |
J | Yellow (Green in 1999) | Jimmy Crack Corn (also known as "The Blue-Tailed Fly")/De Colores (Spanish version) |
K | Green (Yellow in 1999) | Camptown Races/La Cucaracha (Spanish version) |
L | Blue | London Bridge/Brahms Lullaby (German version) |
M | Yellow (Red in 1999) | Mary Had a Little Lamb (also known as "Merrily We Roll Along")/Hopp, Hopp, Hopp (German version) |
N | Blue (Green in 1999) | The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trapeze/Suse, liebe Suse (German version) |
O | Red (Yellow in 1999) | Old MacDonald Had A Farm (with the second part of "Bonnie Wee House of Iveagh") |
P | Yellow | Pop! Goes the Weasel (also known as the Jack-in-the-box Tune or the "I Am Weasel Theme Song")/Weißt du, wieviel Sternlein stehen (German version) |
Q | Green (Red in 1999) | Chopsticks/Sleep, Baby, Sleep (German version) |
R | Blue (Green in 1999) | Row, Row, Row Your Boat (also known as "Roll the Ball" from Barney)/London Bridge (German version) |
S | Yellow | She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain/Naranjas Dulces (Spanish version) |
T | Green (Blue in 1999) | This Old Man (also known as “Apple Round, Apple Red”, Barney's "I Love You Song", or the Little People song, "High and Low") |
U | Red | Upside-Down World/Ein Jäger aus Kurpfalz (German version) |
V | Yellow (Green in 1999) | Froggie Went A Courtin'/Los Pollitos (Spanish version)/Müde bin ich, geh zur Ruh (German version) |
W | Green (Yellow in 1999) | The Wheels On The Bus (also known as "Buffalo Gals" or "Magic Penny")/Grün grün grün sind alle meine Kleider (German version) |
X | Blue | The Yellow Rose Of Texas/Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass (German version) |
Y | Yellow (Red in 1999) | Yankee Doodle (also known as Barney and friends theme song, "Simple Simon" or "Lucy Locket")/Las Mañanitas (Spanish version)/Ein Vogel wollte Hochzeit machen (German version) |
Z | Green | Wait for the Wagon/Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann (German version) |
Trivia[]
- Most of the songs are reused from Fun and Learn Phonics Bus and Discovery Ball with a few differences:
- "Are You Sleeping?"/"Frére Jacques"/"Brother John" is now slightly shorter.
- "Oh Where, Oh Where has my Little Dog Gone?" is now replaced by "The Wheels on the Bus".
- "Yankee Doodle" now plays in F, instead of C.
- "Wait for the Wagon" has a new instrumental.
- A, D, F, G, O, and T are the only letters to have the same songs in all language versions. However, all the songs on the French Alphabet Pal are exactly the same as the English version.
- Alphabet Pal later makes an only appearance in the Little Touch LeapPad book A to Z Adventure!