Toy Reviews - https://babynotincluded.co.uk

Christmas Gift Guide for 5 – 8 Year Olds

23/11/202229/11/2022 Lisa

Christmas Gift Guides for 5 – 8 Year Olds

We’ve been through this stage twice now so far and the first time it was all about football, Pokemon and football and then the second time was blind bags and Barbie.

Unicones – RRP £12.99

If your kids like unboxing blind/surprise bags then they will love these. You can read our recent review of the Unicones here.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – RRP £49.99

If you’re looking for a fun family game for your switch then I would definitely recommend this as it suits most ages. Freddie’s been giving it a go since he was three.

Cutetitos Care Bears – RRP £11.99

Belle has had some of these that came inside wraps and loves them, but this is the Care Bear series which look super cute.

LEGO Spidey and his Amazing Friends Set – RRP £18.99

What kid doesn’t like LEGO and this set includes Superhero’s so it’s a win win!

The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas – Tom Fletcher – RRP £6.99

If your kids appreciate poo humour then this will have them doubled over at bedtime. It’s one of Freddie’s favourites!

Mouse in the House Playset – RRP £11.99

This cute playset is for playing along your skirting board and comes with stickers and accessories for your little ones to create their own little school setup. Check out our reels to see it in action.

Dobble – RRP £12.99

We haven’t got this game but have heard great things about it. It’s the quickest person to match two items.

Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage – RRP £79.99

All boys (or girls) like Hot Wheels and there are a lot of sets to choose from. I would personally pick something like this that doesn’t look too complicated to set up. We’ve had numerous sets that nearly set us insane trying to put back together.

GooZonians – RRP £19.99

These squishy characters are great fun for squishing and stretching. There are six figures to collect and each one has a different tactile filling.

Beaker Creatures Alien Experiment Lab – RRP £24.99

We were sent this kit to review a few years ago, but have replaced the alien pods several times over as our 4 year old loves it. You can read our review here.

Happy Shopping x

*This post contains items I have been gifted as well as affiliate links which means I receive a small payment if you make a purchase following one of my links at no extra cost to you.

Review: Lite Brite Oval

31/10/202205/11/2022 Lisa

Review: Lite Brite Oval

It feels like a lot of the toys that I had or wanted as a kid are making a huge come-back recently and one of these is this Lite Brite Oval which has obviously had a huge makeover since the basic one I coveted as a kid.

As well as the new shape, the Lite Brite over is now in high definition with 50% more holes and three times the pegs than the classic version.

The Lite Brite Oval is recommended for children aged 6+ and retails at £24.99 from Smyth’s Toys and other retailers.

What comes in the set?

The set comes with the oval base which has a stand so you can keep your designs and would look great on a bedroom shelf.
It does take three AA batteries which are not included.
Hundreds of little coloured pegs for creating your designs
8 template sheets.

Light Modes!

Once you’ve created your designs there are 5 different light modes

3 Colour changing patterns (fade, flash, white light) or 2 animations (slow, fast flash)

Sensory Play

The Lite Brite Oval can be used in a sensory play setting by creating patterns and selecting the different light options to help support developing visual senses which can be used to create a soothing environment which is great for self-regulation.

Setting up

There is very little set-up with the Lite Brite Oval. All you need to do is pop in some batteries and you’re good to go. The template sheets that come with the set just peg onto the board and you just follow the colour code on it which has the first letter for each colour as a guide. You then push the coloured pegs through the template into the board, and once finished choose your light setting to show off your designs.

Our Thoughts

Isabelle is twelve and was really pleased to give the Lite Brite Oval a go. She loved the templates that came with the set but, was also very keen to create her own designs as well.

She really liked that it had a stand so that she can put it next to her bed to use as cool lighting for her room.

I also really liked this set as it’s something that Belle can go off and do on her own which is what she likes to do these days. I know that Freddie is also going to want to give this set a go so I know it’s definitely going to get used between the two of them. It’s also a lot cooler than the Lite Brite of my day.

You can buy the Lite Brite Oval from Smyth’s Toys currently priced at £22.99

If you liked this post and the toys that we’ve reviewed then why not take a look at some of the other Review Posts.

*We were gifted the Lite-Brite Oval set for the purpose of this review. All opinions and photographs are our own.

Review: Kid K’Nex Zoo Friends

16/10/202216/10/2022 Lisa

Kid K’Nex Zoo Friends

We were so pleased to be given the opportunity to review the Kid K’Nex Zoo Friends set. We already have a box of K’Nex so we knew that we were going to have a lot of fun with this Zoo Friends set.

What are K’Nex?

Essentially they are a type of construction toy that comes with lots of different brightly coloured pieces that connect together almost like jigsaw pieces. These are great for smaller hands and the models can be made easily with a little bit of help from an adult. K’Nex help develop fine motor skills, dexterity, and hand-eye coordination. They’re pretty indestructible, we’ve yet to have a broken piece.

Kid K’Nex Zoo Friends

The Kid K’Nex Zoo Friends set comes with 55 pieces and the ability to make 30 models. Your kids can of course go rogue and create their own animals using the various eyes, tails, and feet pieces. This set retails at around £18 on Amazon and is suitable from age 3.

Putting K’Nex to the Test

Freddie loves construction toys and is particularly good at building and creating models. He was very pleased when I gave him this set and had his sights set on the giraffe as soon as we looked at the model sheet. There aren’t details instructions to build each model, but the brightly coloured pieces make it very easy to work out what pieces you need and how to put them together.

Freddie only needed a little bit of help to make each model and it wasn’t long before we’d made all of them.

Our Thoughts

Freddie – ‘I love it’ were his exact words. He was very excited that he would be able to mix it with his existing monster set to make some very unusual creatures. The K’Nex Zoo Friends set gets a huge ‘massive’ thumbs up from Freddie.

Mine – This set also gets a huge thumbs up from me. I bought our first set as a non-messy tuff tray option that would keep Freddie busy when he needed to be entertained and I needed to do something like make dinner. The pieces are a good size even for toddlers and are easy to put together and pull apart. I’ve bought K’Nex sets as presents for other children as I know they will be played with and are a good price.

If you enjoyed this review and are looking for some recommendations then please take a look at our other Toy Reviews.

* We were sent the K’Nex Zoo Friends for the purpose of our review. All thoughts and photographs are our own. This post contains affiliate links.

Push Poppers Fidget Toys by HGL

30/03/202131/03/2021 Lisa 10 Comments

Push Poppers Fidget Toys by HGL

You know that feeling when you pop bubble wrap? All kids love it, and even us adults can’t resist popping it when it arrives as packaging for things we’ve ordered. Well, the Push Poppers Fidget Toy is the gift of bubble wrap that keeps on giving!

What is a Push Popper?

Made from silicone, push poppers come in a variety of colours and shapes, all with rows of bubbles that you pop. Once popped, you flip it over and start again. It’s ridiculously addictive.

We received a Yellow Push Popper which also glows in the dark and a Rainbow Push Popper. Isabelle is ten and instantly knew what these were, but it didn’t take long for two-year-old Freddie to get the hang of it. They both gravitated immediately to the Rainbow Push Popper, but then when I showed Freddie that the yellow one was glow in the dark, he got himself a blanket and hid under there to “squish the bubbles”.

What can you do with a Push Popper?

Apart from the obvious of sitting and popping the bubbles, we’ve been challenging each other to see who can complete two sides in the quickest time. I’m quite proud to hold the crown of fastest bubble popper in the house.

We’ve also popped the bubbles to songs and by drumming our fingers. One side is easier to pop than the other, and you can pop all the bubbles in a row by running your finger down really quickly. It does take a bit of practice.?

You can see what we’ve been up to over on Instagram and TikTok.

Our Thoughts

When the Push Poppers arrived, I wasn’t sure how long they would keep the attention of my two but I was completely wrong. We’re having to rotate them between them as it seems that the Rainbow Push Popper is the favourite for both of them.

Both of them have played with these independently as well as whilst watching TV. They’ve even kept the two-year-old Fidget Pants still.

Overall, the Push Poppers have got a huge thumbs up from us, and I think they will be played with for a very long time. These would be great for traveling (you know when we’re allowed).

Where Can I buy a Push Popper?

These Push Poppers are available to buy from Claires, Smyths and Toymaster Toy Stores.

Cortex Challenge Game Review

28/07/201904/08/2019 Lisa

Cortex Challenge Game Review – Cortex Challenge is a card based game for 2 – 6 players of eights years and above. As part of the Blogger Board Game Club we were sent a copy to see what we think.

What’s Inside?

74 Challenge Cards
10 Touch and Feel Cards
6 Touch Challenge Cards
24 Brain Pieces

The game is quite a small box which when added to our growing collection is a bonus. It also means that it’s a great choice for taking on holiday.

The Aim of the Game

Cortex Challenge is a game of fast thinking, memory and speed skills. The cards have eight different challenges on them including touch, duplicates, logical series, mazes, and colour puzzle just to name a few.

The top card is turned over for all players to see. The first person to work out the task has to slap their hand on the card and explain the answer/puzzle to earn themselves a piece of brain.

The winner is the person to collect all four brain pieces.

Our Thoughts

This is definitely a game for us. The puzzles and challenges are really fun and Isabelle is annoyingly quick at working out the puzzles and the touch cards were really good, but hard to work out.

A bonus is that this game only takes around 20 minutes to play so can be played whilst dinner is cooking or when we have a bit of spare time.

Cortex Challenge retails at £12.99 which I thought was very reasonably priced and can be bought from all major game retailers.

Cortex Challenge gets a BIG thumbs up from us!

<br />

As part of the Blogger Board Game Club we also reviewed Get Packing and Ticket to Ride Europe.

*We were sent a copy of Cortex Challenge for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

Fuzzikins Bedtime Bunnies Review

09/04/201913/04/2019 Lisa 8 Comments

Fuzzikins Bedtime Bunnies Review

Fuzzikins Bedtime Bunnies Review – We’ve been sent a set of Fuzzikins Bedtime Bunnies from Interplay to review which Isabelle was very excited about.

What you get

The Fuzzikins Bedtime Bunnies set comes with:

1 Large Fuzzikins Bunny
1 Medium Fuzzikins Bunny
1 Small Fuzzikins Bunny
3 Felt tip Pens
3 Fuzzikins Felt Beds
Felt Accessories for the Fuzzikins Bunnys
Practice Colouring Templates

We cut out the practice colouring templates so that Isabelle could work out her designs before she coloured on the bunnies which I thought was quite a good think since Isabelle’s a bit of a perfectionist.

Each Bunny had it’s very own sleeping bag with accessories including sleep masks which were a nice touch.

Once she had completed her designs she made a start on the real thing. The bunny’s were really easy to colour on and can be wiped clean if any mistakes are made or if you fancy changing the designs.

The sleeping bag much to my relief were already pre-made and came with felt stickers to design the beds with. There were even Super Hero masks and a cape for them.

The Fuzzikins Bedtime Bunnies set is aimed at children 4 years and over and retail at £9.99 from leading retailers.

Our thoughts

Isabelle is very much into role play and add a bit of craft into the mix and you’ve hit the nail on the head in terms of finding something fun to do.

I set her up with this kit and away she went with no additional help needed since there was no cutting or sewing, everything was ready and easy to use.

Once she’d created her designs on the templates, she coloured the actual bunnies and then played with them for ages. She’s not ready to wash them yet as she really likes the way they look, but she’s looking forward to changing their style soon.

I think this was a lovely kit which would be perfect for a rainy day or a home day when I’ve got loads to do. At £9.99 this is a really good price for what you get. There are other kits and animals that you can get in the range to add to your collection.

The Fuzzikin’s Bedtime Bunnies get’s a huge thumbs up from us.

Lisa x

Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Season 5 – Mermals

02/04/201904/04/2019 Lisa

Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Season 5 – Mermals

Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Season 5 – Mermals from Spinmaster. When Isabelle first saw the advert for these she did her usual pause and rewind the TV so that she could show me them in the hope that we would stop what we were doing immediately, go to the shops and buy them ALL!

The Season 5 range is slightly different as they are colour changing which just adds to the excitement tenfold.

There are lots of different sets to collect from pocket money affordable single packs at to playsets, and with over 80 to collect it’s a pretty long check list.

Within the series there are lots of different types of Hatchimals including:

Mermals – Half Hatchimal half Mermaid – Blue Sparkly Egg
Underwater friends – Blue Sparkly Egg
Mermal Twins – Blue Sparkly Egg
Sunshine Surf – Special Edition – Blue Oval Egg
Mischief Marsh _ Yellow Swirly Egg
Racing River – Purple Horn Shaped Egg
Blissful Bay – Limited Edition – Pink Sparkly Egg
6-Pack Shell – Peach Eggs
One Dozen – Blue Sparkly Egg

Each type of Hatchimal comes in a different type of egg as above but you won’t know what’s inside until you open them.

Of course, the first thing that Isabelle always does with collectibles is scan the checklist and pick out the ones that she would like to get the most before she opens the eggs.

How do you open the eggs?

Each of the eggs has a heart on them which you press and the egg cracks revealing your hatchimal. Isabelle tried her best to split the eggs in half, but some of them are impossible to open this way, and then her impatience gets the better of her and she just pulls them apart.

We were sent a Single Pack, a 6-pack Shell, and a 4 pack with bonus totally 13 hatchimals which was very exciting.

What we got:

A Single Hatchimals Season 5 Pack
A Four Pack Hatchimals CollEGGtibles + Bonus Pack
A 6-Pack Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Shell Pack

In the single pack we unboxed a Sunshine Owling which is a common Hatchimal. She was very impressed with this one as it had its very own surf board.

In the 4 pack + bonus we got four mermal eggs in which we got Mer-pandoo, Mer-Seaspoon (rare), Mer-Unikeet, and (*drumroll) – Koalabee which are Mermal twins, and a Blissful Bay Egg which contained a limited edition Blissful Kangaroose.

In the 6-shell pack she got Sapphire Anteagle, Sapphire Owlicorn, Sapphire Burtle, Sapphire Girreo, Sapphire Foxfin and Sapphire Penguala.

How do they colour change?

Parts of each of the hatchimals change colour in the water whether it be their tail or a gem that they are holding onto which then changes back once they are dry.

The Hatchimals CollEGGtibles are recommended from age 5 upwards and are available from most toy shops and Amazon.

There is also an App that you can download to keep track of the Hatchimals that you’ve collected.

Our thoughts

Isabelle loves a collectible and has quite an extensive range of different collectibles that she likes to add to on birthdays, christmas or through saving her spending money. She loves the element of surprise, and whilst there does always seem like a lot of packaging compared the end result she does play with them time and again which makes them worthwhile.

She was very excited that out of the twelve Hatchimals she managed to get a rare, a limited edition and a set of twins which she was so thrilled with. The colour changing aspect of these Hatchimals makes them extra special, and also gives her a good excuse for taking them in the bath.

These sets would definitely make a lovely gift whether it be for a birthday, Christmas or even as an Easter Gift.

Which Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Season 5 is your Favourite?

Lisa x

*We were sent some Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Season 5 sets for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are our own. This post contains affiliate links.