In the run up to Christmas my little girl kept mentioning a new toy that she had seen advertised on television called Squinkies and decided that she would really like them. I had never heard of them and just presumed she had the wrong word for something but she was insistent that she was right! A few weeks before her birthday my mum told me that she had bought her a Disney Princess Squinkes carriage so I realised she had been right all along! Searching online I came across various sets of Disney Princess Squinkies so I purchased a couple of sets for her, one of which was Belle from Beauty and the Beast which is what I am reviewing today.

The Belle bubble pack of Squinkies comes packaged on a clear fronted card with a large picture of Belle in the bottom left hand corner so you can see at a glance which Disney Princess the set consists of. There are twelve Squinkies per bubble pack which are set in rows of three. The Squinkies logo is located just beside Belle along with some warning information as the parts are small and unsuitable for young children. On the reverse of the packaging there are pictures of the other sets of Squinkies available which are Ariel, Snow White and Cinderella.

What are Squinkies? Well, Squinkies are small round plastic balls, most of which are see through with a glitter effect. In each ball you will find a "squinkie" which is a small plastic toy. The balls open in the centre so you can take the toy out to play with, and clip back together when not in use. The toys in this instance are various characters from Beauty and the Beast. The Squinkes are a rubber like type of plastic so they are a little squishy and each has a small hole in the base. The plastic balls they come in are very flimsy and break extremely easily - with very little force! Obviously a young child will be somewhat rougher than an adult would be so I do think they should have been made a little more child proof!

The Squinkies are extremely cute, the Lumiere (candlestick) is so sweet along with the Beast. However, as cute as they are, they are really quite pointless on their own as there isn't a great deal you can do with them unless you have one of the play sets to play along with. The range of the Squinkies included in the sets is quite good, the main characters are all there so each set you are sure to have the title characters. There is a range of play sets in the Squinkes range including the Princess Carriage, bubble gum machine, bracelets and rings (which you can attach the Squinkies to).

I can't really say that I would recommend the Squinkies as personally I think they are pointless. My daughter very rarely bothers getting them out to play with and even though she has the carriage to play along with she doesn't really have much fun with them. Over the Christmas period the only time she enjoyed them was when her friend was round and they were just throwing the Squinkes at eachother!! Cue a later game of hunt the Squinkies! My kittens on the other hand absolutely love playing with the Squinkies as they chase the balls around the house like mad! The Squinkies do sit on the carriage and my daughter has a couple of small pencils that they can sit on the end of but that is the extent of their use really.

I bought the Disney Princess Belle Squinkies bubble pack on Ebay for just £3.00 as they came from Hong Kong so thankfully it wasn't much money wasted. I would have been much more disappointed had I paid more money for them. All in all the Squinkies are extremely cute but that is really just about as good as it gets unfortunately.

Thank you for reading my review. I give them two stars purely because they are so cute.