Reviewing Toys

A Voluntary Toy Recall for Soldier Bear Products, this is an AAFES brand toy (military stores):

Hazard Reason: Paint used on toys has high level of lead in it.

Instructions: Take the toy back to get a refund, or call AAFES at (800) 866-3605.

Description of Toys: various action figures, dinosaurs, animals and vehicles created by Toy Soldier that was sold between 2005-2007

Toy Style UPC
H.E.R.O.E.S. Dino Mega Cruiser - 00047 4 98567 00047 4

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Howdy ya’ll, this is Eliza and I’m going to be taking over this blog. You are probably wondering who I am and why do I think I can review toys for ya. Right?

I’m an at-home (yes, WAH, SAH) mother to four children. My oldest is 10, youngest is 4 months, both are boys. I have two daughters as well, they are 7 years old and about to turn 4 years old. This of course means I’m always getting sent toys from family or buying toys. I know I hate to get toys that break after saving money for them or whatever and I’m sure you do too.

There have been several times where I just wish I knew the toy would break ahead of time. I wouldn’t go through the hassle of buying it. Know what I mean?

For this blog I’ll be reviewing toys I have in my house, have bought in the past and plan to buy. There may be toy recalls, after all, parents/relatives need to know about these little things. Last, I’ll have a section for book reviews, new books out and new toys coming out. This should give everyone a little helping hand.

What are some products you like?

This site is currently in need of a writer. If you have any interest in writing on the topic this site covers, feel free to submit an application at 451 Press. Thank you.

451 Press, Toy Reviewing, Writers Needed

I thought I might give an update on how the Wii-ing went whilst on holiday. My brother did bring it down with him from London and Alex and I both spent a fair amount of time on it. Alex more to be honest. Both my sister-in-law and him are both pretty competitive where as I tend to have no enthusiasm at all in terms of beating my opponent. Suffice to say, I can be pretty boring to play with sometimes. At the end of the 4 day aways, everyone, excluding me, had a sore right shoulder because of the non-stop tennis competitions they were having.

Bea actually found it quite amusing watching everyone jump around the living room and yell at the television. I kept telling Alex that we had to get rid of our slowly dying XBox and just get a Wii until I found out that it doesn’t play DVDs at which point I became very upset and disapointed and promptly declared that the XBox was my favorite again and I loved it and would never give it away.

I’m not even going to try and pretend that these game consoles have appropriate games for children….

Last week was hell. Bea had her first real cold, Alex’s parents were here. Of course Bea picked up the cold from me, which meant that I was run down, having to look after a sick baby and play hostess to a family of four, two of them being teenagers. So you can imagine how wonderful everything was. But then mid-week, after Alex’s parents had left, we drove over to see my dad in Burgundy and Bea went in the pool for the first time!

In terms of toys, I didn’t buy anything specifically for the pool. I took her bath fish and Mr Turtle thing (basically a form fitter toy in the shape of a turtle…) because they both are made of plastic and wouldn’t sink. She didn’t really play with any of them in the pool though, I used them mainly as a distraction for when she was first getting in and didn’t really know what was going on. Obviously as she gets older and gets used to being in a pool, she can start engaging with water toys more. But for the moment, the water was a good enough toy and kept her occupied just long enough for me to start worrying about sun burns….

Whilst I am living in France, I haven’t really noticed that I am buying any toys that are specifically French. Bea’s been given some lovely French baby books but other than that most of her toys have come from the UK or the USA. Having said that, as she gets a bit older and hopefully our budget increases, I do intend on buying her some adorable Frenchified stuff that takes me back to my childhood in Paris:

Every French tot has one of these, to cart around, you know, all there French stuff, like snails and horse meat.

Sophie La Giraffe is another one. These are sold all over the place, including your local supermarket. I used to have one when I was a kid and I have yet to buy one but it’s on the list.

(Basic French is a good site for all these sort of things and it’s pretty well priced too.)

Basic French, French toys

Wandering around Mothering Magazine’s website I came across an old article From War Chest to Toy Chest, written by Daphen White, former executive director of Lion & Lamb. Sad to say that Lion & Lamb is no longer up and running but their website is still life and is a good source of information about non-violent toys. Through it I came across TRUCE: Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment.

I think this is an area where allot of parents feel torn about how strict they should be. You want your kids to enjoy their toys and know that play time doesn’t always have to include intense learning games but at the same time there allot of toys out there that could be deemed harmful in many ways but still pass safety regulations.

TRUCE has a good toy guide that has some helpful points on how to filter out toys that are harmful and/or a waste of time:

Toys have limited play value when they . . .

* Can only be used in one way.
* Encourage everyone to play the same way as determined by the toy designer.
* Appeal primarily to a single age or level of development.
* Will probably sit on a shelf after the first “fun” half hour.
* Will channel children into imitating scripts they see on TV or in movies.
* Do special high-tech actions for the child instead of encouraging the child’s exploration and mastery.
* Lure children into watching the TV program or other media linked to the toy.
* Promote violence and stereotypes, which can lead to disrespectful and aggressive behavior.
* Introduce academic concepts to children too early, keeping them from the kind of play that truly prepares them for later learning.

The search for the perfect rattle continues. Alex’s parents arrived this week with a rattle for Bea. His sister had bought one for her 10 month old son and he had loved it. It’s from Mothercare but of course since their website is so horrible, the one we got doesn’t actually come up at all. I’ll try to put a picture up later. Suffice to say it fits many of the criteria for a good rattle, the only negative thing about it is its size. Just slightly too big for Bea’s little hands but we’ll wait and see how she takes to it in the next couple of months.

Now, promoting another toy review site probably isn’t the smartest thing to do but I quite like Toy Talk, and think others will too. Its sister site is SmallPrint, which is also quite good and worth a visit.

Basically does what it says on the label. Great blog about idiot toys, idiot marketing and other stupid crap that comes with grown up gadgets and silly stuff we spend money on.