Fingers firmly crossed!

Toys R us, on their facebook page ran a competition to find this years toyologist, to enter you had to review a product to be in with a chance to become part of the toys R us toyologist program, this would be an amazing opportunity, so I set about making my review, which you'll find here: zhu zhu hamster review there was around 150 entries which Geoffrey and the team at Toys R us, read through and picked out a shortlist of 25 hopefuls, I was so pleased to be picked into the shortlist!
So I was sent the final stage questionnaire, which I filled out (maybe a little hastily!?) and now am sitting patiently waiting and hoping with everything crossed that we 'might' just be lucky enough to be picked to be toyologist!
Please keep your fingers crossed for us!

Zhu Zhu Hamster Review

One of the Toys high on my 3 childrens Christmas list was Zhu Zhu Hamsters, and as it was something which all three asked for, I thought they were a good idea.
So on Christmas day morning when Santa had been and left a selection of Zhu Zhu hamsters and Kung zhu Hamsters there were three happy children.

I've been meaning to do a review on these toys for a while, and when I heard Toys R us, were holding another competition to find there new 2011 Toyolgists on their facebook page, I thought we would finally get round to reviewing these Christmas toys.

So heres our Review.

The toys we have are:
The Kung Zhu Battle arena : £29.99
The Kung zhu Headquarters : £19.99
Sgt Serge : £9.99
Rocko : £9.99
Kung Zhu Special forces Armour : £9.99 x2 pieces
Kung Zhu Alpha training ground : £14.97
Kung Zhu Bravo Battle training Ground :£14.97
Rockstar Hamster - Pax : £9.99
Rockstar Hamster - kingston : £9.99
Grooming Salon - £19.97

Initially I thought these toys were expensive, and perhaps wouldn't be worth the money. You have to buy several sets to get anything like what is portrayed on the pictures on the boxes, but that being said, the main draw of these toys was the fact that all three children seemed equally interested in them, and this turned out to work as I hoped and every time they play with these toys they do so together happily, the oldest who is 9 now, and the youngest who will be 4 in a few days, all seem to be able to interact with these toys and make up various games to suit their age.

The sets clip together with the same connection mechanism which is simple enough to use, and with or without instructions the sets are easy to piece together, there is no 'right' order to place the different sections of the training grounds so they can be made up into different arenas and create a new game each time. each piece is plastic and sturdy enough, there are a few 'extras' such as flags and guns on the kung zhu sets, and brushes and shampoo bottles in the grooming salon, which are perfect child sized not too small that they get lost straight away! With the Kung Zhu toys, the idea is to set up your arena and training grounds, then place your hamster at the start of your course and watch him make his way over the obstacles and into the main arena, where you can meet with another hamster and they will bump into each other until someone falls over and a winner is found, but my children seem to make up different versions of games each time!

The grooming salon has plenty of features, including a light up mirror and a real spinning fan dryer, which start up when a hamster is clipped into the dryers seat.
The grooming salon also comes with a selection of small brushes and hair dryers and such like which my daughter loves!

All the hamsters take 2 x AAA batteries which come supplied, and as yet we haven't had to replace ours. The hamsters start up when a button on there back is pressed, and they make several sounds and move around, they can go forwards or reverse and turn, they interact with various sections of battle ground or grooming saloon where there are raised areas on the tracks, they also react to the armour when it is placed on the hamsters and then make new sounds.

The hamsters are cute looking handsized toys, and when not in use ours are kept on the window sill, and often get brought into various games even when the battle arena is not set up.
The main downside to the whole zhu zhu range is the overall size of the sets. The grooming salon on its own is an ok size to be left up, but the battle arena and training grounds cover the majority of any of our rooms floor space, so are not kept out set up, therefore in order to play with the toys the children need to first get out and set up the arena, but I think in some ways this is half the fun for the boys as they seem to enjoy re arranging and creating different courses for their hamsters to venture through.

Overall these toys have been played with a fair amount of times, and have been enjoyed by all three children equally, there is plenty of range of sets to occupy any child, it is something which can be added to time and again if you want to, and each time you add a different set you will rejuvenate interest in previous sets. I would definitely recommend the hamsters, they are fun and seem to have a variety of play opportunities as they do not need the sets to be played with. As for spending lots on the whole range of sets I probably won't be adding any more to our collection due to the size of them, but may well increase the collection of hamsters.

hereis our video review:

Twist and Spin Jewellery Maker - Review

As part of our runner up box of toys for the Toys R Us 'do you have what it takes to be a toyologist' competition we had a Twist and spin jewellery maker, by flair.
priced at £19.99 normally, however on offer at Toys R us for £17. 97

Get creative and make funky jewellery with the Twist and Spin Jewellery Maker! Create stylish necklaces, bracelets and hair accessories at the touch of a button with the twisting and spinning motion

To start with C was surprisingly disinterested in this, which did surprise me a bit, the box looks great, a nice sized box, sporting a pretty girl covered in bangles and hair accessories, right up any 7 year old girls street. however C wasn't overly impressed, later tho when she came back to have another look she was all up for putting it through its paces, we opened the box, a biggish box, with not a lot of content if I'm honest, the first thing you need to note, is that you will need 2 AA batteries, which do not come supplied.
You get a Twist and Spin jewellery making unit, a bag of beads, a bundle of cord, 8 fasteners, two clips a threader and a instruction leaflet, C was eager to get making, the picture on the box shows some beautiful necklaces, bracelets and hair braids, C read the instructions and started off spinning the cord, unclipped it and it unwound instantly, she was obviously unimpressed, she tried again, the unit has several switches which spin in different directions, hold the cords still or allow them to move, and without having them set into the correct positions you will always get a unravelled end result. C tried her hardest but couldn't master the spin sequence and so set about making herself a bracelet the 'old fashioned' way - simply threading the beads onto a single piece of thread, this used the majority of the beads, which was a shame, the beads are nice chunky good quality pretty beads, but it would have been nice to have a few more of them, whilst C was busy doing that, I re read the instructions and tried again with the spinning, and did manage to make a couple of nice spinned pieces which did not unravel, the only other down side is the fasteners are big n clumsy and do distract from the overall prettiness of the finished jewellery.

Since having the set C has been back to it a couple of times and proceeded to make a couple of pieces, although we are now almost out of thread and beads.

Overall I think this is a fairly high priced set, although better with the slight discount at Toys R us, the frustration a child could get from the unravelling could possibly be a source of upset, and the amount of extras you get with the set really don't amount to much, maybe a cheaper bead set without the novelty twist and spin unit would be better
Over all rating 5 out of 10.

Review - Robotic Hand

In our Toys R us box we had a robotic hand making kit, by kidz labs.

This instantly caught J's eye, and he was eager to get it out and start making it!

The product description states 'Build your own robotic human hand and amaze your friends with its realistic gripping movements. Robot hand will grab your imagination'
on sale here at Toys R us for £9.99

This product states for ages over 8, and I totally agree.

J opened up the box and set about trying to build his hand, it comes with fairly simple pieces, which are a reasonable size, and a piece of fishing line, you will need some scissors and a pen to complete the hand, and an ability to tie fiddly knots!

Jake sat with the hand for a good half hour before he asked for help
It was the knots which he was struggling with, the idea of the kit is to tie together the pieces and then you can pull the pulleys when it is complete to make the fingers move in a realistic motion.
you are required to tie three knots in each piece of line, and it does get increasingly difficult as you proceed in building the hand, J could not master the knots and so I was left struggling with it.
It was very fiddly and I almost threw it out the window a couple of times, but after I had finally tied the knots in the correct places J was over the moon with the hand!
I think it makes a nifty little gift for those awkward older boys, and once the hand was put together all three of my children wanted to have ago, J said he would definitely tell his friends to buy it, so overall I'd say 7 out of 10 for the fact it could be left in the box unmade if you weren't an amazingly good knot tier, but if you do master the knots then you have a pretty good robotic hand which is sure to entertain, priced at £9.99 I think that is correctly priced.

To be gratetful..

Today we received the Toys R us, runner up prize, for their 'have you got what it takes to be a toyologist?' competition, so with wide eyes and grabbing arms I let my three children loose on the big box that had been brought to our door.


take a look at the above picture, a perfect picture of gratefulness right?

Take another look

My two boys from the second I brought in the box, had massive smiles on their faces, their eyes lit up with delight to see what was inside, my daughter however from the second she clapped eyes on the box looked more weary, like she was pre building herself up to be let down, and true to form when we opened the box the boys gasps of delight were obvious, C on the other hand took half a glance n slunk off saying 'there's nothing I like!'



What makes a child grateful, or ungrateful?
I think the anticipation of gifts, (they have asked me everyday since we won the comp when the toyologist toys would come!) but then being faced with the reality of not knowing what was included, was a bit too much for C to comprehend so instead of show delight in something she was not sure of, she choose to not allow herself to be let down.
she instead of being eager to rip of the tape to see what goodies were inside had already decided there must be nothing of interest, that way it didn't matter if there wasn't?

When she turned and said she did not like what was sent, I gave her a stern telling that these were gifts and she should be grateful of them, she sat and watched the boys marvel over the gifts for a few minutes pondering how to react, then soon came around and in that moment I think she perhaps learnt how to be a little more grateful.

And grateful we truly are!

Lucky streak or creative genius?

I have just discovered the wonderful world of facebook competitions!
and am loving every minute of it!

I am a big fan of facebook, I am a fan of several companies pages, as I have noticed they often have really good offers and discount vouchers specifically on their facebook pages with some great discounts and promotions.

As its nearly Christmas and I have three children my mind has been on searching out good bargains to fill Santa's sack, I found my way to the Toys R us facebook page, and noticed they were running a competition to find a new 'toyologist' someone who reviews toys they get sent from Toys R us.

Great!! free toys! what more could you want on the run up to Christmas?

The competition was to write on their facebook wall, with a photo and/or video attached explaining why you would make a good toyologist.

photos! great that sounds like my sort of competition, so I decided to put my own spin on it and made this photo to enter:I watched their facebook wall on and off for the next few days and saw their fan numbers rise by the minute where hundreds of hopefuls were putting in their entry.

Then the end date arrived and to my amazement I received an email from Geoffery the Giraffe stating I was one of the runners up!

The buzz of entering the competition, the anticipation hoping you had won, and then the excitement you feel when your told you have indeed won is amazing, and I was hooked!

I started to look at other facebook pages specifically to see if they had any competitions running, and noticed Early Learning Center had a comp on their facebook page.
Asking people to create a 30 second video bringing the toys to life.
so we went to work and created our entry which you can view here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDQ4ol0HQbU

I was amazed to hear back from ELC saying we had won their competition and they would send us £200 vouchers.