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Hasbro Playskool Mr. Potato Head Silly Suitcase
by cha97mw
One toy that the kids have been hankering after for a long time has been the Mr Potato Head as familiar from my own childhood and still ever popular thanks to Disney's Toy Story trilogy of films. Still made by Play school, there are now many variations on the theme. You can buy Mr and Mrs Potato head together in a duo pack, ones that ... look like other film characters like Spiderman or Optimus Prime, or you can stick to the original format. For someone older, I think the recognisable parodies of other characters are pretty cool if the gift recipient has a favourite franchise, and I can imagine that these are popular with older teens and people in their 20s and 30s who remember the toy fondly from childhood. However, my little fans are over the moon to finally have their own original version.
This was a gift for my youngest son, so I am not entirely sure what was paid for this but looking on amazon it is somewhere in the region of £20, which is probably fair for what you get in the set.
Mr Potato head comes in a little suitcase that is shaped like his own body with feet. It is sturdy enough to stand up on a shelf when not in play and has a little carry handle to walk from room to room with. The case has one weak point - the clasp located in the top of the case in the middle of the handled section. This opens by just pushing down on a circular piece of plastic, so it is very easy to press it and open it when you don't mean to. I guess this is to make it easy to open for the kids aged 2 plus who can play with this.
The case is otherwise ample big enough to hold everything that came with the toy and for a small child to be able to work out how to get it all back in the box by themselves - very important in my house as my kids need to keep their toys in one place or risk the dog chewing it. The plastic is see through so you can see the contents when the case is shut, and it is also well made so there is no danger of the hinge breaking or the case cracking through normal use in my opinion. It is quite heavy when full, but my kids have no difficulty carrying this about themselves. A 2 year old might want a bit of help.
Inside the case, Mr Potato head is the main piece, and he has one pair of blue shoes. His body has nothing printed on it, but has various holes all over to give the child places where they can put the accessory pieces. There is no specified way to play with this, apart from perhaps that the feet need to be slotted into the base of the potato body to make it stand up stably. At the rear of the body is a little hinged door, so if you want you can put some accessories inside the potato. You are then free to make a face in any way that you choose.
My sons are fans of the 'Picasso' style faces as modelled in the Disney films. There are various mouths, tongues, eyes, moustaches, arms, ears, noses and hats to make a face with. The set comes with a total of 35 peices so there is plenty there to keep my sons happy while they are playing. He even has a little microphone on a stand to play with. Our only difficulty with the accessories is that my kids find it a little tricky to put the earrings onto the little plastic ears. They probably could do it themselves if they persevered but it seems far easier to ask mummy to do it for them.
They have had a lot of fun with this set since they got it. They don't seem to play with it for more than maybe ten minutes at a time while they make a few funny faces. But, it is something they are happy to keep going back to and playing with and making each other laugh with the faces that they made.
I am quite glad that we have this set. I just wish that there was a better clasp on the case and then it would be pretty perfect.
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Cadbury's Chocolate Machine Money Box
by mikeb2102
I was looking for some stocking fillers for my daughters Christmas stocking, when suddenly I harked back to my childhood and thought about this item, The Cadburys Chocolate Money Box. I remember having one of these as a child and how much fun it was putting the money in the slot and getting out a miniature chocolate, I wondered if they ... still made these. A quick Google search later and I saw they had them for sale in Argos, I instantly rushed out and bought one.
==What is it?==
The Caburys Chocolate Money Box is a red plastic chocolate dispenser that appears to be shaped like a house, complete with windows and a chimney. The user (I didn't say child, as this is also fun for adults too) puts a 10 pence piece in the slot on the bottom right of the house, the price is marked clearly on the front of the dispenser (it also used to be 2 pence when I was a child, that's inflation for you I guess), and a miniature dairy milk chocolate is dispensed down the chimney of the house. The product is made from cheap plastic and looks and feels pretty flimsy, yet the machine design looks very vintage, reminiscent of the old dispensers you used to get years ago (before my time). To fill the machine you slot the miniature chocolates in the top of the chimney (They only just fit and it is a bit of a squeeze), and it holds ten chocolates at one time. To remove the money there is a little turning lock on the back, upon turning this, the bottom back cover pops off, enabling you to empty the machine of it's shiny pieces of silver. I'm going to give this product 4/5 stars and that's because of the occasional jamming, apart from that, it is a great little gift.
==Price==
I paid £6.99 for this machine from Argos, and it is slightly more expensive from amazon.co.uk (£7.34 including delivery). You can also buy refills for it, a pack of 20 refills will set you back £2.20 from amazon.co.uk, so that works out at 11p a chocolate. Effectively you are running at a loss on this machine, considering it costs 10p to dispense the chocolate and 11p to replace the chocolate.
==Verdict==
I knew my daughter would love this, she is a big fan of all things chocolatey, as a lot of children are. Nearly a month on and she still gets so excited when I hand her 10p to buy some of her own chocolate from her bedroom. One flaw I have with it, is that sometimes the chocolate does get stuck and I have to get the dispenser working again, but this only happens occasionally. I thought my daughter would go near it more often, it is next to her television, so she could if she wanted to. I thought she would be more curious about the money inside, but she doesn't bother, it seems like a surprise to her everytime I hand her the odd ten pence. I think it is a good way to get your child to save their pennies, even if you do have to fork out the extra cash to fill it, it's like I'm giving my daughter pocket money without even realizing it.
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Sharp-end Cat Pencil Sharpener
by NotMyToothbrush
I bought this pencil sharpener for myself, although I know that mainly people generally buy it as a humorous gift at Christmas or for birthdays. The sharpener is exactly what it looks like, a pencil sharpener when the pencil appears to go into a cat's.. well... you can see for yourself.
It is made of solid plastic which ... appears to be pretty robust. It has spent the past year in my pencil case where I take to to and from sixth from each day in a bag and it hasn't suffered a crack yet. It has both a black and white variant to suit your or the intended user's taste.
It sharpens pencils as well as any other sharpener, however I have found that if you span the lead inside the "cat", it is pretty difficult to get it out and you cannot sharpen again until it is out as the pencil will not make contact with the blade. But this is pretty rare.
Whenever I use it it never fails to get a laugh. I even took it into an examination and saw the invigilator smirk as she passed me.
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