There are several Bob the Builder playsets on the market. The playsets can be used alone or as part of a much larger set.

*Surf Shack Deluxe Playset*

'Bob the Builder has a major job to do. Along with Scoop and Wendy he needs to fix Brad Rad's Surf Shack.' - from the box!

You can purchase the Surf Shack as an individual item or as part of the bigger 'deluxe' set. This playset is suitable for children from age 3years. It requires no batteries and is presented in a huge box. Within the box, you receive a road track, 3 character figures, a Scoop toy, the Surf Shack and a few accessories (boulders/cement bags).

The largest part of the set is the road track which measures approximately 28 x 18cm.

*Price and Availability*

This playset retails at £40.00 but can be found cheaper if you look online. Amazon offer it at just £14.40 and Tesco have it in stock for just £10.00 at the moment.

*Our Thoughts*

As you may have read from some previous reviews, my son has lots of character playsets from Postman Pat and Bob the Builder. Our collection has grown somewhat following his 4th birthday a few weeks ago. I had already purchased a few Bob the Builder bits for our son. He already owned the Surf Shack individual playset but when I won a prize token at the local amusement bingo, I decided to use it for this larger playset. We now have two Surf Shacks so both my son and nephew can both play without arguing.

*Set Up and Quailty*

At the moment, we have plenty of space for bigger toys as we have a toy room, large living room and Boos room is spacious too. He likes to have all of his playsets arranged around the wall so he can play when he gets up in the morning. This set requires a small amount of set up which I carried out myself. The road track comes in 6 pieces - 4 curved and 2 straight pieces. They are a little fiddly to slot together and this would be difficult for a young child in my opinion. Once put together, the road track is an oval, race track shape. It is about 1cm thick and made of high quality plastic and has a shiny finish.

We prefer to leave the road track in one piece and it is very secure and stable on the floor. If lifted up, it does tend to separate but takes very little time to slot back together. This set is the perfect 'base' set for the other playsets and this indicated by the picture on the box it comes in. The Surf Shack itself is a good sized piece of moulded, colourful plastic which has an open back and neat detailing. Two of the windows and a roof slate for the Surf Shack is supplied in the box and it is Bob and Boos job to put them in the correct place.

The accessories included in this set are welcomed and there is a good variation. I can understand the 3+ statement as they are quite small. Scoop himself is a good size and has four large wheels to allow him to drive around the road track. He also features a moving scoop and a moving rear tipper. The characters include Bob, Brad and Wendy. Brad has a removable surf board and each character is well detailed and feature moving limbs. The small cement bags are very easy to lose in a toy box and ours have went missing already!

Overall the quality of this set is really good. Although there are small, chokable pieces, there are no sharp edges to this set and everything is really well build. It is a durable set which has seen rough play by two boisterious toddlers recently and I am happy with the selection of accessories included.

*Building With Bob and Boo*

My son was very pleased when this playset was fully set up. Whilst he loves his playsets, he appreciates the road track as he can create a much bigger 'scene' and let his imaginate run wild! He has this all set up in his room and current has the road track with all the playsets around the outside of it including the Construction Set (see previous review), the Surf Shack and the Museum - we still need to purchase the Toy Shop to complete our Bob town! The Surf Shack is on the inside of the track in the product picture and I suppose this makes sense if only using the one set as the vehicles can gain access to the rear of the building.

Boo absolutely loves the road track as he owns several Bob trucks and vehicles. They all seem to fit perfectly on the track and the smooth surface allows the vehicles to speed around effortlessly including the friction powered vehicles. He often uses his Postman Pat trucks on this road track too so it is very versatile and there is plenty of space. The track has raised sides so vehicles can speed around with no fear or falling off the track. There is a large space in the centre of the track of all the accessories but we tend to pack these away in the tool box at night time.

Boo was already familiar with the Surf Shack prior to receiving this set though I think I have only spotted it once in the show! I suppose it is good to have something a little different from the usual construction jobs but it does seem weird having the Surf Shack around the road track with no sea or sand in sight! Anyway, although the Surf Shack is a very bright and eyecatching. Boo appreciates the opening door and open back as he can put the characters in.

The added activity is that Boo can help Bob and Wendy fit the new windows and roof panel whilst Brad oversees the work on his Shack. This is a fiddly little task to do and even Mummy can't seem to master it but I feel this may be down to me having long nails and bigger hands than a toddler! My son uses a lot of concentration to manouver the window panels into place and is always proud of being able to do it without my help. They can be popped back out easily ready to carry out the task again.

He always has fun playing about with this set and is happiest when he has the entire set including a large fleet of vehicles. Gripper, Grabber, Benny, Scoop and co all get in on the action to complete the various building and transportation tasks! He really likes the Scoop that it is included and fits him perfectly suitable for the job of transporting the cement bags from the Construction Site to the Surf Shack.

*Conclusion*

Overall we can recommend this set and £10.00 is a fair price to pay for the track alone! I really feel like with any playset, the other sets on the box should be purchased to increase playability. Luckily we managed to pick up the different sets fairly cheap and we already had a range of vehicles so were able to set up a large set - it would be quite expensive to buy everything at full price though.

This is definitely a hit in our home and is played with daily so we can give it 5 stars.

Thanks for reading :)

Originally written for Ciao May 2012.