Ah, sorry you were stuck, but thanks so much for the feedback! Unfortunately, it sounds like you might have ran into a bug that I didn't get the chance to figure out before the end of the jam, but you were right that the toys should have helped slow down the bar and progress the game.
I also wanted to have some "talking" dialogue show as you activated the toys to provide that visual feedback that you were going down the right track, but ran out of time. From your feedback though, I probably should have prioritized that to improve the gameplay.