A Very Tricky 'Blo' Job!! (Character Options Blo Pens Deluxe Kit Box Set)

Member Name: kingfisher111

Product:	Character Options Blo Pens Deluxe Kit Box Set
Date:	08/02/09 (409 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: novel pens for creating lovely designs

Disadvantages: tricky to use at first

Firstly apologies for my somewhat dodgy title but I did read somewhere that a more risque headline might attract more reads! I shall wait and see!

Actually there is nothing at all dodgy about these Blo Pens although as suggested by my title, we did find them quite tricky to use at first. The idea is that rather than using pens in the normal way to colour in, you blow the ink out of these. It's a novel idea and fantastic when they work but it is quite difficult to get them to work at first - even with instructions!

Firstly let me describe the set for you. There are a huge number of different things contained in this bumper art design set. The main things are the pens and there are twelve standard blopens and ten mini blopens. They look like normal pens but there are instructions to follow to turn them in to ones you can blow. You have to turn the cartridge around from its storing position and make sure that it is firmly pressed against the end of the jet tube. You blow through the other end and there should be a fine spray of different coloured ink covering your page! I say 'should' because at first there wasn't until I asked my husband to take a look! He worked out very quickly that the cartridge wasn't placed firmly enough in the tube. This is actually quite hard for small children to do and this is one reason why it really does need adult supervision.

Once you are successful in blowing out the ink, you will want to make use of the lovely stencils that are provided. There are twenty small and ten large ones and these are of all sorts of things such as flowers, a fire breathing dragon and even Father Christmas! These are just made out of card and the first time you use any of them you do have to press out all the excess card which is slightly fiddly. Some of the holes are very small and again small children will need adult help.

Once they are ready to be used the stencils can be placed on on of the sheets of paper supplied (there is not that much of this though and you are soon likely to run out). You have to hold these in place and then blow the pens over the designto get a fine even spray. I have to say that the final results are really very lovely. Both my daughters had a tendency though to hold the pens too close but you get a much finer mottled effect if you hold them about three or four inches away from the paper. That said though, both daughters are very proud of their art work so far!

I didn't find the instructions that easy to follow and to be honest it really was just a bit of trial and error before we started being successful with the pens! It was very funny though because we did sound like a room full of heavy breathers with all this blowing going on - especially my youngest daughter who was really putting her heart and soul into blowing through her pen. If someone only heard us they would really have wondered what was going on although I suspect we all liked quite funny too with these strange looking pens in our mouths!

There are a few other extras that make the kit more fun as well. There is a rainbow maker and with this contraption you can attach three different coloured pens at one time and when you blow down the tube supplied you can make a rainbow effect which is lovely. There's also a Blo pen Blaster which you can use instead of blowing. This seems a bit like a mini bellows but every time we have tried to use this the pen has just fallen off so it really hasn't worked for us!

The ink used is non-toxic and it does say on the box that you cannot inhale it accidentally when blowing. It may stain though so there are care and washing instructions that are worth paying attention to.

It does seem to take quite a bit of effort to use these pens and by the time my daughters had both completed two stencils we had all had enough. My lips also felt quite sore! At one point I did start to wonder whether it was worth it but I do have to admit that the final effects are quite stunning!

The recommended age is four although I did buy it for my youngest daughter for Christmas and she is not actually four until March. I also bought ours in Woolworths' closing down sale but it can still be bought at a number of different places including mailorderonline.com for £12.99 and ToysRus for £14.99.

They are definitely worth giving a try but be prepared to be patient until you get to know what you are doing!

Summary: Colouring with air!