Whilst browsing at a local car boot sale some time ago, we came across a set of lovely wooden animal dominoes (with animals on instead of numbers) and a set of clever little mix and match cards. The cards have various people on them which can be matched up or made into a variety of funny looking characters, just by swapping the cards that make them up.

We only paid £3 for both sets together and got a real bargain as far as we could see, as both toys looked in good condition and seemed to be complete with no missing parts. The card set we bought was made by Orchard Toys. Its a fun set to play as it involves being able to Pick and Mix People!

The idea of the game is so simple and fun for younger children to play. We have played this and found that the children can easily join in and enjoy the game and soon grasp the rules, with plenty of silly character mixes made out of the selection of cards in the game along the way. Its a game that brings a smile to your face and can't help but lift your mood when played even for just a short while.

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The game is easy to play and will suit group of between 1 to 4 players. The age range recommended is from 3 years to 7 years old, but we have found that slightly older children will still give you a game of this if in the right mood and not plugged firmly into and Xbox, PS3 or Wii console.

The game consists of a set of picture cards which show 12 characters such as a laughing policeman, a scary pirate carrying a mean looking sword, a friendly looking scarecrow stuffed with straw and a fireman holding a rescued cat! Then there is a young girl in swimming gear complete with a mask, flippers and a rubber ring, a guitar player, a chef, a footballer, a lady gardener/ farmer, a queen, a doctor and a witch with alarming looking green hair!

The general idea of the game is to be the first player to match 3 full sets of character cards! It may sound simple, but each character is split into 3 cards, so its harder than it seems to get the right head, torso and feet together and complete your character.

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All you need to do to play, is place all the shuffled cards face down in front of the players. In turn each player takes a card from the pile and lays it face up in front of them, the game continues in this way, with each player having the option of adding to their character if they already have the corresponding head, torso etc.

If they have more than one of the same body part they have the option to swap the card, which can then be returned to a discarded pile on the table. Any player following on from that player can choose to pick a new card from either the new pile or the discarded pile if the card matches one of their characters.

Lots of fun can be had with the game and the mis-matched characters always raise a giggle when they end up with the wrong head on the wrong body. You can end up with a policemans head on the body of a scarecrow who ends up wearing flippers, or a fireman carrying a football with a pirates wooden leg....Ooh argh me hearties!

As soon as you have managed to match a full person you ca go on to make your next correctly matched person, until you end up with 3 full sets. If you are the lucky player to do so first then you win!

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Another way we have worked out to allow just one player to play the game is to shuffle all the cards and then place them on a pile, taking one card at a time and then placing that card face up then trying to match it up with the following cards you pick up.

This becomes similar to playing a game of patience and you can end up with different piles of either matched or mis-matched characters until you run out of cards. Playing this way means that the cards can still offer just one child plenty of fun even when using them on their own.

Sometimes we have just used the cards in a fun way and chosen which mis-matched body parts to put with each other. Choosing the different cards to make up your person in this way can also be lots of fun and children seem to find using the cards in this way very funny and stimulating.

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Over all this simple to use set of cards is great fun to play and we were lucky to pick them up so cheaply. You can still buy them and they cost between £5 and £7 per set. I feel that £5 is about right for them.

I would like to give these cards a 5 star rating, as although they are very simple in design, the idea of them is great. We have had lots of fun matching and mis-matching them and I can recommend them as a fun game for younger children.