Tee-pee (Tent) from Au Naturale

This week my wife bought an indian Teepee, which was at a reduced price in Au Naturale.

Assembly: Frustrating. Instructions were poor, especilly as regards the top of the tent where the 4 support rods met - Bit of botch job was required to keep them together.

In use: The base of the tent keeps coming off the frame as there is no way to hold it on.

Kids played with it on the day I set it up, but interest is lost already.

New Toys: Interactive Dinosaur Advenure

Place a dinosaur on the top of this toy and a dramatic voice will guide you through different pieces of information on the beast, or quiz you on your knowledge.

This toy is one of the newer interactive toys which seems to use something like an RFID chip inserted in toy dinosaurs to recognise which one is placed on the top of the toy.

This was for our 4-year old to play with, and I have to say he has enjoyed most of what it has to offer.

We currently are encoutering a common problem with many toys - The dinosaurs used by this game are gradually being scattered across the 4 corners of the house, leaving the poor docking station on it's on. Could manufacturers not buil some kind of storage into this kind of toy?

Verdict?

Was great until many of the dinosaurs became "lost". Dramatic American accent can grate after a time, as the occasion doesn't always warrant it. Kids enjoy it though.

Wii Console - Hard to get - but worth it!

In October last year we decided to buy for all our boys on of the Nintendo Wii games consoles, which had been out for about a year.

By the time we started looking for a console we soon found that they werelike "hen's teeth" - hard to find. Having failed to get a Wii at any of the usual shops - Toys-r-us, Smyths, Argos, Currys etc, I had a search online and found that some people were having success getting the consoles fromAmazon in Germany. After researching this a little I decided to go for it,and bought the Wii for about £170 - which turned out to be a lot cheaper than the shops ended up stroking people for in the run-up to Christmas.

The Wii arrived 3 days later, all present and correct. The only difference with a UK Wii seemed to be the 2-pin plug. For this I bought a neat device from B&Q which is basically a 3 pin plug with a back which opens to allow the 2 pin plug to clip inside - once closed over it looks like a normal 3-pin plug, which is much neater than a bulky adaptor.
Check out some Wii bundles HERE

ACCESSORIES PURCHASED

• Wii sports accessory pack - The golf club part of this seems to have disappeared since Christmas, but no matter. Most used is the steering wheel, with the tennis racket next.


• Spare remote & Wii Play - pretty much essential if you want the kids to playtogether on this console


• Dual charger and battery pack - Great value - The re-chargeable battery packfits into the Wii remotes, which can then be placed into the charge unit (2 remotes at a time). The only niggle I have with this is that the Wii needs to be switched on for the charging to take place.


• Designer protective faceplates - look nice, but a waste of money as they need to be removed to place the remotes into the steering wheel etc. Also ,the clear rubber protective covers which come with the remotes give much more protection when they are dropped.

So the kids have had the Wii since Christmas, and I have to say it was money well spent, as it has been used every day.

TIP: give the kids a fixed length of time to have a turn on the
console,otherwise fights may ensue.

So, what is the verdict from the boys?
5-YEAR OLD

Tries to hog the Wii as soon as he gets in from school - he would even chance his arm at having a game in the morning before school, but we had to put a stop to this as he proved difficult to shift out the door. Favourite game is definitely Need For Speed: Carbon - He can play this all day and night, and loves modifying the cars to his taste. The use of the controller can be a little difficult to master, but there are different control options available. Likes also Wii Sports, Wii Play and Carnival, but the NFS:C is a firm favourite.

4-YEAR OLD

Now, number 2 son is more of an animal / dinosaur lover, with a hint of Power Rangers violence, so he had received Endless Sea as a Christmas present. This, however, didn't turn out to be such a good buy, so far, as he tried it once and didn't go back to it. Perhaps he's a bit too young yet, or will get interested through time.(Endless Sea hasn't been on for weeks now). What he does love playing is the throwing games on Carnival, or the game in Wii Play where you have to pick out Mii characters from a crowd.

3-YEAR OLD

This guy is following in his eldest brother's footsteps a a bit of a games addict. On the Wii he'll love a go at anything, but loves best racing the knitted cows in Wii Play. The good news is that, while he has just turned 3, he is working well with the different ways you can use the Wii remote, ad is getting more accurate with his aims.

CONCLUSION?

Well, it's only been a month so far, but I'd say the Wii is turning out to be a good buy. Younger kids can handle it well, and the games packs which include many simple games are a great hit (Wii Sport, Wii Play, and Carnival)

Go get one (If you can)

Nunchuk ~Update - 19th Feb 2008

Our poor nunchuk is slowly having it's tactile rubber stick chewed to bits
- must remain calm at all times.

Welcome to this new Blog

Hello, and welcome to this blog, which will try to give any visitors an open and honest opinion - including some quotes from our kids - as to how the toys they receive get played with (And often trashed).
As Christmas is just over, there should be plenty to get on with, and the boys are already picking their favourites, while others are hardly touched.
Witness then the joy, tears, and destruction, of the good, bad, and junk, sent by the man with the red sack at the end of the year.