Mattel recently sent us two toys for Christmas 2016 to try out and review.
Barbie™ Rainbow Cove Light Show Princess
When you’re three and a half and think you’re seven you’re quite likely to be besotted by Barbie. Sparkly things also feature, and magic.
Barbie™ Rainbow Cove Light Show Princess which Mattel provided for us to review, ticks all those boxes.
She has hot pink hair in a high ponytail and her hard body has buttons that provide a music and light show.
She’s not cuddly, but is much loved.
Her body lights up and the back light panels reflect in her hair (DO NOT REMOVE THE HAIR BOBBLE). The music is gentle, like a magic special effects, and unlikely to annoy on Christmas Day. Any self respecting girlie three to five year old would be delighted to receive her for a little bit of magic and ooohing and aaahing
RRP €27.99 Age 3+
Blaze Monster Dome
The boys got to try out the Blaze Monster Dome, based on the kids’ TV series Blaze and the Monster Machines.
Cathal (6) was able to put the set together himself, including stickers in about 15 minutes. There was only one piece that required adult help, the loop, as he couldn’t manage to line it up right.
The Sharkbot didn’t work especially well, we weren’t quite sure how it was to work but it didn’t activate much.
This track set can be configured into multiple layouts so race fans can recreate all the action and adventure of Blaze and the Monster Machines™ says the blurb. There are spring loaded launchers that well, launch the cars onto the track through obstacles likes the 360 loop and the ring of fire. You can race the cars or set them to crash like our video below (amateur as it’s an insta story)
The cars are sturdy and the set itself is much better quality than I expected.
It worked well for my competitive boys and hits the mark for kids aged three to six. (My eight-year-old played with it lots with his younger brother but claims to be too old for it) My six-year-old said that he “loved building it and trashing the cars”. My only gripe is that like every toy that comes these days there are holes in the box when you remove the toy so it can’t easily be stored in it.
Another one I’d recommend to buy, especially if the kids in question are Blaze fans, but kids who like cars and have never heard of Blaze will get just as much out of it.
RRP €39.99 Age 3+
Disclosure: We received the toys mentioned from Mattel for the purpose of this review but all opinions are ours.
