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Mattel Disney Cars Mater the Tow Truck
by Ninski1
Mater is a fab character in the Disney movies Cars and Cars 2. He is a battered old tow truck who is Lightening McQueen's best friend in the movie. The Mater diecast truck is scales 1:55 and is aimed at children aged 3 and upwards. You can also purchase other Disney Cars characters. Mater can currently be purchased from Amazon for ... £4.49 (February 2013), my Husband picked our Mater up in Tesco before Christmas for £3.25, on sale. Mater looks exactly the same in diecast as he does in the movie, he is made from a mix of metal and plastic, his wheels spin round and his tow truck on the back is soft, pliable plastic, that you cannot really use to actually tow anything with and you cannot open his doors.
My son loves playing with Mater the Tow Truck and the toy is a fab addition to his car collection and we have now bought a few more characters to keep him company. Overall I think that Mater the Tow truck is a fab diecast toy that is well made, pretty sturdy, if you are a fan of the Cars movies then Mater will be a big hit in your household.
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Hot Wheels Gator Escape Set
by princesschickpea
I haven't bought Hot Wheels tracks in a long time, and in my experience, they've always been a bit rickety and prone to collapsing, so I've not been in any rush to buy any others. However, while in Tesco recently, I found this Gator Escape set in their clearance section, priced at £3.49, and thought I'd give it a go.
The set ... includes several pieces of track, a clamp and other components needed to put it together, a plastic alligator head and one Hot Wheels car. The box states that it is for ages 5+, probably because there are small pieces included, but my two year old son and four year old twins all played with it with no problems, as long as I or their Dad set it up first. I was fairly surprised at how well it held together. The plastic clamp goes on to a table edge, or other flat surface (it just about fit our standard issue Ikea coffee table) and the track clips together with the help of some rectangular pieces of plastic. The track itself is pretty flexible, and as of yet, it hasn't cracked or split, despite being used for various other games that I don't think the creators had in mind! I can't say that it held together 100% of the time, but you can tell when track pieces were coming apart, and simply fix them by pushing them back together. It didn't suddenly collapse at any stage.
At the end of the track in a plastic alligator head, which is weighted so as it hangs open. The point is that sometimes cars will make the jump through the gator's mouth and fly off the ramp on his tail, and sometimes the gator will snap his mouth shut to trap the cars. The gator is nowhere near as big as the box suggests, but large enough for cars to move through easily. I'd say that the cars made the jump about 30% of the time and my sons all loved the uncertainty of the whole thing. There were plenty of squeals and triumphant shouts while they played with it. Once or twice the car actually hit the gator's lower jaw rather than entering the mouth, which it clearly isn't meant to do, but this was a rare occurance. The gator seemed properly weighted for the track to work well.
The box also states that this track is not for use with all Hot Wheels cars. We have a pretty big collection of Hot Wheels and all of them, including colour changers and Toy Story themed cars, fit on the track and through the gator's mouth perfectly fine.
Overall, this is a pretty decent track, that made me a little more confident of the quality of Hot Wheels tracks these days. My young children loved it, and had hours of fun, though older children may tire of it quickly. The only reason I marked it down to 4 stars is that the RRP is around £10-£12 which I feel is excessive for such a simple track. We obviously got it at a rock bottom price and were very happy with it, but I think if we had paid much more, I would have been disappointed at the simplicity of it.
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Barbie Convertible
by helen190390
My daughter who is 3 this month, loves her new Barbie she got for Christmas. I was trying to think of something to get her to go with her Barbie as an extra Christmas present and ended up giving up until I was food shopping.
THE CAR:
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Since she's had it, she's played with it almost everyday. She puts ... Barbie inside and some other small soft toys to go along on the journey too.
I went to Morrisons today and found this pink Barbie glam convertible car for £6 reduced for £10.
When getting home I rushed upstairs to wrap it up and thought I would just check if it was in my opinion, safe for my daughter to play with. I opened the box and was greeting by a lovely pink shiny convertible for Barbie to cruise around our living room in style in.
I yelled downstairs for my partner to bring up her Barbie for me to check she fits and it's easy for Hollie to do. The car comes with stickers which need to be stuck on by an adult.
I decided to do this while I had it out of the box so Hollie gets to play with it as soon as she opened it on Christmas day. The lights at the front and back are shiny glitter effect stickers and the front licence plate is too. There is also stickers for the side mirrors and the rear view mirror. These stickers have a protective layer sticker on top which need to be taken off to reveal the mirror effect the stickers have.
The side mirrors come separately in a little plastic bag which need to be slotted into the holes either side of the car. I think this is the reason why the car is set at a "not suitable for children under 3" sticker.
I wanted Hollie to be able to play with it and even though she isn't prone to swallowing or eating things like that, I found some super glue and put them in so they wouldn't come out without some force.
The car has lots of decoration and cute features which only older children and adults would appreciate. The dash is fitted with a sat nav (a sticker), a pink steering wheel, and lots of plastic mouldings of the usual things you find in a car. I don't want to go into too much detail and spoil the surprise!.
The car is plastic throughout so nice and easy to clean if needs be!. Barbie knows how to party hard, so you never know what she will be doing in that car with Ken!. There are 2 seats and have pretty car seat covers on (again stickers with a coloured pattern on) and seatbelts which can be undone near the top of the doors by pulling them and then pushing them back in again once Barbie is sat inside.
The doors do not open but the outside is shaped into the plastic so the effect is still there. I know I will be explaining to Hollie quite a lot that the doors don't open and she should stop trying to open them.
The wheels are hooked up with some silver rims, Barbie is going rather bling now.
The car is more for imagination and letting children experience playing with toys without flashing lights or some mechanism which will make the car work.
I have always said since Hollie was born that I wanted her to have the wild imagination I had as a child. There was not a dull moment in my childhood and I want her to be the same and not be sucked into the "playstation" generation that is growing so rapidly.
This car can teach your child to play with toys, talk to them and get the interaction with their toys to a much higher level. Although the age for this car and the whole Barbie range is 3 years and over, I know i can trust Hollie to be able to play with it all nicely.
Imagination when playing really gets your child's brain working and seeing them play is a wonderful experience, so I highly suggest buying Barbie products for your children or others as it is a truly wonderful gift to give. I was given hand me down Barbies one christmas as a child, and it was much better receiving this huge box of Barbies from a friend of the family than just one or two brand new! so if you have a daughter or someone you know with an older daughter who has outgrown their toys, it is definitely worth asking them for their old sets!
Like I said earlier on, I bought this in Morrisons for £6 but online it is £10 from kiddicare with £3.95 postage.
I also noticed in Tesco last week, they sell a Barbie doll for £1.97 instore. Whether it was an error or just a bargain!
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