When we were searching for a birthday present for our three year old nephew we were surprised at how little there was available in the way of outdoor toys/activities that were suitable for children in his age range. Whilst looking in our local Tesco we found this bubble machine, suitable for children aged 3 plus, for £9.99. This seemed to be pretty good value and we purchased the blue coloured machine for him (also available in pink).

The machine actually looks very different to the picture above, which I assume is an older model. It is cone shaped, looking rather like some sort of torpedo and the front face is flat with lots of yellow bubble blowing wands. It looks quite flimsy and I was dubious as to how long it would last and whether it would withstand the prodding of curious children's fingers, but we purchased regardless. The machine also came with one tube of bubble mixture to be poured into it.

Needless to say my nephew was thrilled at the present and immediately wanted to put it on. The machine was quite noisy but did generate ALOT of bubbles, much to his amusement. So many bubbles are produced at once that the children don't really know what to do, if less were produced, they would probably have had more fun chasing them. It also meant that the bubble mixture did not last long at all either. This can be picked up cheaply, but that is a little beside the point. Also, you want a toy to amuse the children for a little more than the five to ten minutes that this did!!

Another problem that we encountered was that the children wanted to pick this up and this invariably led to the spillage of bubble mixture. A design that locked in the mixture so that it wouldn't spill so easily would be useful!!
All in all, the youngsters loved this and it is good value for money, but it certainly goes through the bubble mixture! On the plus side, the batteries seem to last a fair while. Good machine.