As christmas was fast approaching and with my son being 2 and understanding more I wanted to capture the magic and really treat him so I set about finding a list of things to splurge the cash on and also a list for his Dad to get too. On his Dads list I added the Go Glow Alien as Alfie had seen it 1000 times on adverts and excitedly shouted 'Look Mummy, Story alien!' so I immediately thought it would be a winner. I was very wrong.

Our alien was brought from Argos for £19.99 but it is currently being sold on Amazon for £14.99. The alien is rather large (about half a metre tall) and very wide, making it a bit difficult for a 2 year old to hold easily. The basic idea of the alien is that he is a nighttime pal, as you press his hand and his 3 eyes light up, so a cuddly nightlight if you wish. The adverts show a little boy getting into bed with his cuddly pal and using his lights to fall asleep to.

My first thing I will say is I'm very glad I didn't pay for it!

On Christmas Day Alfie was delighted, giving him big hugs and switching the light on and off, bit of a novelty! However, the aim is for him to be a nightlight/taken to bed.... This has never happened. Mainly because the lights from the eyes are blindingly bright! Even Alfie has declared 'too light Mummy' when I have tried to encourage him to use the alien to fulfill his purpose (I'm a huge Toy Story fan, I hate to think of unplayed with toys being upset! haha!). On the one occasion I did manage to pursuade Alfie to take him to bed he spent the next ten minutes making lots of noise and talking away - the light stays on for 15 mins! In the end I had to take him away and go back to the nightlight we normally use (again a Toy Story one!).

The alien now sits on the bedside table pretty much ignored and barely being played with. I can count on one hand the amounts of times Alfie has played with the alien, instead preferring other toys that he can easily handle and dont give out stupid bright lights.

I can see the idea being a good one, but I would say that the lights could do with being dulled down to actually be used as a nighttime light. The size of the alien is quite big too. Overall, I would say too big and too bright and wouldnt really recommend, especially not to a child as young as 2 (it is marketed to 24 months plus). I have given only 3 out of 5 stars because of this.