Review: Cra-Z-loom Bracelet maker

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We were sent a Cra-Z-loom Bracelet maker for my 10 year old daughter to try out and review. The idea is pretty simple you use the loom provided to create a variety of bracelets by following the instructions!

My daughter pretty rapidly sat down and off her own bat with no help from me she produced the simplest kind of bracelet:

Then she decided to up the ante and go for a bridge style bracelet which is included in the instructions. After a while she gave up and handed me the loom, I decided to double check the instructions and did discover she hadn't quite followed them right so I reset the entire loom correctly:

Then I attempted to follow the directions but got a bit confused so resorted to YouTube - it is amazing how many tweens and teens have made instruction videos on how to do these kind of bracelets! 

I have to admit that I am still working on it as I am obviously not as nimble fingered as the kids on the videos. This is what I had managed to do before I accidentally unravelled it:

To be honest we need to dedicate more time to practising doing these together and my daughter has been far too busy to sit still long enough. It's definitely something that starts off easy and then gets harder! At an RRP of £14.99 it will keep idle hands out of mischief for quite some time..

Toy review: Minecraft Paper Craft Shelter

There can't be many parents of school aged children who haven't heard of the computer phenomenon that is Minecraft. This addictive yet educational game has children all over the world well and truly hooked (I am still resisting installing it..). A new line of Minecraft Paper Craft sets have beeb brought which will lure your child away from the computer screen:

My daughter was keen to try them out:

The pack was filled with lots of labelled sheets:

Toy Review: Blingles Glimmer Glam Styler

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Having previously reviewed the Blingles Bling Studio my daughter was more than happy to review the Blingles Glimmer Glam Styler! However much she claims to be a tom boy and not girlie she can't resist a little bit of bling...

The styler is a completely self contained and makes very little mess. Simply choose your sticker and roll glitter on it using one of the 4 rollers:

Brush off the excess glitter then stick on to your chosen item. In this case by daughter decided her hand me down laptop was far too dull and boring:

As you can see the set also includes some stick on gems to really bling things up! For a simple way for your child to personalise their things then this is a great little kit. The retail price is £19.99 and for that you get:

• the studio
• pen and brush
• 4 colours and 4 rollers
• 8 sticker sheets
• 10 large gems

Additional theme packs can be bought from £7.99 if your child uses up all the stickers to create 20 more! So lots of fun and creativity without breaking the bank.

Toy Review: Dr Who Playset

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We are big Dr Who fans in this house so when I was offered a chance to review a new Dr Who Cold War Playset and characters I jumped at the chance. Then I had my daughter asking every day if the parcel had arrived! When it did she was very keen to rip open the packaging:

We were out and about at the time so the characters got a chance to admire Windermere:

The Playset came with the armour-less Ice Warrior (top) and the armoured one was separate. My daughter wasn't sure that the size of the armour would be big enough for the unprotected one.

That night I had to construct the Playset itself. I don't have a good track record on these and the fasteners went flying but eventually it was done:

It clearly is the inside of the Russian submarine from the TV episode complete with TARDIS:

The set is around £9.99 which is a reasonable price. It's not able to cope with robust play but perfect for acting out scenes from the show. We just need to acquire the right size Doctor and Clara to fit it from the 3.75 inch range. Our current Doctors are from a slightly larger series... However the ice warriors are the perfect size:

My daughter has found that the characters can be neatly stored in the missile silo too! A good fun set for recreating scenes from this episode. You would need to add a second character for about £6.99 but I think my daughter will get hours of fun from it. Just watch that it doesn't need reassembly too often from rough play...

The other item we received was River Song's future sonic screwdriver from her encounter with the 10th Doctor. All fans need at least one screwdriver and this is the funkiest looking:

Not only does it look good it has sound effects and lights up:

This is something my children have argued over which is a good sign of a popular toy. Again these are around £9.99 so not too expensive.

My daughter has definitely given these the thumbs up and quickly took them all to her room. I think they are all a great addition to any dedicated child Whovian's collection. Think that someone will be wanting more from this range for her birthday...