Being Mrs C

An insight into the things in life that make me smile

Review and Competition – WOW Toys

With two and a half years experience under her belt Little Miss C is becoming rather adept at reviewing toys now. Whenever she gets something new she will actually tell me what’s good and bad about it without me having to prompt her and is quite happy for Mummy to get her to pose for pictures with things too – it might slow things down a bit on Christmas Day, but it’s super handy when we’re asked to review new things, and no one is quite as honest as a toddler!

This time round I was asked by the lovely people at Cuthberts Toys to review a selection of toys from the WOW Toys range. Stood in their St Albans store in front of the complete WOW range I was amazed at how much choice there is. Rather than a standard collection of cars, trucks, buses and associated buildings all of their toys have real characters and there’s a huge amount of choice of vehicles too. I’m sure that if Master C is a “typical” boy and into all things wheeled then things like the street sweeper, combine harvester and a tow truck – or as they are better known Street Sweeper Stanley, Harvey Harvester and Tow Truck Tim & Rolling Ray – will be big hits!

WOWToys1

I was a bit spoilt for choice as to what to review, but in the end I went for Ronnie Rocket (to fit in with LMC’s current rocket obsession), Arctic Archie (as she loves penguins) and Mario’s Pizzeria (for something a bit different). What’s great is that the people that come with all these toys are fully interchangeable meaning that we’ve now had a penguin flying a rocket and an eskimo delivering pizza!

The toys are all packaged in a really attractive manner with the boxes including great background scenes for the toys. I did become slightly apprehensive though as I started to unpack the pizzeria though as it took nearly 20 minutes to get it all out and by the end my fingers really hurt. All the toys are fastened on to the scenery with bits of plastic covered wire which you need to untwist to be able to pull out of the small holes that many of the toys have in them. This seemed to take forever. LMC was really starting to get impatient at this stage and I was left wondering quite why it was necessary to have everything fastened on so securely.

Once out of the packaging the toys really are good quality. The plastic is nice and tough and very tactile too. The rocket has rubber bits on the base of its feet and on the “leg” bits which is a really nice touch. The little pin bit on the back of the pizza delivery bike on which to fix the pizza is another nice detail, and it was good to see this replicated on the sledge too – although I note that this isn’t seen in some of the pictures of it on their publicity material, so I wonder if it’s a later addition. 

WOWToys2

There were a few things though which I just thought needed a little more thought. The arctic sledge can be “driven” by any of the characters, but if you put Penelope the Penguin in there she has a strange hunchback which means that you can no longer put a pizza on the back. I know it probably wasn’t originally designed to carry pizza, but it seems a shame that this is the case as I can’t see why the penguin needed to have a hunchback. The rocket has a flip up lid so that the astronaut can go in there and there’s a cut out window too so that you can see what he’s doing. But, unfortunately he doesn’t sit very securely in there and if you’re flying the rocket around the living room it may well at some point go upside down in such a way that he can fall out of the window. LMC was a bit put out when this happened!

The pizzeria also has a “feature” where the chef can be stood on the roof and as you turn him round it turns round a pizza shape at the bottom so that different toppings are displayed. The only thing is that the recess that you sit the man in isn’t all that deep, so for little hands he easily slips out as you try to turn him – hence a fair bit of frustration before giving up and instead just turning the pizza bit itself. It’s not a major flaw, but does make me question the usability testing with little hands.

These toys have been a huge hit with LMC and she loves playing with them and also introducing other toys to her games. The pizza delivery man for instance spent most of yesterday afternoon delivering pizzas on a sledge to a load of Schleich toys who were at the time climbing a wall made of wooden blocks! If you want children to role play and make the most of their imaginations then these are fantastic. I’m also “pleased” to report that LMC has taken her testing role incredibly seriously and all the toys have at points been thrown across the living room without any damage to the toys at all. With Master C also here I’m happy that none of them contain very small pieces, meaning that they’ll be safe once he’s on the move and at the stage of putting everything he finds in his mouth.

WOWToys3

The WOW range is all designed here in the UK and as well as making sure all their toys are tough enough to stand up to the demands of toddlers they also don’t require batteries – something that many parents will be grateful for when it comes to Christmas Day. One lovely surprise inside the box was the fact that the fold out poster showing all the toys in the range turns over to reveal a colouring sheet. LMC was thrilled to be able to colour in a picture of her rocket.

20% off WOW Toys at Cuthberts Toys

If you want to add some WOW toys to your children’s Christmas presents then Cuthberts Toys are offering 20% off to blog readers. If you enter the code WOW2CUTH at checkout to receive the discount. This is valid until 15th December 2012 and all orders received by this date should be dispatched in time for Christmas if you’re in the UK.

Win a Bundle of WOW Toys from Cuthberts Toys

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!

The lovely people at Cuthberts Toys have also got an identical bundle of WOW toys to give away here on the blog. To try to win Ronnie Rocket, Arctic Archie and Mario’s Pizzeria all you need to do is leave a comment on this post saying what you think Mario’s pizza delivery driver should be called. 

For extra entries please follow @Cuthberts_Toys on Twitter or like Cuthberts Toys & Games on Facebook. You will get one extra entry to the draw for each of these, but YOU MUST leave additional comments saying that you have done so below this post. There is a maximum of three entries per person and for three entries you MUST leave three separate comments.

Please ensure that I can contact you by either entering your email address when you leave the comment (it will not be published online) or include your Twitter ID in your comment. Entries without contact details will be invalid.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!

The winner selected at Random is Judy Kennedy – congratulations.

Terms and Conditions 

  • Competition will run until 12 noon GMT on Tuesday 11 December 2012.
  • The winner will be drawn at random from all valid entries.
  • All reasonable efforts will be made to contact the winner, but if they are uncontactable after 2 working days a second winner will be drawn.
  • The competition is open to all residents of the United Kingdom.
  • There is no cash alternative to the prize.
  • The prize can be collected from Cuthberts Toy in St Albans, or will be posted out by them. As long as address details are provided by 15 December it should be received in time for Christmas.

Disclaimer:  For the purposes of this review I received these WOW Toys from Cuthberts Toys. Cuthberts are also providing the prize outlined above.

Comments

  1. Abbi taylor says

    I think that the pizza driver should be called ‘Lorenzo’ after a friend of mine’s little boy whose Daddy is from an italian family. He was very poorly when he was born, but struggled through and is now 2 years old!

  2. Helen Moulden says

    I think he should be called something like ‘Pizza Peter’. Catchy and easy to remember!

  5. CHRISTINE ANDREWS says

    He should be called…….Gino D’Avanco…..in honour of my favourite ltalian dish

  47. Hele R says

    I have a bit of a crush on Gino D’Acampo, so I’d have to name him Gino 😀

  54. Fiona Usher says

    I think he should be called Mario Lazio! Good Luck all and Merry Xmas

  63. steven.babington@yahoo.co.uk says

    i think something simple like “Momma’s Special Luigi”

  76. RHIAN THORN says

    I think he should be GASPARO as it means “treasure bearer” and I always think that pizza is the “jewel in the crown” of Italian cooking.

  90. sue willshee says

    He should be called Basil because Basil is always on top of my pizza deliveries 🙂

  93. amelia avossa says

    MARIO! 😀 Simple my dad is italian and his name is mario and has 3 brothers 2 cousins and 2 uncles called it too..
    its commom and a fab italian name :F

  103. Hazel Christopher says

    Also a fan on Facebook
    Thank you for the lovely competition and good luck everyone x

  113. Suzical says

    Not sure if my entry worked yesterday – but I suggested Guiseppe after the only pizzeria in the town I grew up in!

Google Adsense