toy review Archives - A Little Lyrical

12Jul 2019

Smashers Dino Epic Egg – Smashed it!

To be open and honest with my readers I’ll pop this at the start. We were sent the Dino Epic Egg for the boys to play with at no charge. I have not been paid for this post. As always to keep my blog authentic I only post about products I would buy myself. Felix loves dinosaurs and smashing things so the two things combined are perfect!

Alongside the egg we were also send a pack of 8 Zuru smashers dino egg and a collectors tin (this will come in handy for Felix to store all his little dinos!)

So Smashers Dino Epic Egg does what it says on the tin (or egg!). It is huge! With over 25 surprises to be found inside, to build the exclusive Smash-o-saur Dino!

You can smash the smasher on the ground a wall or any hard surface. Be sure to check where your small people are planning on smashing it first though!

The Smashers app allows you to interact with your collection and earn Smash Points to become the ultimate Smashers champion!

Inside each Epic Dino Egg, you’ll discover more surprises like Smash Eggs with a Smash Egg rebuilder and digging tools. With access to Rare and Ultra Rare characters like the Skull Smashers, the smashing will never end!

Now on to the smashing part!

**SPOILER ALERT**

Want to see what we found inside ours?

So at first I have to be honest I was skeptical, would there be enough inside to justify the price? I’m a convert! One by one each thing has been played with. The Ice age putty was a hit (especially with me!) because its not sticky. It’s like real old fashioned putty.

Each element contains dino bones to build a large dino, as much as I wanted to feature that on the blog, honestly they’ve not even opened some of the elements yet! It really is lasting!

The bath fizzier was a hit and they both had fun fishing the dino bones from the water once it had fizzed out. Thankfully the bones float!

They’ve yet to get on to opening the fossil rock, dino dirt or slime. That’s this weekends fun to come! Not to mention being able to smash open the little eggs to see which dino’s we are adding to the collection. Lets hope we get a super rare one!

We filmed our smashers Dino epic egg, if you want to see the full thing have a look below

The Smashers Epic Dino Egg retails at RRP: £24.99, is suitable for ages 5+ and is available at Smyths, The Entertainer, Argos, Tesco, Asda, B&M, SAINSBURY’S Supermarket and all the major retailers.

13Nov 2017

Power Rippers – Competition Set and Double Pack

by Lyric ⋅ Leave a Comment

Power Rippers – No batteries needed!

This week we’ve been testing out a new toy called Power Rippers! Despite what you might think this toy needs no batteries, hurrah! The power for the Power Ripper comes from your own hand. The faster you pull, the faster your ripper will go!

There’s 16 fab Power Rippers to collect in the first set. With lots of different characters available from sharks to robots. With single Power Rippers starting at a RRP of £4.99 theres something for everyone’s budget.

The way they work is with a rip cord which slides easily inside the ripper and you pull and pull until you’re happy with the speed, then let it rip!

Want to race the Power Rippers with friends then you can with the 2 in 1 Competition Play set which also opens up into a battle arena!

Rev up your Power Ripper and watch it loop the loop on a long track. Or battle with friends for the best time against each other in a head to head loop the loop. Set up the track however you want and add a fantastic jump at the end. Be quick though to catch the action. These Power Rippers don’t hang around long!

In battle mode you can go head to head with friends to battle the Power Rippers in the arena, think robot wars on a mini scale. Will your Power Ripper win the ultimate battle and keep going longer than the other rippers?

When you’re finished for the day, pack everything back up in the case and it’s ready to travel anywhere!

Overall Experience

What we loved:

Theres no batteries needed so it’s just set up and go
Theres lots of way to play, we liked the long track best
The battle arena was fun to watch and more a game of luck than skill which is great for smaller children
We got quite a lot of play from the set and the boys were keen to play again the next few days
The track set up is pretty easy to do with lots of configurations possible

Other thoughts:

It can be tricky to get the hang of starting the power ripper on the track so be sure to practice lots before you agree to battle with friends (unless you want to lose!)
Mind your fingers! Power rippers are powerful so keep your fingers well out-of-the-way of the fast spinning wheel!

Power Ripper Video

Most of our video footage had to be shot in slow motion as the Power Rippers are just so quick!

If you want to find out more visit the Power Ripper website.

Power Rippers are available now in many toy shops across the UK.

We were kindly sent the toy for review but were not paid for the content, all our views are our own.

28Oct 2016

Boys Test Toys – Belles Tea Party Cart

by Lyric ⋅ 2 Comments

Belles Tea Party Cart

This week we were kindly sent a new toy for the boys to test. For those of you who have read my posts before you’ll know I don’t believe in gender specific toys. Belles tea party cart could potentially fall into the toys for girls category but I think my boys have proved that to be wrong!

This summer we were very lucky to spend time at Walt Disney World. In the run up to our holiday we watched lots of family Disney films. Since Flixster has been little he’s had the nickname chip (given to him by the nursery ladies who said he was cute!) They have never seen his menacing side he he! But he knows who chip is, and he knows the famous song from Beauty and the Beast – Be Our Guest. We were also lucky enough to eat in the beasts castle dining room whilst we were away. So the boys are very familiar with Belle, Mrs Potts and Chip.

The Toy – A Tour

The cart comes boxed and not built however it is really easy to put together, you don’t need any tools, it simply clicks into place. If this is to be a Christmas gift it might be worth setting up first then wrapping as there are some cable ties that need cutting in the package and I know how frustrating it can be on Christmas day to be doing these. In addition to the trolley, Belles Tea Party Cart comes with two teacups (one of which is Chip) Mrs Potts ( the teapot), two spoons and an invitation.

The teapot and teacups fit onto the inner pink circle on the top of the cart. Flixster was obsessed about putting the teapot, cups and spoon on the bottom level of the trolley. I have no idea why, but as you’ll see in most of the photos I took during play those items are on the bottom!

Once we’d put it together the boys were away with it. Especially Flixster (who’s 2) he absolutely loved it. Most of all he loved that when you press the button on the front of the cart the teapot and teacups spin round whilst the ‘Be Our Guest Song’ plays. As a result of him discovering this we have heard it many many times since! I think the song being played whilst the teapot spins was his favourite feature of Belles Tea Cart. The cart comes with batteries already installed. Be sure to flick the switch underneath to play the full song not just the demo.

Playtime

The tea cart was just the right height for him to push around the room and serve everyone tea. The detail on Belles Tea Party Cart is most noteworthy. The stickers which come already attached to the cart (thank goodness as I can never ever get them straight) picture the characters from Beauty and the Beast.

Toy Test Verdict

We’ve had the cart a little over a week now and it’s been played with every day by Flixster. He absolutely loves it! I’d say this toy test was an absolute hit. I’ve enjoyed watching him use the cart and his imagination to serve tea many times over. He loved pretending to drink and serve everyone else.

(See the teapot and cups underneath!)

He ever wanted to take chip to bed the other night, I’m not sure he’d make a good cuddle companion though!

Belles Tea Party Cart can be purchased from a variety of retailers in the UK and would make a fabulous gift for any Beauty and the Beast fan.

21Apr 2016

Boys Toys and Babies – Challenging the Stereotypes!

by Lyric ⋅ Leave a Comment

Traditional boys toys consist of cars, construction and weapons. Walk down the aisles of the toy store and there will always be a sea of blue and a sea of pink. Where did these colours come from? Originally who decided that these will be boy and girl colours?

I’ve always been an advocate of gentle parenting, I try my best to use positive language around my boys, trying very hard to give them boundaries by talking them through things they can do rather than things they can’t. My boys are chalk and cheese with their personalities, the eldest is very emotional, gentle, a worrier. The youngest so far has seemed much more confident, nowhere near as risk averse, I’d go as far as to say he’s a bit of a risk taker. He’s never seemed to attach to anything toy wise until very recently when he’s started understanding the concept of ‘mine’. A new word in his vocabulary has meant that he’s been going to bed with a whole host of random house items that he considers to be his. Last night we had a bed full of items which we later (once he was asleep) sneak into remove, things that included a kitchen spatula, a book, a metal car and his toothbrush which was not leaving his tight little hand no matter what! And as I fancied an easy bedtime I thought the best course of action was to just go back later and retrieve them.

So when we were asked if we’d like to take part in ‘National Baby Day’ on May 2nd and give some more traditional girls toys a try I thought it might be something my youngest would love and I wasn’t wrong. I have never censored the toys they have to play with I’m not at all bothered if they don’t want to play with boys toys, two of the most played with items in our house is a pink tea set and the wooden kitchen. The tea set was the choice of my eldest when he was two years old, since then they have both enjoyed playing with it. This tea set was clearly aimed at the girl market with its vivid pink and purple cups, tea-pot, spoons and sugar bowl.

The other day we were excited to receive a ‘My Little Baby Born’ (Supersoft) and stroller by Zapf to test out which aren’t traditionally thought to be boys toys.

Along with ‘mine’ he also knows the word ‘open’. I hardly had chance to open the wrapping before he was pulling at the packaging to get the baby out. We set the stroller up very quickly in just one click and he was away!

The doll itself is 32cm tall and is aimed at ages 1+

It comes with a dummy attached to a ribbon which is then attached to it’s outfit so that it can’t come off, and given the amount of tugging and pulling both the boys have done with it I can safely say it’s stuck on there! From the moment he wrapped his arms around the baby to give it a cuddle he hasn’t let it go. Baby has gone everywhere, in or out of the stroller.

He’s not bothered that it’s pink, or that it’s aimed at girls, all he’s bothered about is that baby is with him all the time! Baby has even gone to bed tonight!

Now I know the stroller is only meant for dolls but when you walk out of the room and walk back in a few moments later to find the 2 year old sat in the stroller giving loving cuddles to the baby I couldn’t bear to tell him it was wrong!

I want my boys to grow into caring adults, if they chose to have children are gentle parents, who are loving and kind, with patience and understanding. I don’t believe in the gender stereotypes and I hope I can teach them that they are free to choose anything in life that interests them and that they enjoy. The dude absolutely loves the doll and stroller from Zapf and I’m grateful for now that he’s enjoying something that he can call his own……..’mine!’