Look Mummy, Thomas! (Tomy Thomas & Friends Aqua Draw)

Member Name: krazykat2005

Product:	Tomy Thomas & Friends Aqua Draw
Date:	25/09/08 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reusable, Great for travel, mess free

Disadvantages: Storage, small pen, bit boring picture-wise

So what are they? A set of four cards and a water pen. You simply fill the pen with tap water and let your child colour in the pictures. When it dries you can start again. Endless colouring fun.

When you buy them they come in a cardboard packet, each of the four cards is seperate from the other and you get a small pen with a twist-top lid. My first gripe is that it's very hard to keep all the pieces together, the box doesn't last long when toddlers are about, so it would have been nice had there been a more long term storage solution.

The pen is small and doesn't hold very much water, certainly not enough to do all four pictures, so I've found I had to either go back and forth filling it up, sometimes even one picture isn't completed fully before this happens, or beg borrow and steal more pens, which I did in the end. Be aware that the twist top twists in the opposite way from usual, I've had screaming fits of rage at the 'stuck lid' only to sheepishly remember that it goes the other way.

For a Thomas the Tank Engine fan, the pictures are quite limited as well, my son loves the diversity of all the different engines, but in this pack you will only really see Thomas, Percy, James, Henry and Mavis. There's more background than trains in some of the pictures, which can be a bit boring for him, and if I am being really picky, you can actually see the picture faintly before any water touches the picture.

So what are the good points? Well this isn't a toy that is going to enthrall them for hours over a long period of time, but we have had them since my son was two and they do have a place.

Twenty minutes peace without worrying about crayon where it shouldn't be, you can leave them unsupervised with these. The worst they can do is suck the pen dry or fold up the cards, which does spoil them a bit, but doesn't affect usability.

They are completely reusable, once the water dries up they are ready to go again.

If you are going away somewhere they make a great travel accessory. I wouldn't advise them for car trips, concentrating on them made my son sick, but if you are going somewhere and need something simple to entertain them, then you can't really go wrong. Unless of course you forget to bring a spare bottle of water to fill the pen.

So really, a fairly good stocking filler perhaps, although a bit expensive at six pounds for the whole lot, but not the greatest thing in the toy world.

Summary: Worth a go but not the best toy to buy with your spare six pounds