Toyologist Review for ToysRus: Cuponk, Pass the Bomb, Blendy Pens, Play that Tune

After the success of reviewing toys with Years 5 and 6, I decided that child labour was the way to go so took more games into school for Years 3 and 4. Hey, if it works why change the formula?!

We reviewed these toys during their Friday afternoon 'golden time' when the class gets 45 minutes to do something fun. 

 Pass the Bomb 

 This is a really fun game where cards are selected with a theme, for example The Beach and each child in turn has to think of a suitable object you might find there, e.g. sand, bucket and spade, etc.  At the same time the ticking 'bomb' is passed round, and the person holding the bomb when it explodes keep the card.  At the end of the game, the player with the fewest cards wins!

Children's comments: "Cool"  "Rubbish because I lost, but still fun"  "I loved it!" "It was a cool game"
Average score: 9/10
RRP: £12.99

Cuponk

This is such a simple idea but sometimes the simplest ideas are the best ones.  It's a cup and two ping-pong types balls, plus 30 trick cards.  You choose a card which shows you a way of getting the ball into the cup (e.g. bouncing off the table, throwing it over your shoulder and so on) If the ball goes into the cup it lights up and makes a victory sound. 

This was interesting, because the boys absolutely loved it: "I liked it because it was hard to do" "I loved it!" "It was cool and very tricky" "It's great, it's fun and it's a challenge!"  "I liked the pictures of wrestlers on the cup." Average score 10/10.

The girls didn't like it though: "It was boring." "I didn't like it because I couldn't do it." "I didn't like it, it was too hard."  Average score: 3/10. 

We also played this in the staffroom one lunchtime, and it caused much hilarity and competition amongst the staff!

RRP: £9.99
Conclusion: a very good toy for boys. And teachers. *ahem*

Play that Tune
 This brought back memories of Des O'Connor hosting the TV show 'Name that Tune'. Unfortunately. This is a fun game, where you have to pick a tune card, select a song and 'step it out' on the musical play mat. The other players have to guess the tune.

Comments: "I loved it because I liked the tunes." "I really liked playing this." "It was a fun game."
Average score: 9/10
RRP: £19.99


Blendy Pens

I was surprised how popular these pens were, but it seems that sometimes even the sophisticated, technology fixated children of today just want to sit down and do some colouring.  The same thing happened with the very low-tech Twister, which is still the most popular game played during rainy play times.  Anyway, Blendy Pens are a set of 12 pens, several pictures to colour and a page of stickers.  Select two colour pens, put them into the 'fusion chamber' and the two colours blend together to make a third colour. 

Comments: "I thought it was great." "I liked it because the blendy colours were very colourful." "I loved it!"  "Can we do this every week?"  One child couldn't get the pens to blend, mainly because they weren't pushing the pens together properly in the chamber.
Average score: 8/10
RRP: £9.97


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