Arts & Creativity > Character Options Arts & Creativity

Magic Sand - Very little magic, lots of mess

Advantages: Sand can be used again and again
Disadvantages: Very messy, doesn't work like the box states

So most kids love sand, including mine that are both boys aged 3 and 5. And what could be better than having sand that you use in water, has minimal mess, and can be used over and over again? No more sand in eyes, no more sand in shoes, socks, and underwear. Great idea! Well that is until you actually start to use it! I bought the whole magic sand kingdom, which was priced at £14.99, so thought it was a bargain. There were lots of different brightly ...
...a tray to hold everything including the large bowl to do all the sand sculpting in. So we all fill up the big bowl, excitedly sort out all the tools and other items, and choose the sand that we want to use. First obstacle to overcome was actually trying to get into the sand bottles. That took me forever so already the kids were getting fidgety before we'd even begun. Once that was sorted though, the kids attention was completely on getting hold ...

karen_m 16.06.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Character Options Magic Sand

Gr8 Art? No - just Tat(2)!

Advantages: Some play value for the short time it actually worked
Disadvantages: Poor quality, produced terrible 'tattoos', use of felt tip pens....

...Tat2' kits, made by the Character Options brand, after seeing it advertised on TV. I paid around £15 for this kit from Toys R Us a few months ago but I've seen the 'Gladiators' version for sale on Amazon for prices as low as £5.99 recently. The toy is essentially a battery operated tattoo pen, designed to mimic the genuine article without any sharp implements or permanent staining, obviously. I can appreciate that some parents might not be so keen ...
...in tattoos and, if my kids go on to have Love and Hate tattooed on their knuckles, I may well live to regret this purchase! As it stands, I shall use my own childhood experiences as a guide - I spent many happy moments pretending to smoke Superman candy cigarettes and managed to avoid a twenty a day habit in adulthood. On that basis, I was hoping the Tat2 pen would provide hours of innocent amusement rather than being the beginnings of any untoward ...

jo-1976 06.12.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Character Options Gr8 Kit Tat2 Pen

Now your little monsters can make little aliens!

Advantages: Inexpensive, good play value, refills available
Disadvantages: Somewhat messy, no 'purpose' to the creations

Martian Matter Alien Maker was one of those products that my oldest son had seen advertised on TV and commented on, so I kept it mind as one of his presents for his seventh birthday a few months ago. I managed to pick this up for around a tenner at Toys R Us which seemed like a good price at the time, only to then discover it for sale in our local Home Bargains for only £5. Just my luck! What is it? The alien maker is actually a craft-based ...
...two halves and is supposed to be a spaceship! There are also lots of plastic disks which again come in halves. These become the moulds that form the alien shapes when fitted together in any combination and feature various shapes and images, including frogs, jellyfish shapes and many other, more random 'alien' shapes. The aliens themselves have to be formed out of something called 'Lunar Lava' which is a flourescent gooey liquid contained in a squirty ...

jo-1976 03.12.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Re:Creation Martian Matters Alien Maker Playset

Create Your Own Night Garden

Advantages: Creative fun for young children
Disadvantages: Expensive for what it really is

...Piggle and Friends Activity Set Crayola Beginnings Create Your Own Night Garden In the Night Garden is about a magical picture-book garden that exists between waking and sleeping in a child’s imagination. Iggle Piggle brings the child to the garden to enjoy some sweet bedtime relaxation tunes, and introduces many other weird and wonderful characters which is often quite nonsense to the adult though fun for the child. Although my daughter is not as ...
...name itself, being both a Crayola product as well as a Night Garden product. It is a shame that companies make so much money out of toys for children though no amount of complaining is going to ever change that. Would I recommend this set? It is hard to say. If you can get it at a cheaper price then yes as children into Night Garden and who love being creative will enjoy this and will love, as my daughter did, working with mummy to make the items, ...

elfbwillow 20.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Crayola In the Night Garden Iggle Piggles Funtime Activity Set

Airfix Dr Who 'Welcome to the TARDIS' 1/12 scale model.

Advantages: Looks great on display when given the time.
Disadvantages: Not for beginnners. The figures' heads, hands and feet.

...no longer available direct from Airfix there are still a good number of kits to be found in the shops or on-line in the likes of ebay, and in my opinion is worth hunting down. As a model it will offer enough interest for an experienced model-maker and when finished looks good on display, so will be of interest to Dr Who fans as well. (By the way, it also comes with the TARDIS sound effect when you open the door! The batteries are NOT included.) The ...
...glue (although extra paints will be needed for the detailing). It also comes with a model Dr Who and Martha Jones. The relatively large scale means that there is a reasonable amount of fine detail on the moulding (such as surprisingly good wood-grain effect on the TARDIS), and this also means that there are few very small pieces and will therefore be a good model for older children to try, particularly with adult supervision. The kit requires the ...

IZZP39 16.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Airfix Doctor Who Welcome Aboard Model Kit