Review: Original Spirograph

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When I was offered a chance to review am Original Spirograph set I jumped at the chance having loved our original one in the 1970s! Its a toy that has stood the test of time and I wanted my children to have a go like I did. The set we were sent was a deluxe set which looked a lot different from the old red box our old one came in:

What is great is that the set included everything you need to get designing:

The instruction book was very clear (my daughter eventually read it after a couple of fails!). The special putty helps to keep the wheels in place whilst you design to prevent slippage like we had on this page:

Toy Review: Pinkie Cooper and the Jet Set Pets

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When I asked my daughter if she wanted to review the new Pinkie Cooper fashion doll I got an immediate Yes! She was very excited when we received a parcel containing Pinkie Cooper in Paris (RRP £24.99):

plus an extra dog called Sprinkles (RRP £9.99):

The dolls are an unusual combination of Spaniel and human that actually does work even though it sounds freaky:

The doll herself has removable clothing and her hair pieces can also be swapped out. At the moment we only have the one outfit so there isn't too much scope for changing (unless you put the puppies ears on her!) but she has a swanky Parisien sophistication with her little beret:

Having spent some time in Paris this summer this was the perfect one of the range for my daughter! There are also Beverley Hills and London versions with their own local fashions.

The Jet Set versions each come with their own puppy and there also separate puppies to buy. Having 2 meant that my daughter could swap over their outfits and try different ears on each one. They are pretty cute:

Fashion dolls are a highly competitive market so these have been designed to appeal to girls who love both animals and dolls. Some dolls on the market are ones that I won't give house room to but I actually quite like these. Every time I think my daughter has grown out of dolls she surprises me by enjoying them so I am sure these will be much loved. Just wonder whether she will ask for any of the additional outfits etc that you can buy to allow for a change of clothing!

Mattel Fun Times: Whac-a-mole Molehill Mania

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This is game my nephew has been given in the past and loved so I thought my children would enjoy. It's a game for 2 players aged 4+ so good for younger children.

 

The idea is to shoot the moles out of the molehill:

 

 

Then capture them inside the hammer:

 

 

There are 3 levels of game depending on the age of the children which have increasing levels of complexity to make the game more interesting. The moles come in two sets with an extra one of a different colour. This means that the top level of the game they can only whack their colour mole with the bonus on being the winning mole.

I have to say that my children had great fun whacking the moles but it did get rather wild! Here is a video of them playing:

 

 

If you can cope with loud and manic games then this is great fun. Not for the faint hearted though!

 

Mattel Fun Times: Chameleon Crunch

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This is the latest toy we have tried out from our Mattel Fun Times box. This gave us quite a surprise once I'd put in the batteries as he started to run round in a circle! I realised that to do him justice I'd have to try him out in a bigger space than our tiny front room...

 

So he took a trip to my children's after school club to test him out in the school hall. The children from aged 4 up were all delighted to have have a chance to try and feed him once he stopped and opened his mouth:

They found it even funnier when he spat some back out! The hard thing was getting everyone else to stop playing so I could video my daughter on her own:

 

Over the sounds of the school club you can just hear the chameleon making comments like I'm hungry or yum! A cute game that seemed to entertain lots of different aged children. He felt so at home at school that we left him there to enjoy his new friends!

A good fun game for younger children but you do need plenty of space!

 

This week's Toys R Us reviews

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Baby Born Interactive Star

This is the latest incarnation of the Baby Born series.It has moved on from the original version that my step daughter had about 10 years ago.



She comes with one outfit, a dummy, a potty, nappy, bottle, feeding bowl and spoon. There are also some bits of jewellery which are child sized. This means that you can either give her water through the bottle or special food with the spoon. Then you can put her on her potty to do a "poo" or she can do a wee when you press her belly button.Just make sure you have tightened the valve on her back before putting water in her or she leaks as granny discovered! Even though this is 3+ toy my 9 year has loved being her mummy. She is a very cute looking baby whether asleep or awake:





What is good compared to the early Baby Born is that you can put this baby in the bath as its waterproof and has no electronic parts. She is well sized so that a 3 year old wouldn't have much trouble holding her.For a first real doll she would be ideal as if my daughter is anything to go by your child will get years of fun with her.



Smasha Ballz Ninjaaah

This toy is very much designed to appeal to boys with its Ninja look and the fact that the packaging says:

• Smash 'em
• Chuck 'em
• Slam 'em

My son was very keen to chuck him around, I wasn't so keen as we have a small house! He makes proper Ninja sounds when he is thrown or whacked. Here is a little video showing some of them with me operating him:

Apparently the more you whack him the more noises he makes. This is obviously an incentive to do it more and more! If like me you discourage your children from chucking stuff around the house then this is not the toy for you. It does also respond to patting and dropping too which reduces the danger issue.

My son periodically goes back to this for short periods but it hasn't grabbed him that much after the initial excitement. Maybe other children would enjoy it more and it would do better in a home where it could be really thrown around!




Pokemon Electronic Pokedex

We have only ever watched Pokemon on YouTube so I wasn't sure what my son would make of his pokedex. In fact I was surprised at how much he enjoyed it!

The pokedex has information on 45 of the Pokemon characters plus a trivia quiz. My son seemed to manage to work out how to use it without any instruction which is more than I did!

Here is a video showing some of what the pokedex can do:

It is a very simple black display but it seemed enough for my son to see what he was doing. If you have a big Pokemon fan then I'm sure they will get even more out of it than my son did. I remember my now teenage step sons being heavily onto Pokemon at his age!

A pretty basic electronic toy but if my son is anything to go by a popular choice on Christmas Day!



Zoobles Family Day - Jump Rope

The Zoobles Family Day jump rope set will be available soon on the website. We have had a few Zoobles in the past which my daughter loves so it was nice to get a new addition. The nice thing about this one is that it actually does something rather than just allow the zooble to pop open on the magnetic pad.

Here is a little video of me making Zippy skip:

We discovered she skips much better when closed though she can pop open on occasion! All of my daughter's Zoobles can skip on the jump rope as they are close enough in size and weight. There are perching points for up to 3 Zoobles on the play set too:

And they can all share in the cardboard picnic. Not sure how long the picnic will survive before getting lost or ruined but the rest of the set is well made.

A nice addition to a Zooble fans collection or a great first piece to start a collection.

Toys R Us Review: Furby

The Furby was one of my daughter's favourites from our latest box. It is an updated version of the original Furby for the current generation. I remember being thoroughly annoyed by the old style Furby so I was hoping this one was better.

One of the main new features is the fact that the Furby comes with its own app for iPhone and iPad. This enables the child to interact with the Furby via the various options:

First stop was the Pantry where with a flick of the finger you can feed Furby with a variety of foodstuffs (some of which aren't quite food!). The Furby reacts to each different item with chomping and various changes in its eye. You can learn its favourite ones by these reactions.

There is also a burger bar to make a customised burger with an array of edible and non edible items:

When happy simply tap your burger then flick:

The app also translates Furbish so that you can talk to the Furby. The apparently random noises are actually a complex language.

Here is a video of my daughter with the Furby:

As you can hear even she eventually finds its non stop chat annoying! She did enjoy getting a reaction for tickling and hugging the Furby though. What was quite funny was the Furby's reaction to having the video played back to it!

The new Furby certainly has a lot more going on than its original incarnation. It is much more interactive via the apps and its eyes and wiggly ears. It doesn't shut up though unless you put it somewhere dark and quiet... We found a basket and a blanket quite effective!

Altogether a fun interactive toy but you may find yourself reaching for the ear plugs!

Toys R Us: Bakugan Mechtavius Destroyer

We haven't really much experience of Bakugan in our house so this Mechtavius Destroyer was an eye opener. The box contains 4 figures which fasten together to make one big figure.

 

 

The idea seems simple enough and the picture on the box shows which character goes where:

 

What I didn't realise was that the comprehensive intructions had been put on one side when my son took out the parts! I therefore struggled a bit and ended up with this:

 

Then I found the instructions and discovered that you need the Mechtogan Activator to open special parts of the figures before you can put them toghether!

 

Basically this is a magnetic card that when applied to the right part of each character open up secret parts. This alongside the step by step instructions made construction a lot easier. I therefore ended up with the correct final Destroyer:

He is already to take part in battles against other Bakugans. Unfortunately we don't have any more but my 6 year old said the final figure could kill a 100 enemies it was so big!

 

If your child knows about Bakugan and how to battle then this would be a good addition to the collection. If like us you know nothing then it's a 3D jigsaw or a handful of action figures you can play battles with. It does seem well made though.

 

This week's Toys R Us Reviews

The Amazing Web Shooting Spider-Man

I have to say my son was very excited to get this toy in our latest box. Like many young boys he loves anything Spider-Man related even though he has never seen the films!

The toy needed 4 batteries before it could be used. The webs can then be shot out by pressing buttons on Spider-Man's back.

His head flicks from side to side as he shoots:

We discovered he only shoots well if his poseble arms aren't pointing too high in the air. It's a real shame that the webs don't actually stick to things they hit. They are fine for knocking down the target that came with the set and also made a good noise against our bin!



Cars: Lightening McQueen Hawk

My son's friends were all keen to have a play with Spider-Man but I'm not sure how much staying power it will have.

This toy is a product to go with the AirMater film from the popular Cars series. My son is a bit of a fan but not a major one so recognised the character straight away and was keen to try him out. He soon mastered how to convert to flying mode:

The toy has 75+ phrases and sounds and the video below will give you a taste of some of them. It also can shoot out missiles from underneath!

My son has had lots of fun shooting down other toys using the missiles. The range of noises means that there was plenty of variety (there is also an off switch!).

Returning the car to road mode wasn't easy for my son and he needed me to push the wings back in. Otherwise the toy provided plenty of entertainment and lots of fun. I'm sure it will get played with lots.

Friday Fun with Find-me-a-gift.co.uk

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The lovely people at Find-me-a-gift.co.uk sent my children a couple of xia-xia pets to play with. These little creatures scuttle about once their claws are pressed and if they bump into something they go a different direction. Hopefully this little video gives you a taster:

 

 

The creatures also have little friends hiding in their shells:

 

There are 4 creatures in total to collect plus a couple of playsets. At the moment they are in the sale at £4.99 so would make a fun stocking filler. Just don't do what I did and stand on one and snap its claw off - whoops!

This week's Toys R Us Toyologist Reviews

Dragon Chase Game

This Dragon Chase is a 3+ game for 2-4 players so ideal for a family like mine. It needed batteries to be inserted before we could play it which requires a screwdriver. My daughter stuck the dice stickers on in a random order. The dragon's body then is slid into slots on the game board. My daughter needed some help to do this and then we put the dragon head into the body.

The game itself is simple to play. Each player chose a colour piece and put a jewel on the top. Then the die is rolled and either you move forward the number of spaces on the die, miss a turn or activate the dragon. On the board itself some squares instruct you to move more spaces either backward or forward. There are also safe squares which mean that your jewel is taken off making it safe from dragon attack.

When the dragon is activated it swings its head and neck around randomly and can knock jewels off:

I was very unlucky and my jewels kept being sent flying! This meant I was sent back to the beginning lots and lots... Meanwhile my children safely got to the cave and could deposit their jewels.

It is a very simple game with simple rules and my children found the dragon fun. I'm sure we will get hours of fun from playing it.



Dino Bite Game

The Dino Bite Game is a 4+ one as it requires some manual dexterity. For assembly batteries are inserted into the base and the T Rex clipped onto the base.

Once switched on the T Rex starts to snore with ambient background noises. Each player rolls the die and has to pick out a baby from the nest using the tweezers. This can be an easy 1 baby or a nail biting 4!

My 9 year old found it easier than the 5 year old to extract the babies. They both jumped whenever the T Rex woke and attacked!

A simple game and if you don't want the noises it still works with power off or even batteries out. It also doesn't take a long time to set up and play as once you've been attacked by T Rex you are out.

Toys R Us Toylogists: Reviews Week 2

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Another dip into this month's Toyologist toy box.

Thomas' Daring Drop


This was the toy that got the biggest wow from my children out of our first review box! My son is a big Thomas railway fan and has most of the stories and a large selection of wooden railway. We had never had any Trackmaster plastic tracks before so it was a new experience for all of us.

The set came with pictorial instructions and says adult assembly required. Having tried to construct it with my 5 year old helping I would thoroughly recommend building it on your own! The pieces need to be quite forcefully put together in some places and if not done right then Thomas' comes a cropper.... Once I twigged that there are bits that clip over the edge of the track we were fine.Then it was time to put the batteries in Thomas and set him off around the track. With the points in one direction Thomas bravely chuffs up to the top of Blue Mountain Quarry and onto the perilous drop:

We all enjoyed watching him go round and dropping onto the lower track. He can also go round the lower loop and pass the friendly crane at the side of the quarry. If he does crash on landing then the switch gets flicked to off so no battery is wasted.The set is currently on the website at £39.99 which is the kind of price you would expect for such a large railway (over 4 feet/120 cm of track). It is suitable for 3+ and would make a super main present for the Thomas fan in your life.

Fluffings

This was the toy in the box my 8 year old daughter reached for first! It's pink and fluffy and very girly. There are three Flufflings currently available on the Toys R Us website. They come in pink, purple or blue and are £19.99 each.

My daughter took hers to school for show and tell she thought it was such fun. Then I discovered she was still only in Try me mode! I had wondered why she wasn't jumping like it said on the box..

Once turned on properly she has 3 modes:

• Dance to her own music
• Giggle and laugh
• Jump around

Here a couple of videos we shot of her in action:

She is really entertaining to watch and not too loud. A conversation piece and fun to share with friends. I think the novelty value would last longer with a younger child. If you have a dog or cat this would either freak them out or they would chase it round the room!

Tuesday Review: Sylvanian Families Camper Van

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To celebrate the 25th birthday of Sylvanian families we were sent a camper van and a family to test out and review. I have to admit to being too old to have had my own collection of these figures but my younger neighbours did!

My children were really delighted to see what was in the box. We would love a real vintage camper van but this may be the closest we can get. It definitely has a real retro look which we all loved.

It didn't take long for my daughter to set it all up with a fitted kitchen and even books and games for the children to play:

It made a great little adventure and really fired up their imaginations. The toy is aimed at boys and girls aged 4-7 and it did seem to appeal to both of mine. If your child already has Sylvanian families then this would be a lovely addition to their set. The RRP is £39.95 but it is well made and looks great quality.

In our case this is our first Sylvanian toy so the family was needed to play with it. The cat family come for around £18 and have moveable limbs. They are very cute to look at.

A delightful set to own and play with.

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Saturday Review: Scatter Brainz

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My son was sent an 8 pack and a 3 pack of a new collectable for boys called Scatter Brainz:

They are highly designed to appeal to boys and make their mums go yuck as they are little darts with sticky brains that you throw at a target (apparently they can leave marks if thrown at painted walls):

With 64 in the collection they are also designed to be swapped with your friends. There is a handy chart on the back of the target to tick them off:

The initial pack comes at about £9.99 which would be a stand alone set. You can also buy a mental storage case for approximately £19.99 or a bazooka launcher for £14.99.

My children enjoyed throwing the darts with their friends and checking out the characters on them. For us the 11 darts are enough but I'm sure that many boys would want to add to their collection and my son may well do as he gets older. They are new on the market at the minute so not all of them are available everywhere yet.

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Tuesday Review: Mic-O-Mic Scooter

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I was sent a Mic-O-Mic scooter to construct with my children from Play Merrily Toys. These are brightly coloured construction toys aimed at ages 5 and up. I was warned that they require patience and dexterity that my 5 year old might not possess! This turned out to be true... However between myself and my 8 year old daughter we managed to build it.

The kit comes complete with everything you need including a few spare connectors and fasteners just in case.

The instructions are very basic which at first I thought wasn't very useful. However the construction is pretty simple so the instructions were actually enough:

This was a good toy to construct together as a team. I described the part required, my 5 year old found it and my 8 year old constructed it:

Construction is very simple as you either press bits together or use the connectors and little bolts that push in. Part of the kit that you construct when you start is a little gadget for pushing the bolts in. This helped apply the required extra pressure required for some parts.

It was very satisfying completing the construction:

My son was very pleased with his new scooter and was very keen to show it to his friends. It didn't stand up to rough handling but when treated nicely it looks great.

This particular model isn't currently available on the site but would be about £7.46. We have also been sent a small lorry to construct but as yet haven't had a chance to do that one.

A fun project to do alongside your child and we all enjoyed doing it together.

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