Not so 'Ultimate' Omnitrix (Bandai Ben 10 Ultimate Omnitrix)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Bandai Ben 10 Ultimate Omnitrix
Date:	21/08/09 (85 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun to play with, entertaining

Disadvantages: Poor strap, limited, fiddly, overpriced

As I am sure most parents of young boys are finding, Ben 10 seems to be the in thing at the moment. It is a cartoon series about a regular boy on holiday with his Grampa and his cousin Gwen when he finds a mysterious watch. Putting it on, he finds that it contains the power to transform him into 10 different aliens. Pretty soon, he is using it to battle evil enemy aliens intent on destroying earth and its inhabitants.

As such, this special watch, an Omnitrix, is a particularly desired addition to young boys' toy collection. My son has wanted one for a while, and we decided that, seeing as he had been good for the majority of the school holidays, we would treat him by buying him one. There are different types of Omnitrix, some that contain a game, some that are a bit more fiddly and require interaction with different parts. We went for the second option as he already has computer games and we didn't particularly want to encourage any more to be played than he already does.

This interactive watch is named the Ultimate Omnitrix, although it's just a gimmicky name. There's nothing particularly 'ultimate' about it, to be perfectly honest. In fact, it's rather average. The intitial attraction is, I suppose, the same with any toy. The watch has a series of different grooves around the inner edge that you can slot the base of a figurine into. Different grooves for different characters mean that once you have done this, you press the top of the Omnitrix down and it makes a noise followed by the character saying something. There is a figurine for each of Ben's 10 aliens, although I have only seen 2 in the shops, Humungosaur and Heatblast.

It's pretty basic and very limited in terms of what you can do with it. I suppose in a way it relies a lot of the kid's imagination to recreate situations they have seen in the series, or create their own scenarios. However, there are severe limitations to it, as there is nothing else to do with the watch. The strap is poorly designed, with pop holes to attach to their wrists not really holding on very well, the plastic being too hard and not malleable enough to comfortably stay on their wrists without coming off. It is also quite tricky to slot a figurine in, you have to angle it properly, which can prove quite tricky for a kid. Still, I suppose it tries to teach them a bit of patience!

There is an on/off switch, so if you wanted to just play with the watch without having all of the noises blaring out at you constantly, this is possible. It's particularly useful on a longish car journey, as the noise can get quite annoying, and the batteries are supplied when you buy it. The nature and size of the toy means that the batteries are traditional watch batteries, as in the tiny disc shaped ones, so replacements would need to be these as opposed to the more regular AA or AAA batteries for toys.

The watch generally retails for anywhere between the £15 and £20 mark. We picked it up for £15, and it is currently at £17 on amazon.co.uk. I can be a bit lower even depending on where you go and if there is a special deal on for them, although to be honest, I would value it at around the £10 mark or maybe even less, particularly due to its poor strap and limited functions. My son still enjoys playing with it, but the fact that it is fiddly and you have to have the individual figurines to go with it does put him off playing with it as much as it possibly could.

Summary: Ben 10 Ultimate Omnitrix: one of the many Ben 10 accessories available