Meet Mooshka, one of the 'soft, huggable and oh so lovable' dolls in the new Sing Around The Rosie range. She's made entirely out of soft material like a rag doll with no small parts so she's suitable for children aged 2+.
The fun started before we even got her out of the box - the huge picture on the back is human head-sized so Juliette decided to use it as a replacement head ! (This reminds me of the Desk Safaris we had fun creating ! )
She's got a very appealing face with big baby blue eyes and red hair.
The Madhouse kids always want to check that their dolls are wearing knickers for some reason and they were delighted to discover that the Mooshka doll has not only funky printed pants but also a belly-button. I have no idea why but this was a very exciting discovery apparently ! Her totally mismatched and brightly coloured stockings were labelled very cool too.
But the fun really starts when you hold both of the little hearts on her hands and she springs to life, singing Ring-a-ring o' rosie.
As you can see in our little video, it's the American version of the nursery rhyme, which may confuse some young children on this side of The Pond. The US version is : Ring-a-round the rosie, A pocket full of posies, Ashes! Ashes! All fall down. This seems to make less sense than the British version, which apparently makes references to the bubonic plague - ring of roses (a rosy rash), posies (little sweet-smelling bunches of flowers to hold to your nose to mask the awful smell of death), attishoo (sneezing), all fall down (death). It didn't seem to worry the Madhouse kids in the slightest though.
Another "lost in translation" moment is the name. This cute Mooshka doll is called Myra, which instantly made me think of Myra Hindley, the evil Moors murderer - not the best association for a cute child's toy ! All children and possibly most younger parents probably wouldn't have even heard of her though. The other dolls in the range are called Lera and Niva and they can all sing along together. Each doll has her own special personality. Lera’s birthday is on 27th July and she loves collecting things, Myra’s birthday is on 12th July and her favourite hobby is acting and Niva’s birthday is on 23rd January and she adores writing poems.
They're lovely dolls which look totally different to any others on the market and they really appeal to the Madhouse kids. They promote imaginative play and nice values through their story - they started life as paper dolls but through the power of friendship they joined hands and came to life.
Mooshka have a new Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/MooshkaUK). Parents can also download a free Mooshka app from the app store. The first in the range is entitled ‘Myra’s Birthday Surprise’, which offers an e-book story as well as painting and puzzle games.
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : £24.99
for more information : www.mooshka.com or www.facebook.com/ZapfCreationUK
Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.
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I think it was created by some Russophile. Myra, Lera and Niva are Russian names (Myra is pronounced Meera). Mooshka actually means a little fly in Russian, just thought you might be interested to know, lol
ReplyDeleteAha, I thought that might be the case because it reminded me of Babooshka which means grandmother, doesn't it? (It always makes me think of Kate Bush ! lol)
Deleteahh babushka babushka ya-ya... :) Now I've got an earworm, thank you Cheryl!
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