Igglepiggle and friends come to play (In The Night Garden Complete Character Collection)

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	In The Night Garden Complete Character Collection
Date:	02/10/09 (73 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bright and colourful, sturdy and durable, creates calm for a few minutes

Disadvantages: Get bored after a little while as they don't do anything

I've been seeing my little cousin, Daniel, a lot lately due to his new little sister arriving into the world and, having been officially designated the titles 'godmother' as well as 'babysitter' it's been me who's been playing with him, bathing him, changing dirty nappies and dealing with lots of kicks and punches in the face throughout the night. Seeing him so much recently, I've noticed that out of all the CBeebies' shows, In The Night Garden is the one he enjoys the most, like so many other toddlers seem to.

Daniel doesn't usually play with small toys like this and prefers being a typical boy - riding his trike around the garden, whizzing cars across the floor or generally smashing things, but, knowing that he loves the TV show and some In The Night Garden books he's got, I bought him this In The Night Garden Character Collection for his second birthday a couple of weeks ago, hoping it might bring some calm to him.

The toys come in a cardboard box with a plastic front so that you can see what's inside. Inside, the background is full of trees and grass and this can be taken out and used to play with the toys as well. The box contains six individual figurines, all characters from the show - Igglepiggle, Makka Pakka, Upsy Daisy and three Tombliboos. They are all made of fairly hard plastic which makes them perfect for playing with anywhere including in the bath and they look and feel like they'd last a long time. All of the characters are very bright and colourful which makes them look lots of fun to play with. They are all fairly small but not small enough to be a hazard to a child of any age, ranging around 2-3 inches in height.

As soon as he opened up his present and saw what it was his big eyes widened and a huge smile came across his face and he looked at me in surprise as if he wasn't sure if he was allowed to touch it! As soon as I gave the box to him, he immediately started to wave it around in the air and bash it on the table trying, but failing, to get the figurines out. At first he wouldn't let me help him open it but when I told him that I was going to get the characters for him he reluctantly handed the box over. It was like he was really in awe of the toys as I stood them on the table in front of him, taking him a while at first to realise that he could play with them. They did bring him calm but only for a few minutes when he got up again, picked up as many as he could into his little hands, and carried them around with him. Because they're fairly small, I wouldn't recommend taking them out of the house as he lost one within literally a few minutes of having got them. Luckily we found it again though!

They all stand up by themselves, although we did have a bit of trouble getting Makka Pakka and Upsy Daisy to stand up - Makka Pakka seems to only be able to stand if he's leaning on one leg.

Obviously at such a young age, he doesn't have the imagination yet to make the characters interact so he does get a little tired of them after a while as they don't do anything. But they manage to keep him calm and entertained for a little while and that's all anyone can ask for when they've got such a cheeky little boy to deal with! Although it can get a little bit tedious for me or any other adult when we're made to repeatedly make them interact with other and Daniel for his entertainment!

The age range is 18 months + but, if they manage to get into the hands of younger children, there's no harm as they're too big to get into your mouth and there are no little pieces which could be swallowed. This can be bought from Asda for £7 which, although a tad expensive, they are a great little toy for any fans of the show.

Summary: Great for any fan of In The Night Garden