Toy Review: Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol Set

With my small boy being a massive Paw Patrol fan (have you noticed?) our house is slowly filling with Paw Patrol toys and merchandise. The latest addition is a brand a new Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol set from John Adams Toys which was launched this month.

Toy Review: Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol Set

Paw Patrol fans will love the new Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol set. It’s a reboot of the classic fuzzy craft toy which you might remember from your own childhood. I think every adult I know gets misty-eyed about the happy hours they spent playing with Fuzzy Felt and I’m no exception. I had previously dismissed Fuzzy Felt as a bit too basic and a bit too old fashioned for my son. But I was wrong, completely wrong. 

Toy Review: Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol Set

The new Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol set costs £10.99 and is widely available in toy shops and online. The Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol set contains four felt sheets with over 70 assorted felt shapes and a felt playboard. All you need is your imagination and you’re all set for hours of fuzzy fun. 

The felt shapes come in sheets and you can easily pop the pre-cut felt shapes out and arrange them however you want on the playboard. Come on, you know how fuzzy felt works, why am I explaining it? 

Toy Review: Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol Set

The Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol Set is suitable for children aged 3+ and I did think it would be far too basic and old fashioned for my six year old, but I was very, very wrong. He absolutely loved it, we sat in the garden for well over an hour playing with it. I went inside and left him to it for another half hour while I cooked our dinner and he happily played with it. He only stopped to eat and then was straight back on it again. It just goes to show, the classics are classics for a reason.

Toy Review: Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol Set

If I had any criticism at all, it would be that the playboard is just A4 sized and I know my son would have loved something a bit bigger, perhaps an A3 board which folds down to an A4 size would suit him better. 

I am really pleased my son likes this Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol Set. It’s perfect for packing to take on holiday, especially knowing how long he will happily play with it. I know he will get great play value from this. If you’re wavering over buying fuzzy felt, don;t waver, just do it. I am astonished by how much he likes it.

You can watch my son playing with his Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol set here on YouTube.

Disclaimer: We were sent this Fuzzy Felt Paw Patrol Set for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own. This blog post contains an affiliate link.

Toy Review: eZee Beads PAW Patrol

One of my son’s favourite things in the world is Paw Patrol. He’s been fairly obsessed with the TV series for about three years now. His love for Chase, Marshall, Ryder and the team is as long standing as it gets for a six year old. It also shows no signs of waning. He’s got quite a lot of Paw Patrol merchandise, but he’s always keen to add more to his collection. Over the Bank Holiday weekend we gave him a eZee Beads PAW Patrol set to try, but what did he think?

Toy Review: eZee Beads PAW Patrol

The eZee Beads PAW Patrol set was launched this year and costs around £16.99 for the set. eZee Beads PAW Patrol is suitable for ages 5+ and comes with three Paw Patrol designs to make – Chase, Marshall and The Look Out.

The set comes with –

  • 900 eZee beads
  • Bead tray
  • Plastic tool
  • Water sprayer
  • 3 design cards
  • Bead storage tray
  • Instructions

Toy Review: eZee Beads PAW Patrol

This new kit from John Adams allows you to recreate your favourite Paw Patrol characters with colourful beads. Just select a design card, push the beads onto the pegs of the tray and then spray with water. Then leave your beads to dry (and stick together). Once it’s dry, carefully remove your bead design from the tray. 

To begin with I helped him to get it all set up, putting the beads into the bead storage tray and showing him how to put the beads on the pegged tray. You’re supposed to slot the design into the bead tray and put the coloured beads on top of the design. But the cardboard design kept falling out and the plastic tray obscured it. We found it easier to have it next to the board and count the different coloured beads in each row.

Toy Review: eZee Beads PAW Patrol

As with all bead crafts, this was a little fiddly for his small boy fingers. But that’s the point, bead crafts like this are excellent for helping to boost his hand-eye co-ordination as well as strengthen the muscles in his hands which will help to improve his pen holding and writing.

It was not too fiddly though. Once he got into the rhythm of it he methodically placed the beads into position. He really enjoyed bringing Chase’s face to life in bead form. 

Toy Review: eZee Beads PAW Patrol

Once he’d finished the design (which kept him very well occupied for over an hour) we sprayed the beads with water and left them to dry and stick together. When we’ve done bead crafts in the past they have always been the kind you have to iron, I’ve never been that keen on that if I’m honest. Whilst the results are pretty instant, a hot iron and an excited child are a combination which makes me a bit nervous.

The instructions say to leave the beads to dry for half an hour, but when I checked it was still a bit wet so I put it to one side for a few more hours. Once it was dry I used the tool supplied to try to ease the design off the bead tray. This was a bit tricky, I didn’t want to break his design. I very carefully teased the edges off with the spatula end and with the sharper end ran it underneath the beads to release them. After a couple of minutes of gentle persuasion the design came off the board and was admired by everyone in the room.

Toy Review: eZee Beads PAW Patrol

He was really pleased with the results of his hard work, and rightly so. I was really impressed that he sat for so long to compete his design. The eZee Beads PAW Patrol set was really easy to use and contained everything you need. We liked it a  lot. It’s ideal for a bit of quiet, focused craft time and the eZee Beads are, well, very easy to use.

The eZee Beads Paw Patrol set from John Adams is available from a wide range of retailers including Amazon.

Disclaimer: We were sent the eZee Beads Paw Patrol set for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own. This blog post contains an affiliate link.

Toy Review: Silly Sausage – the funniest reaction game

The first time I saw a Silly Sausage was when one of my friends spotted one in a toy shop and Instragrammed it in a tongue in cheek style. It is a bit of an eyebrow raiser and I did scoff a little at first glance. Then I got to try one and that bright orange plastic sausage quickly became a bit of an obsession.

Silly Sausage is the new super speedy reaction game from John Adams. The sausage is really easy to use, switch him on and wait for his instructions, but you will need to be fast. The aim of the game is to twist, shake, dip, stretch and poke him and to keep up with the sausage as he shouts out his commands.

Silly Sausage

Featuring ten fast paced reaction games, and three play modes – single, party and turbo; Silly Sausage is suitable for solo or competitive play. Silly Sausage made its debut at a family dinner for the small boy’s birthday over the weekend and everyone wanted a go.

As you can see from our video, Silly Sausage is fun to play with solo…

The higher the level, the faster the sausage goes, so your reactions have to be super-fast in order for you to keep up with him.

There are three different games to play –

  • Chipolata – a speed and reaction game
  • Banger – a pass and play reactions game
  • Jumbo – Memory and reaction game

And there are three modes – single, multi play (party) and super fast play (turbo). I liked the “Chipolata” game, which suited me, a solo speed and reaction game.

I’d be naive if I didn’t acknowledge that a lot of people are a bit nudge-nudge-wink-wink about it, but it is completely innocent. Any Carry On style connotations go completely over the kid’s heads and it’s just the adults who sit quietly smirking.

There will be the minority of people who find the sausage too noisy for them. As the music speeds up it could get on your nerves a bit, but bah-humbug to them. You can’t adjust the volume, which may be a problem for hearing impaired people. You do have to be careful not to cover the speaker with your hand or you would miss the instruction.

Silly Sausage will power down if he’s not been played with for a while. If you need to wake him up you just poke the button on his belly. He needs 2 AA batteries and they seem to last a good amount of time (we’ve played with him for days and he’s still going strong).

Silly Sausage

Silly Sausage costs around £19.99 and is available from all good toy shops and in online stores such as Amazon. The game is suitable for ages 7+ but my boy who has just turned six had no trouble at all with it. Smaller children with smaller hands might struggle a little.

I am not underplaying it when I say I really love Silly Sausage. I think it’s hilarious and I’ve always enjoyed playing fast reaction games. For my money, Silly Sausage is the best and funniest game this Christmas!

Disclosure. We received the Silly Sausage Game for the purposes of writing this review. All opinions and images are our own. Contains Amazon affiliate links.