Toy Reviews

Hatchimals CollEGGtibles are small collectable Hatchimal figures which come inside little eggs that you need to rub to hatch. You can’t miss hearing about Hatchimals as they have been such a popular toy for the past few years, especailly at Christmas, but this was our time trying out Hatchimals for ourselves and N has been having so much fun with this set.

We received the Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Royal Snowball 12 pack, which comes in a cute egg box style container that can be used to store all of your Hatchimals and accessories once you have hatched all of your eggs, making it really easy to keep them all organised.

When you first open the box, you will see 10 gorgeous glittery eggs revealed, and 2 little Hatchimals already waiting to be played with. You also get a leaflet showing you all of the Hatchimals in the series which you can compare and tick off with your child if they are trying to complete the whole set.

We really liked how sparkly and glittery the little eggs are. It was almost a shame to crack them open because they are so pretty! But of course we wanted to find out what treasures were lurking inside.

To hatch the eggs, you need to keep rubbing until the heart turns from a dark purple into pink, then you will be able to push through with your thumb and crack the egg open.

N had a lot of fun with the hatching process, and it took her a while to hatch each one (with help from me for some of the eggs). I found this let us spread the Hatchimals over a few days, so she would take her time to hatch a few and play with them, so the fun lasted us longer that way and kept up the excitement.

Within each of the eggs, you also get an accessory item for your Hatchimals, which could be a bobble hat, or a hair brush – a crown, or a little snowman.. there are lots of different ones included and you can mix and match them all between the Hatchimals.

These add to the fun and N particularly liked the hair brush, which also came with a hair extension for the hatchimal to clip in, and the crown.

The Hatchimals Royal Snowball pack has been lots of fun for N, both in the hatching process and in playing with the figures once they’ve all been revealed. They are so cute to collect, with each one having a different look and style.

Now that she’s got her first Hatchimals, I’m sure she will want to add to her collection in future! I would buy a similar pack in future, as I feel they do offer good value..

To find out more about other fun Hatchimals products, and the chance to win, make sure to join in with the Hatchimals #WeekofWow Twitter party on the 9th November at 6pm! 

The Balance Wonder is a two wheeled wooden balance bike from Hape. Using a balance bike is useful for giving children the confidence they need to ride a bike, practicing their sense of balance to help prepare them for riding a pedalled bike when they are ready – skipping the training wheel stage.

This balance bike is suitable for indoor and outdoor use, and we have enjoyed using it both ways – outdoors in the summer, and now we are using it indoors again as the weather is getting colder. This balance bike has rubberised wheels which do not scuff up the floor and have never left any marks on our flooring. During the summer, we did store it indoors too to help prevent any weather damage and just brought it outside to play. By doing this, after using it for several months it still looks just as good as new and has not suffered any wear and tear at all so seems to be durable and well made.

The Balance Wonder is recommended for age 3 years and up, and we were sent one to try out with N who is almost three.

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When I was a child, the one toy I always pined for but never ended up getting was a styling head. I would always play with them at friends houses or whenever it was toy day at school. So now that I have a little girl of my own and need to learn a better variety of hair styles, this is an ideal toy for us to both to play with and enjoy.

It’s not easy to practise braiding techniques on your toddler, when you are not yet confident in the style you’re trying to do as there is only so much time that they want to sit still! So it’s been really handy to practise on the styling head, as I would love to perfect some more unique styles beyond the basic braid. I’ve found it quite relaxing to sit of an evening and put a few braiding tutorials up on the TV from YouTube and then sit and try my hand at them.

The styling head comes with a brush, and accessories including hair bobbles so you have everything you need to get going. Here is the hair down and brushed, it is a little past shoulder length which is a similar length to my daughters hair which is handy as it makes it more realistic to practise on. The texture of the hair is quite silky and realistic.

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Dough Nab from Ginger Fox is a fun and fast paced game for all the family. The aim of the game is to grab the doughnuts at the right moment and be the first player to get rid of all your cards.

I played this game with my boys aged 8, 9 and 11 and it was enjoyed by all. The fast pace of the game leads to lots of laughs, and it can get quite competitive. The rules of the game are very easy to pick up, so it only takes a minute for everyone to get up to speed and get going with the Dough Nab fun.

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Coding is a skill that’s emphasised for children at a young age these days, and although it may sound daunting, the basic concepts can actually be introduced easily by using simple games like Which Way? from OKIDO. This game is recommended for children of around 4-8 years old and I was really interested to give it a try as we’ve been impressed by OKIDO products in the past.

Which Way? Is made up of a magnetic board, along with a magnetic car which will drive along the paths that you create. The aim of the game is to code suitable pathways to help you reach destinations on the play board.

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When I Dream is a brilliant word association game that is suited to larger groups, of at least four players. This game is ideal for family game nights, and has been very popular in our house, with children aged 8-11 and with us parents too.

The game concept is very easy to pick up. With players taking it in turns to play the “dreamer”, who needs to correctly identify the word cards. Other players can take on different roles – fairy who wants to help the dreamer guess correctly, Bogieman who wants them to guess wrongly, or sandman who can’t make up his mind and wants the dreamer to guess correctly only half of the time. When playing these roles, each person needs to keep it secret which role they are playing. The roles are assigned by selecting the cards, and with your role you will earn points based on how many words the dreamer correctly guesses – with the fairy rewarded for correct, the bogeyman rewarded for incorrect guesses and so on.

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Whenever parents ask me, where should they look to get toy animals for their child, the first brand I always mention is Schleich. With Schleich animals, you know that you are getting brilliant quality, realistic animals, and they last for years and years. We have built up a great collection of Schleich animals over the years, and they are perfect for children who enjoy imaginary play and making up their own stories with their toys. We were sent a couple of products from the Schleich Wild Life Collection to review, and these two sets work very well together, and also may compliment other sets or animals you already have in your collection.

The first of these two sets is the Wild Life Starter Set, which includes four life-like animals with elaborate detail stimulate children to play creatively, allowing them to come up with their first adventurous stories from the wilderness of the safari. The animals included are a zebra, chimpanzee, elephant and lion.

This set is available for RRP 14.99 from retailers including Smyths.

This set is recommended for ages 3 and up (recommended 3-8 years) and I found my kids at both ends of this age range played really well with the animals, engaging their imaginations with the play straight away. These are ready to play with straight out of the box.

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Over the Summer we’ve been having fun with lots of different types of Rubik’s Cube. I had never realised there were so many different types available beyond the original 3×3 Rubik’s cube! It’s been great fun to try out these varieties with the kids, and challenge ourselves to figure out and complete these mind bending puzzles.

The Rubik’s products that we’ve been playing with are…

• Rubik’s Cage
• Rubik’s Edge
• Rubik’s Orbit
• Rubik’s Block
• Rubik’s Match
• Rubik’s 3×3

I will take you through each one by one..

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Shimmer Stars are a new range of collectable plushes from KD Toys, with added sparkle! They can be customised with sequins using the shimmerizer styling wand which comes with the pet, and has plenty of accessories that can be shared between your child and their Shimmer Stars pet. My little girl N loves all things sparkly and glittery so we were sent a Shimmer Stars toy for her to try out and she has been having loads of fun with it.

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Get Packing is a fast paced and puzzling game from Asmodee where each player races to pack the required items in their suitcase, but that’s not as easy as it sounds as each set can only fit in if every item is perfectly placed. This game is the perfect theme to fit in with summer holidays, as we have all been through this familiar scenario trying desperately to make everything fit in! Packing is the worst thing about preparing for holidays for me, but not in this game!

We were sent this game to try out for the Blogger Board game club via Asmodee, and it was a hit with our kids aged 8, 10 and 11, as well as with us parents. I found it’s a game where you keep wanting to try “just one more round” so could keep going for ages, as it’s really satisfying when you solve each level.

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