Advantages: Loads! Durable, useful, bright, baby loves it, Mummy loves it!
Disadvantages: Can't think of a single one!

...Having ripped up the carpets to lay lovely wood flooring in lounge and dining room, we found ourselves with a growing baby wanting to roll about, sit and play and now start to crawl. The rug had been long since been retired to the garage due to the amount of baby sick etc (!) on it so I decided to buy a padded playmat. I bought the Taf Toys padded playmat from Blooming Marvellous at £26.99 and it has been worth every penny! It is quite a size at 100 x 150cm and is just great for plonking baby on, surrounded by toys. It is a brightly coloured, quilted affair with a variety of built-in attractions in a few of the padded squares - a baby mirror, a bee with stand-up crinkly wings, a squeaky circle (which lots of adults have sat on!!) and a mouse head dangly rattle. My daughter used to get bored in the playring, just desperate... Read review

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Advantages: machine washable
Disadvantages: none

...This is a really bright and cheerful activity quilt. After my 2nd baby was born I was asked by his grandparents what to buy and as this being the 2nd addition to the family there wasn't really much that I needed. After looking in the Argos book I noticed this straight away and thought why not. On opening the box I was surprised at how soft it was and with being a quilt it was nicely padded. Altogether there are 12 different activities which include a mirror, squeaky toy and best of all a teething ring on abit of ribbon. Whilst my son was learning to sit up on this own this was ideal for him to sit on as when he did tumble sideways he didn't hit his head as hard as he would have done just sitting on the carpet. As babies are often sick at times this didn't worry me as at the end of the day I could just throw it into the washing... Read review

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Advantages: learning without knowing it
Disadvantages: none

...A toy, the dictionary definition of toy is an artefact designed to be played with. Play is the means by which children discover and understand the world in which they live a practice for life. Toys are the tools that are used to do this. I am a qualified nursery nurse, have taken courses in play therapy and have worked with children about 30 years I think that play is the most important activity for a developing child. Play is good for Adults too. Play does not need toys but they are a useful aid to play. There are so many toys available many more than when I was a child. There are Toys suitable for all ages. Does that Adult get more pleasure when he is driving his sports car than the child with his shiny red pedal car? I think play is so important that I am glad of this opportunity to write about it. I have written... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: see op
Disadvantages: see op

...To begin with it is useful to define what it is that is being discussed, so to find out what a toy is and what intelligence is, seems the best place to start. The British Association of Toy Retailers (1995) says that a toy "is any product or material that is designed or clearly intended for use in play by children of less than 14 years of age, but excludes items such as toy steam engines and detailed models for adult collectors, folk dolls and cycles with a saddle above 635mm Collins English dictionary (1991) gives a simpler definition, toy - "something that is designed to be played with. ". Some definitions do not include the fact that the toy is designed and manufactured for the purpose of play and say that it is anything with which a child chooses to play, but for the purpose of this discussion it will be assumed that a toy... Read review

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Advantages: Great fun
Disadvantages: None when I was younger !

...Must admit I was really lucky growing up as a child. I was the only child so I pretty much got all the different makes of toys I wanted. Like all children I was always going through phases of what I liked through the years. I remember having some great toys back then and have still actually got some boxes saved in Mum and Dads loft of quite a few of them. Let me take you through the top 10 that I can remember having… 1. Star wars figures. These were my all time favourite toys. I remember coming out of the first Star Wars film made " A New Hope" in 1977 and looking around to the different Star wars displays and saw all of these spaceships and figures. I was 4 and loved these instantly, I was hooked and my parents knew it !! The following weekend we went to the nearest toy shop where I got my first Star wars figure. It was C3-P0... Read review

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Advantages: Highly entertaining!
Disadvantages: Has to be watched repeatedly by the young un's!

...The product I will now review is "TOY STORY THE ULTIMATE TOY BOX", I have been a fan of these films for ages, but never thought about reviewing them until my daughter prompted me recently due to the fact we have to now watch them twice daily! (I have a three year old son who is obsessed with the cowboy toy!) ~~~~~~ THE DVD CASE ~~~~~~ I know it seems a little ridiculous to start a review on a dvd case, but it's so beautifully decorated and bright I feel it needs a mention. The dvd's are held in a four layer fold out case, on the outside of this is of course pictures of the main characters Woody and Buzz Lightyear. On the inside of the case are pictures of some characters featured in Toy Story 2, including Jesse and Bullseye the horse. On top of these pictures are the dvd's themselves all with picture tops, but I will get to those... Read review

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Advantages: great extras, presentation, nice R1 box
Disadvantages: inferior R2 packaging, R2 misses some extras

...Those that have read my previous dvd opinions on this site will know that I make no bones about the fact that some Region 2 titles frankly don't cut it in comparison to their Region 1 counterparts. I'm sad to say this applies to two of the worlds most watched films in this set. I'm sure most will be familiar with the Toy Story films. The first pushed the barriers of animation and was something never seen before but far from being eye candy it actually had a story to it and great characters. A few years later and a sequel was put into production and originally intended to go straight to video. Well of course that would have been a bad idea and huge box office grosses proved that a theatrical run was correct. Of course it follows the sequel rule of having everything bigger and better. The animation has come a long way but it's also... Read review

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Advantages: Can help your child develop as they have fun
Disadvantages: Can be expensive, some even more so than standard toys.

...Before I start, this is not going to be a review about buying toys for an average child, instead I'm going to offer some (hopefully) helpful advice on selecting and buying toys for a child with special needs, although you may find some useful bits of information regardless. Now there are many sorts of special needs, and I don't have experience of all of them, but from buying toys for my own son who has various special needs I can possibly pass on some information that helped me choose appropriate toys for him. ~~~What makes Michael special~~~ My son Michael, has a condition called Worster-Drought Syndrome, which probably means nothing to you, but everything to him. As a consequence of this he has a visual impairment, developmental delay, difficulties with co-ordination, has hardly any speech and is on the autistic spectrum. Now... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Unbeatable Prices, Bright Colours, Strong Designs
Disadvantages: Limited Ranges in Each Age Group, Quickly Adds Up

...Tesco make and stock various different toys and games aimed at everyone from newborns to families. There are some holes in their ranges still (for example older children and teenagers) but they appear to be in the process of extending their ranges to fill in this gap by including such products as craft kits (eg Crystal Growing, Paper FX and Make a Teddy) and electronic gadgets (eg Data Max and Pixel Chix Mall). Tesco seem determined to gain monopoly on as many markets as possible so is their toy range a shameless publicity stunt to encourage more shoppers to spend all their money in store - or are they genuinely offering us value for money? Well as far as brand name products go, the jury's still out as far as I'm concerned. Tesco have cleverly employed the "97p technique" in a thinly-veiled attempt to make us believe their prices... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Great selection...
Disadvantages: ...of overpriced, poor quality goods

...You walk through the door and you are greeted by the sound of the tannoy machine which absolutely no-one can understand. You venture deeper in to the store, and decide to explore. And you have ventured in, you are trapped, you can not escape... Your mind is overwhelmed by all the toys that they have for sale – the shelves are lined with games, Action Men, Scalextric kits – you’re in heaven – you’ve found utopia. You beg your mum to buy something but she shakes her head. And then you leave utopia. Okay, so that’s not quite ToysRUs to me, but my kids quite like to check out our local store (guess where – in grand old Woking!). They often beg me to go in, and I always say a blunt no. And then my wife has this look of pity on her face – ‘Oh OK then.’ Competitors... Read review

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