Cowabunga, dudes ! As you may have noticed in our previous blogposts, Pierre is a big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. He loves dressing up as his beloved heroes in a half-shell and playing with his pizza-munching toys.
He even likes sitting down to a specially prepared turtle pitta sandwich !
So it was certainly no surprise that he was over the moon when Flair's latest additions to the TMNT range arrived at The Madhouse for him to roadtest.
The first item that he discovered was this child-sized turtle shell which is great fun for dressing up. It is worn like a backpack with adjustable straps so that you're guaranteed the perfect fit as your child grows and the sticky-out brown bits on the back are for holding your ninja weapons when you're not using them. It also has a handle on the inside so you can take it off and wield it as a shield instead, if you so desire. It's sturdily built and can withstand a lot of play fighting ... which leads me nicely on to the next item.
Turtles Soft Foam Weapons ! Show me a child anywhere in the world who wouldn't love the opportunity to bash his (or her !) siblings and friends with big, realistic-looking foam weapons ! We got Michaelangelo's nunchuck but all of the Turtles' signature weapons are available. They're made of soft foam but nevertheless, they're quite firm so your kids could potentially hurt each other a bit, although not inflict any long-term damage, if their rough-and-tumble play gets a bit out of hand ! Using the shell as a shield is definitely a good option !
Finally we discovered the 16" Practice Pal Plush Turtle Figure which features over 10 phrases and sounds, using the proper turtle voices. I couldn't work out why it was called a Practice Pal at first but this soon became obvious - you have to punch, kick, chop, slam or throw your turtle pal against the wall to make him speak ! This had the Madhouse Mini-testers in fits of giggles, especially as he often lets out cries or yells that seem to respond to their play-violence ! Once they've finished beating him up with their ninja moves, he's actually very soft and cuddly so they can make it up to him by taking him to bed for some cuddles. (You might want to take the batteries out first so he doesn't actually start yelling in the middle of the night if he gets laid on or elbowed !)
(Huge apologies for the lack of action shots in this review - I totally drained the batteries in the camera with all my cookery photos and by the time I'd recharged them, the kids had moved on to playing with something else. Typical ! I'll come back and add some at a later date though - promise !)
It's a great collection of toys that will appeal to any little turtle fan, regardless of their sex, if Juliette and Pierre are anything to go by. They're suitable for children aged 4+. The dress-up items are great for imaginative play and Pierre has already decided that he'll be wearing the shell and weapons for Halloween this year. (Nothing like a bit of forward planning !)
If you have a TMNT fan in your midst, I have some great news for you - I'll have a giveaway coming up very soon where you can win a fab turtles dvd. Cowabunga - watch this space !
for more information : http://www.flairplc.co.uk/brands/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtle/
Disclosure : I received the products in order to write an honest review.
Other blogposts you may be interested in :
my husband still has some of the toys from the 90's :) great show
ReplyDeleteAll the old toys are coming back - Furbies, Tamagotchies ... !
Delete