We already had the large original aqua draw but as my boys are very keen on Thomas I picked these up one day as an extra present at Eid time. I find they do gravitate towards these more than the plain aqua draw (although they will still use that too) and they really enjoy the Thomas element of it.

I saw some of the other reviews of this were overall quite negative about this product, and I would say I am more positive. It is a fairly limited item, but for what it is, I've found it quite good and just a nice addition to their activity collection.

There are 4 of the mini mats in each box, plus one small sized pen. This pen is smaller than the one given with the original aqua draw so it runs out of water quicker but it is not a huge problem. We have quite a few spare aqua draw pens, so no problems with sharing. If you do buy this set to share with 2 siblings, I would recommend to buy some spare pens or else buy 2 different sets of mini mats so you have the extra mats, and the extra pen.

The pictures in our set are slightly different to the ones shown here (it must be collection 1 or 2 that we have) and I noticed that the pictures on our set are from the Thomas movie "The Great Discovery" which my 3 year old was really happy about, as he remembered the scenes from the movie while colouring the mat.

What I like about the whole aqua draw range is the no mess aspect. The pens are just filled with water and then the picture is revealed, so even if they do open the pens and spill it, it is only water and will just dry up by itself. I don't allow my children to have the normal colouring things out unsupervised because I don't want to risk my freshly painted walls being ruined! They do have regular access to the crayons, felt tips and all of that but its only when I can be there to keep a proper eye on them, so these mats are good for the times when I may be multitasking with cleaning, laundry or nipping in and out of the room and so would not really want them to be playing with real crayons.

I do find that my boys help themselves to these aqua mats quite often and fill in the pictures, it keeps them busy for about 10 minutes each time.

They last well and I have not noticed any fading on ours so far, they still look as good as new. I find them better than magic painting books as the colours can be a bit dingy with magic painting but these come up brighter and more impressive, in my opinion.

The price is quite expensive at around 6 pounds per pack but if you see them on offer it is definitely worth it. We got ours in a half price sale at early learning centre, so has definitely been worth it for that price. I would buy more if I saw different picture sets on offer, and we do already have the chuggington ones too.

Obviously they are a limited toy and its the same 4 pictures and that is it, but still it keeps my boys happy for a while and is good that they can use this as a drawing activity without me worrying about mess if I am not keeping an eye on them.

My neice always goes for the aquadraw stuff when she comes around too, and she is a couple of years older, so I would say it is quite good for a variety of ages and for both boys and girls.