Little Miss C loves watching Ben and Holly on TV and since buying a magazine with free Ben and Holly toys on a while back has regularly been acting out Ben and Holly stories. When I received an email about the new Ben and Holly Magical Playground Playsets that were being released I just knew that she’d love to help me review them.
There are three Magical Playground Playsets, a slide, a roundabout and a swing, and we were sent the roundabout and swing ones to review. Each playset comes with a Holly figure, which appears to be fine, but LMC’s first questions was “Where’s Ben?” When I explained that the set only came with a Holly character she then proceeded to tell me that Holly would be lonely on her own and needed someone to play with. Fair point I guess. As we were reviewing two of the playsets she actually had two (slightly different) Holly toys so she declared that they could play with each other – but she added that they would have preferred to have Ben to play with.
The roundabout playset consists of a spinning pond which contains three separately spinning plants which the Holly figure can stand inside. Inside the plants are two tiny pins which fit into Holly’s feet. It’s not completely necessary that they connect, but it does help with stability.
In the swing playset there are two swings for the Holly characters to sit in. The slight problem with these is that to fit Holly in, you actually need to turn her head, as otherwise her hair is simply too wide to fit. The other problems LMC found with the swing is that unless you get Holly seated in it quite right then it tips over and she falls out. It was actually quite difficult for me to get Holly in right and LMC really struggled at times.
Both the playsets clip together to form a bigger playground – and the slide also joins in the same way. They also feature a toadstool which LMC insisted was actually a trampoline (one of her favourite things in our local playground) and the Holly dolls spent a considerable amount of time bouncing on them.
To say that LMC loved these playsets would be an understatement. The weekend they arrived myself and Mr C were going away and left the kids with my sister and her husband. Poor Uncle R was forced to spend hours and hours (literally) playing with the playsets with her. Since then they’ve stayed out on the kids’ play table and she frequently goes back and plays with them, acting out stories. She’s got used to how she needs to put Holly in the swing for it to work properly, and how to make her stand in the roundabout properly. In that usual child-like manner she’s learnt to overlook what we as adults saw as problems with the design, and they’ve certainly not reduced the play-factor for her.
These Ben and Holly magical playground playsets would make a lovely toy for any Ben and Holly fan. They’ve provided hours and hours of fun for LMC and she genuinely loves them. The way the Holly figures fit in is a bit frustrating, but the big improvement that could be made in my opinion is to include a Ben character as well as Holly. After all, as LMC said when we first opened the playsets, Holly would want Ben to play at the playground with.
Disclaimer: We were sent the Ben and Holly Magical Swing and Roundabout Playsets for the purposes of this review. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.
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