Last week we received the most brilliantly crammed full box of loveliness. A gift from Hallmark of some of their new plush collectable toys – Itty Bittys.

Itty Bittys are already a massive hit in the US and Australia, and I predict that to continue when they launch here at the beginning of October.

Firstly I love the name as it’s describes the product so well. Not only are they small, but they are unbelievably cute, and I think the name perfectly encapsulates that.

They are so small in fact that this is the little box we received to review.

And guess how many Itty Bittys were hidden inside?

 

All these guys. Seven Itty Bitty plush toys!

In our box was a Superman and Batman, cowedly lion and tin man from the wizard of oz, A Santa and Rudolph, plus a Snoopy.

Itty Bittys have a great range of characters from comic books, films, tv shows that both children and adults will know and love.

The first ranges to be released in the UK are Super Heroes, Snoopy and Charlie Brown, Scooby Doo and The Wizard of Oz.

One of the first Itty Bitty characters to go on sale will be Batman, which is currently the top selling Itty Bitty in the US.

I honestly love these Itty Bittys so much, and can’t wait to see them in Hallmark stores and add to my collection.

The great thing with them being so small is that they don’t take up as much room as normal plush toys, even smaller ones. I have just put lots of plushies up in the attic as I’ve no room for them. It’ll be great to have a collection out that I can see and enjoy, without worrying about space.

It’s all the little attention to detail that makes them so special. Like the fact that you can bend Batman and Superman’s cape, and it stays up so it looks like he’s flying. Also Cowardly lions mane is so curly and gorgeous, it feels so luxurious.

The boys love them too. Even my husband thinks they are adorable. We’ve all argued about who’s getting which Itty Bitty character. Jacob loves them as they are easy to hold and cuddle, plus their size means he has more room in his bed at night. Although we do spend 5 minutes every morning digging them out of the bedclothes.

I was surprised that although obviously Thomas and Jacob loved the Batman and Superman, they were also really into all the others just as much. Jacob loves Tinman especially, and for Thomas it’s Snoopy.

Competition

Thanks to the lovely people at Hallmark I’ve got a set of Itty Bittys to giveaway to one lucky Toybuzz reader.

Isn’t that awesome!

All you need to do to enter is leave a comment below and fill in the Rafflecopter,  letting us know which character you would most like to see turned into an Itty Bitty collectable

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Competition begins 15.09.15 and ends 30.09.15 at 12:00. Uk entries only.

Easter holidays, and the boys have been getting creative and testing out the new Crayola colour Alive colouring books.

With Colour Alive you can see the images you’ve coloured in actually pop out of the screen and into your living room. Which is actually really neat.

As with most things nowadays there’s an app you’ll need to download.

The system works by scanning and recognising the special Colour Alive marker you have used. Each book comes with 7 Crayola Markers, but only one unlocks the special virtual reality pictures. With the two colouring books we had to review, the red marker unlocked the magic in Mythical Creatures, and it was the yellow in enchanted forest.

Once you’ve found the special colour you need to simply scan it in the Colour Alive app.  Then you can scan in your colouring pages and watch as the pictures appear to come alive.

Annoyingly at the moment it seems that the app is having a few problems on certain devices with scanning the coloured in pictures. However if you scan an uncoloured page and then colour it in the 4D effects will work.

Once we figured things out and released that our virtual dragon was located in the “my saved stuff’ section, we got to work taking some virtual selfies with our works of art.

Even Harry the cat got involved.

To celebrate Colour Alive being at the Gadget Show Live there’s actually a competition running this week, for the best Colour Alive Selfie with an amazing prize.

If you have a Colour Alive set you can enter by tweeting #colouryouselfie and your picture, and if you get to see it at the show you can try it out and enter there.

Disclosure: We were sent some Colour Alive sets by Crayola to review. All opinions are my own.

 

To celebrate Vivid sponsoring the Kids Tech Toy Trail at Gadget Show Live, which takes place 8th – 12th April 2015 we’ve got 3 family tickets to give away for Wednesday 8th April! (Each family ticket is for 4 people).

One of Gadget Show Live 2014’s most popular features was the Kid’s Tech Arena, which will be returning this year in the form of a Kid’s Tech Toy Trail. The Kid’s Tech Trail is to be sponsored exclusively by Vivid and will feature separate pods, each with different toys from the Vivid range for children of all ages to get hands on with.

The pods will create an immersive experience and are guaranteed to keep kids engaged and involved at the show – as well as giving them a chance to try out some toys not yet on the shelves!

The four pods making up the Trail will feature a RealFX demo area, i-Que, Freddy Bear and Crayola Colour Alive with demonstrators and Vivid brand teams on site daily to enable kids to get hands on with the products.

Win a Family Ticket to Gadget Show Live 08/04/15

Last week the opportunity came up for us to review the online board game store – Games Quest, and I literally jumped at the chance with both hands grabbing as I love, Love, Love board games and card games.

We were given £40 to spend at Games Quest’s online store on whatever we wanted.

Thomas and I sat down and perused all the options, which took a long time as there is so much choice.

Plus Thomas got carried away having to look into all the others things that Games Quest sell like the toys, books, and puzzles before we were done.

We finally after much deliberation sent Games Quest our picks, and were thrilled to receive our order back in a few days.

We wanted to go for a few different things so choose a card game in the form of Fluxx – The Regular Show edition, Traffic – which is a puzzle game, and Cat-opoly – a board game.

The games actually came at a really great time, as Thomas was off school all last week with a terrible cough and cold. So we had plenty of time to get well acquainted with our new games.

Traffic was the first game we played, and it’s a right brain puzzler. The game is all about getting rid of your cards, and you do this by moving your car around the game board. You can only move around the game board when one of your cards matches the pattern the cars make on the board. It’s a bit hard to explain without playing, but we enjoyed it a lot.

Cat-opoly is a like Monopoly obviously but with everything cat related. All the tokens are catafied like a tin of sardines and a ball of wool, the jail is now Water, Free Parking is Free Catnip, and all the properties are now different breeds of cats. For a cat lover it is possibly the best present ever. My son Thomas is a huge Monopoly fan, and Huge Cat Lover so he was totally in his element, and is constantly begging people to play Cat-poly again with him. Amazing game which we totally recommend if you’re a cat or animal lover.

Fluxx is probably our favourite of the lot and the game we played most often, mostly due to our deep love and appreciation of the Cartoon Network series Regular Show. Initially you start playing Fluxx thinking ‘what on earth is going on?’ as every card you draw changes the rules somehow. However after a few games you really get into it, and it’s so fun playing that card which you know is going to wreck your opponents game in an instant.

We want to say a big thank you to Games Quest for letting us try out the store, and introducing us to these awesome board games.

Competition

 

The awesome people at Games Quest are also giving you the chance to win a £40 voucher to spend at their store.

All you need to do to enter is fill in your details on the Rafflecopter below. Competition ends on the 16th December 2014. For full details check out the Rafflecopter entry page below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com – See more at: http://www.theprizefinder.com/content/%C2%A340-spend-games-quest-0#sthash.kGVc9ymU.dpuf

VTech have launched a short story competition to celebrate the launch of their newest gadget – InnoTab MAX

VTech are challenging children from 4-8 to write a short story of 500 words or less about absolutely anything. The winning story will be published as an InnoTab E-Book.

The competition is open for entry from Monday 6th October 2014, and closes on Wednesday 22nd October 2014. Entrants can enter as many stories as they like.

The stories will be judged by Best Selling Children’s author Terry Deary, known for his gruesome ‘Horrible Histories’ series.

The writer of the winning story will see their story turned into a downloadable InnoTab E-Book, and receive a brand new InnoTab MAX to read it on. Six Runners up will also receive an InnoTab MAX.

To be in with your chance of winning, simply send your entries to InnoTabMAX@grayling.com by Wednesday 22^nd October 2014. Winners will be announced later in November.

For more information on InnoTab MAX and the full VTech range, visit www.vtech.co.uk

Moshi Monsters Series 10 Countdown

We are so proud that once again we’ve been asked to host one of the Moshi Monsters Series 10 countdown’s alongside a few other fellow bloggers.

Everyday from now until the Launch day of 23rd May we’ll be revealing one new Series 10 Moshling.

Once we get to the end, it’ll be the big day 23rd May – The day when you’ll be able to rush into the stores and pick up your own Series 10 Moshi’s.

Were here, we made it. It’s the final day of the countdown

Before you rush off down the shops, make sure you meet the final series 10 moshling

In my opinion we’ve saved the best till last, it’s Gumdrop – The Bendy Vendies

He’s an ultra rare moshling, and my favourite of this new batch

Bendy Vendies are happy fellows who cough up colourful gobstoppers when you give them a chocolate coin.

Competition

You lucky people, the lovely peeps at Vivid Toys and Games have given us a full set of these brand new series 10 Moshi Monsters moshlings to give away.

For your chance to win all you need to do is fill in your details on the Rafflecopter below, and pick which way you want to enter

Terms and conditions at the bottom of the post

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Purchase a series 10 pack and receive free entry to Sea Life Centres across the UK (valid til Dec 2014) with the purchase of one full price adult ticket. Take the voucher found in your blind bag or cut out the voucher from the back of the blister card along to your local Sea Life Centre to redeem the voucher for a day of sea life fun! You can also head onto www.moshisealife.com enter in your unique code found in your Series 10 pack and see if you’ve won one of the heaps of roarsome prizes we have up for grabs including a family holiday to Sea Life in Berlin!

 

Thanks to Vivid Toys and Games and Mind Candy for letting us once again be part of the Moshi Monsters fun.

 

*Terms and Conditions*

“Giveaway Starts on the 23rd May 2014 at 10:45 AM and ends 31st May 2014 at 12:00 AM. Open to Residents of the UK only.  Prizes cannot be shipped to PO Boxes.  Winner will be selected by Random.org and be notified by email. Winner have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected. The Prize will be sent out by the promoter. The product provided for the review was free of charge from the company. The product offered for the giveaway is free of charge, no purchase necessary. My opinions are my own and were not influenced by any form of compensation.  Facebook and Twitter are in no way associated with this giveaway.  By providing your information in this form, you are providing your information to me and me alone.  I do not share or sell information and will use any information only for the purpose of contacting the winner.”

Moshi Monsters Series 8 Countdown

We are so proud that once again we’ve been asked to host one of the Moshi Monsters Series 8 countdown’s alongside a few other fellow bloggers.

Everyday from now until the Launch day of 18th October we’ll be revealing one new Series 8 Moshling.

Once we get to the end, it’ll be the big day 18th October – The day when you’ll be able to rush into the stores and pick up your own Series 8 Moshi’s.

They’re finally here, It’s release day everyone!

The last couple of weeks unveiling the new Series 8 Moshlings has been a blast as always.

Out of all the new Moshlings I think Fitch is my personal fave. I’m still in love with his cute hat and that waffly tail.

However now I’m interested in which Moshling is your favourite?

To celebrate another wonderful Series of Moshi’s from Vivid Toys and games we have a brilliant competition for you all to get involved in.

All you need to do is leave a comment below letting me know your favourite of the new Series 8 Moshling’s and one lucky reader will win a complete set of Series 8 Moshi Monsters.

You can get extra entries for tweeting about the competition, and liking us on Facebook.

Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Thanks to Vivid Toys and Games for letting us once again be part of the Moshi Monsters fun.

This year for the end of year trip my youngest Jacob was very excited to find he was going to Greenmeadow Community Farm in Cwmbran, one of his favourite days out.

He and the rest of his reception class had a brilliant day, and he didn’t stop talking for days about all the animals he’d seen. He especially enjoyed watching the cows being milked, and running after the pigs in the yard.

They also have a brilliant play area which all the youngsters were busy playing on for ages, and a cosy farmhouse cafe and farm shop.

When he got home he went straight to all of his Farm Toys from Britains. We have a Farm Building, some land rovers with trailers, some animals, and a big JCB. He was busy all night using his JCB to chase his chickens and pigs around the room reliving his fun day at the farm.

Thanks to Britains the makers of some wonderful Farm Toys you too can experience a day out at Greenmeadow Farm with your family . We have 2 prize packages to give away to some lucky readers.

Each prize consists of :

1 x Family Ticket to Greenmeadow Community Farm

1 x JCB 550-80 Loadall

1 x Buckrake and Slurry Scraper

 All you need to do to enter is leave a comment below all about any of your favourite places for a day trip.

Terms & Conditions:

Competition begins at 10:00 am September 11th and ends at 10:00am September 18th

Uk entries only sorry

A family ticket admits two adults and three children. Prizes will be delivered within 28 days from the Promoter’s PR Department

 

 

When our latest product for review arrived this week, it got us thinking about pirate themed board games. At first we all thought there were loads, but after racking our brains we could only come up with Pop Up Pirate. Well now there’s another to join the ranks – Don’t Rock the Boat from University Games.

Don’t worry though these pirates seem pretty harmless, more cute in fact. As these pesky pirates are penguins.

The game is really simple to set up and play which is wonderful as it means since we got it we’ve played it everyday. It’s the perfect 15 minute fun filler if your short on time, or you can just go on and on when the time is right.

The game board is a boat resplendent with 3 Masts, which sits upon a wave. The object of the game is to balance your pirate penguins on the boat without making it tip and sending them overboard.

It’s a really fun little game for all ages, and is great for younger players as there are no rules to follow, just keep your penguin on the boat.

A neat little trick is that you can hang the penguins over the side of the boat, and over the rails of the crows nests by their little bandana ties. We all loved trying to perfect that move.

It’s not as easy as it looks to get your penguins to balance, but that’s all part of the fun. No one is guaranteed to be the winner, and everyone will eventually get the chance to be the winner. It’s brilliant family fun.

Competition

Thanks to University Games we have a copy of ‘Don’t Rock the Boat’ to give away to Toybuzz readers.

Entry is simple, just leave a comment with your best Pirate related pun!

You can also tweet and follow on Facebook and Twitter for extra Entries.

Competition starts August 30th at 12:00am and ends September 6th 12:00am

Uk entries only.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Everyone can always tell my boys are doing the school run from miles away. Not because of their shouting and laughing at high volume (although they do that as well) usually it’s the jangling of all the key-rings on their school bag which gives it away. It’s got to the point now where I have a policy of one on/one off as the cacophony of jingles can send me batty when it’s one of those days.

Thankfully their latest gang of backpack buddies make no noise whatsoever, and are also much easier to attach than the myriad of keyrings. The boys can even do it themselves.

The name for them is Floppets, and these new friends are all set to become a new playground craze. Attaching to almost everything thanks to the easy fastening velcro loop. Children will be able to customise backpacks, pencils, shoes, glasses, or even wear them as rings around fingers and toes.

Collect and choose your Floppets from the different Floppet groups, Petlets, Munchkin Monsters and Flop Seas.

Floppets are a great pocket-money buy at £1.99 each and are available from Toys ‘R’ Us, The Entertainer and W H Smith.

Start Rite Shoes are also including a special Floppets Foil Pack in every new pair of back to school shoes purchased. This offer is available from Harrods, Brantano and other independent stores.

Competition

Toybuzz has a Set of 5 Floppets to give away to one of our readers.

All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment about anything relating to back to school. It could be back to school tips, reminiscing, or pet peeves and gripes.

Competition ends 12:00 am 06 September 2013

UK Entries Only

***** Congratulations to the winner Stacey Kirkbride ******

 

 

 

 

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com