Girls Toys Review

Today, The lovely Toyologist for Toys R Us ,Tara at Stickyfingers, is having a bit of a break and so my daughters and I bit her hand off  offered to help her out. We had three toys to review.

Baby Alive from Hambro

Lola felt she was best suited to review this toy. Her elder sister did not get a look in!

The excitement of a wee-ing and pooh-ing doll was palpable.

With the doll we received two food satchets and two nappies.

We read the instructions and off Lola went. To feed Baby Alive you have to give her plenty of food and plenty of water, just like a real baby. The food is a powder you just add water to and stir.

Lola was very gentle and fed her just like a Mummy. She called her Lily-Lucy.

The hysterical  giggles when she had her first pooh was hilarious.

I asked Lola what was the best thing about Lily-Lucy. She laughed and said, ‘the pooh-ing and wee-ing’.

Then more seriously, she said ‘and she has really pretty eyes’. I asked Lola if we hadn’t had her to review would she have liked her as a Christmas present? She said, ‘yes, I love her’.

Since the initial excitement has worn off, Lola still gives her water to drink fairly regularly and we find wet patches around the house. She wee’d on her older sister only today.

As a parent I would say that the only downside of this doll is that there aren’t enough sachet’s of food or nappies with the doll when you get her. The food and nappies were used up in the same day and to buy new ones is quite expensive (£9.99 for 10 more sachets and £3.99 for 5 nappies). Other than that, my 5 year old has really enjoyed playing with her. 

Girls World Bead and Style from Ideal

Heather my 8 going on 16 year old, reviewed this old classic with a spin. Heather loved doing the make up for her.

However, the beads for the hair were a bit tricky although there was thingy (I am sure there is a technical term for it, but that would mean reading the instructions!) to help her, and she did put beads in her own hair as a result (not leaving them in long enough for a photo though!).

She said putting on the lipstick was hard as her mouth didn't move (so a softer mouth maybe?), but she still manage to put loads on. With plenty of eye shadow, obviously.

The hair can be shortened or lengthened as you would expect and it is more natural feeling than I remember from my day. 

Heather enjoyed playing with her, but lost interest fairly quickly although she has gone back and played with her since. She says she likes it, and enjoys playing with it.

From my perspective, I would have liked it to come with a little vanity case to put all the hair clips, beads, the bead helpy thing, bands and brush in, these are just in plastic bags and go everywhere, but it is a fun toy for any girl probably well into her tweens. 

Paint by Numbers from Reeves

This is the third and final toy we had to review.

The box says this is for 8 year old's and over. We got everything out and there was a little easel, numbered paints, a couple of tiny brushes and a water holder. There are also three canvases. 

When we opened it Heather was a little daunted by the canvases. The numbers are tiny, the gaps are tiny, in fact, it is all pretty tiny. None the less, Heather started to give it ago, but within minutes found it really quite difficult to complete.

I think it is unlikely that she will come back to it and I am not sure that any eight year old would be able to complete this confidently. 

Heather really wanted to complete this but she also wanted it to look good, she felt that she wouldn't be able to achieve this. I think, many adults would find this challenging and would be better suited to an older child. Personally, I think this should be targeted to 12+ 

(I might try to do these if I have some free time, I like the look of the horse one)

To see more reviews like this go to the Toybox here