Around the world in 52 issues (Rugrats)

Member Name: kasgaroth

Product:	Rugrats
Date:	30/10/01 (236 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks Great, Good fun, Kids will love it

Disadvantages: none

Well before i bought this magazine i was very wary, thinking that it may have only been released to cash in on the the popularity of the Rugrats. It will not be the last time that things like have happened just to make a few more quid from us punters, but my daughter seen the tv ad and of course she screamed her head off about how she wanted it like most kids do at that age. So anyway i gave in and thought that i may as well buy the first issue at least to see what it was like, after all issue 1 was only priced at £1.50 or something like that - not too much to lose.

After first impressions it seemed like rugrats round the world was not going to be too bad after all, One of the things that caught my eye was the hologram of the Rugrats spinning around the globe on the front of the passport book that came with part one. Not a bad idea, and it is contained in a plastic wallet to help keep it clean from those dirty little fingers. the passport itself is printed to a very high standard when you think of the first asking price, normal full price is only £1.75 so i thought it looks like this is something worth collecting. The passport gives a clear picture of exactly what the magazine sets out to do, each week the magazine will focus on a different country giving your child facts on that country. The passport itself contains jokes and pictures of the rugrats on every page, along with empty places clearly marked out for stickers to be put in. Five stickers on each page on of which is that countries national flag, so it can help kids recognise the flags of the nations. Ill include a list of the countries to be visited at the end so you can see just how much it goes into.

Then i thought about what i noticed in the passport 52 editions x £1.75 = £91.00 in total for the colection so she better take care of them then, but i looked at the mag and thought this aint that bad really seeing how it is designed for kids anyhow. The magazine itself i
s noticably brightly coloured just like the cartoons with pictures of the Rugrats all over from cover to cover. The First main page had a small map of the globe showing where France was and a few French words for kids to try and learn, un , deux , trois etc and a few weird facts like it would take you 2 weeks to get to France from the Uk on your scooter. Fair enough silly but funny for kids. Then on the following pages it gives some proper details about France though it does not go into too much depth. Things like telling you the Alps are there and the Eiffel Tower and what the capital is etc, all things that can stick in kids mind and possibly help them in their school years. After that it goes into a little bit more detail on paris itself telling of the Louvre etc but at the same time it has a game here as well mixing learning with fun, it's a sort of hide and seek game where you have to look for the charcters hiding amongst the pictures itself.

For the next few pages it goes into a bit more detail telling about the Eiffel Tower itself and what sort of food you get in France, by that i mean local dishes like the way they like snails( yuk). Nothing in the world could make me eat one of those slimy things. From here over the centre pages there are some nice cartoon pictures of the Rugrats done in only a pencil style outline drawing for your kids to colour in and a few puzzles for them as well. Over the next few pages it one again gives some fun but informative information about the history of the country, but from here over the final pages it has a story about the rugrats to help them with reading skills and finally a few more puzzles and quizzes. apart from that with part 1 you got a few extra stickers that they can stick somewhere.

Well i've also got the second and third part now and these also are just as good as the first. With part 2 came the binder and it has a part on the side for including stickers on and after counting the
m it obviously meant that each binder was to hold 13 magazines, so you would get four binders in all, oh and i almost forgot to mention that there was a questionaire with part 1 saying that they may release a few special editions priced at £5.00 but they will have things like a rugrats movie with them, so that would be great value if they do it.
The second issue also came with a map to go in the binder showing a flat image of the world and the sort of animals you can find in different areas. Part 2 which was Egypt was laid out almost identical to the first so you know pretty much that they will all be about the same, but with 52 issues being released it will have a lot of info for kids to pick up on, and the best thing of all i realized is that with it being revolved around the Rugrats it will not seem to them like classwork. They will be learning more and more likely without realising it, so it can't be all that bad.

Personally it's a hit for me looking from a possible educational point of view and it's a hit for my daughter as she loves the Rugrats so at the price of £1.75 per issue it is something i am going to collect. If you have not bought it yet it may be worth your while to pick a copy up to see for yourself, and don't worry about needing a back issue they will send you one for no more cost than buying it at the counter. A high quality collection .Here is the country list of the issues they will be visiting, ive already noticed that countries do get visited sometimes more than once but as long as they don't contain the same info it can't be all that bad.

1 - France
2 - Egypt
3 - Australia
4 - Kenya
5 - USA
6 - Brazil
7 - UK
8 - Italy
9 - India
10 - Spain
11 - Antartica
12 - Japan
13 - USA
14 - Mexico
15 - Holland
16 - Greece
17 - China
18 - New Zealand
19 - Brazil
20 - USA
21 - Germany
22 - Thailand
23 - Canada
24 - UK
>25 - Italy
26 - South Africa
27 - Greenland
28 - Hong Kong
29 - Jamaica
30 - USA
31 - Madagascar
3 - switzerland
33 - Indonesia
34 - Russia
35 - Argentina
36 - Sweden
37 - Nepal
38 - Peru
39 - Zaire
40 - Australia
41 - Morocco
42 - botswana
43 - Portugal
44 - Turkey
45 - saudi Arabia
46 - Hawaii
47 - Mongolia
48 - USA
49 - Israel
50 - Pakistan
51 - Romania
52 - Space

Quite a wide variation of countries as well showing various cultures and fun at the same time.

Summary: