Joanne Mallon's Opposable Thumbs

Review: LEGO Legends of Chima

Let's get one important thing out of the way first - How do you pronounce LEGO Chima?  

Well, you say it Chima as in Chee-ma, NOT Chima as in rhymes with China. Got it? I am making these mistakes so you don't have to.

The Legends of Chima back story involves eight animal tribes battling it out for control of the CHI (say it chee as in cheese).

(Also, wouldn't it be great if they were battling for control of the cheese? As long as you had enough yellow pieces you'd be The Boss)

As I mentioned in a previous post, we were invited along to Chessington World of Adventures for the launch of the LEGO Chima roadshow, which is travelling around the UK until October.

Two things make this latest range from LEGO stand out - it's very animal-centric; and there's a lot more to it than simply building stuff with bricks.

The range includes tiny vehicles which come with a plastic rip cord which you use to rev them up and get them racing and leaping. The vehicles move pretty fast once they get going but need to be on a flat surface (not carpet). Watch out for them disappearing under the sofa.

After the Chessington event we were sent two of the LEGO Chima Speedorz sets to take a closer look at and review.

Over all we were impressed with how much you get in these sets, which retail at £10-15. They include a selection of Lego pieces to build, the little vehicles plus ripcord, one or two minifigues and collector cards.

 First up, the CHI battles starter kit (code #70113 RRP £14.99). Containing lion and wolf minifigures plus vehicles, 10 game cards, more CHI than you could fit in a cheese box and plenty of obstacles and ramps.

The Ring of Fire set (code #70100, RRP £9.99) lets you build a flaming hoop for your Chima minifigure to soar through.

We think either of these sets would make a good birthday present if you have a party coming up. Out of the bigger Chima range we liked the look of Cragger's Command Ship, which is a boat that looks a lot like a crocodile.

My son is a huge LEGO fan but he wasn't sure about the Chima range when he first saw it - it didn't grab him immediately, which surprised me because he loves both animals and LEGO. However, these review sets have changed his mind and he's been playing with them a lot over the last few days. The various accessories mean there's masses of potential for imaginative, creative play. My only criticism would be is that there are a lot of little fiddly bits that don't fit together, so you do then have to think about how to store your Chi.

All in all we like this latest addition to the LEGO family. Now, say it after me:

Chima

Che-ma

Cheeee-ma

 

Harry Potter Studio Tour vs Chessington World of Adventures

We had two big days out over the Easter holidays and I thought it would be interesting to compare the two.

On Easter Monday we had been invited to a LEGO Chima event at Chessington World of Adventures, and the week after we had booked tickets for the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour near Watford.

Both were first time visits for us, but which one was Top Trumps?

Suitability for age group

There is simply no point in taking a child who hasn't seen the Harry Potter films or read the books to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. There were several bored younger children running around for whom gawping at Dumbledore's office just wasn't cutting it. Leave the tinies at home for this one.

Chessington, on the other hand, has a much wider range of attractions in terms of suitability for age groups. From thrill rides for teens to a little children's animal farm, this is a better choice if you have a variety of ages to cater for.

Tickets

You have to book tickets to Harry Potter in advance - no tickets are available on the door. If you want to go in the school holidays then you'll need to book at least a few weeks in advance. We booked in February and there weren't many slots left for Easter half term.

Tickets are £29 per adult, we paid £85 for a family ticket which I think is pretty good value considering we were there for nearly four hours.

Chessington on the other hand, does let you roll up and buy a ticket on the door, so it's better for spontaneous days out.

We were there as guests of LEGO Chima (of which more later) so didn't have to pay. The Chessington website currently quotes a family of four ticket at £90, but there are lots of bargains to be had - you can use Tesco vouchers, buy an annual pass or save up to 25% by booking a week in advance. It's definitely a full day out.

 

Fun factor

We enjoyed both attractions a lot but on balance we probably enjoyed Harry Potter more because it simply wasn't like anywhere we'd been before, plus we are all big fans of the film and books.

Chessington, on the other hand scores well because of the variety it offers - my animal-loving son liked the monkeys and sea creatures, whilst my teenage daughter was more in it for the thrill rides. It was very cold when we were at Chessington and this affected some of the rides - we had been hoping to try out the new Zufari animal ride, but it was closed every time we tried.

The verdict?

We'd definitely go to either place again, both had more to see and do than we could pack into one day. Warner Bros Studio Tour is largely indoors so it would make a better winter attraction (so that'll be all year round I guess) whereas Chessington is more suited to sunny days.

And at least Chessington's gift shops have some pocket money level options - the gift shop at the Harry Potter Studio Tour will leave you weeping and filling in forms for an extra mortgage. Though perhaps it's a good thing I didn't spend £18 on a Slytherin notebook. I only would've filled it with evil thoughts.

Have you been to either of these attractions? Which do you prefer?

Playing superheroes: Iron Man 3 toys reviewed

As a film fanatic, it has been brilliant as my children get older to be able to share the cinema experience. No longer do I have to sit through some dull, life affirming but soul-destroying cartoon - now I can take my kids to films that I'd actually want to see if I wasn't a parent.

My nine-year-old son and I are really looking forward to Iron Man 3. We have both the first two films on DVD and they are one of the few film series where the sequel is even better than the first film. So by the law of averages the third one should be even better, right? That's what we're hoping.

And we were pretty chuffed to be sent some Iron Man 3 toys from Hasbro to try out in advance of the movie. Because let's face it who wouldn't want a little Robert Downey Jr of their own to keep at home and play with?

 

Just me then.

 

Our previous experiences of movie-based merchandise has been a mixed one. The Batman toys were OK but didn't ultimately inspire a lot of imaginative play.  The Hobbit toys were beautifully recreated but lacking in a Gollum.

How would the man of iron fare when recreated as a man of plastic?

 

We were sent two Iron Man 3 toys to review:

Sonic Blasting Action Figure

At 15 inches tall this is a pretty massive action figure - so much so that the feet don't even fit in the box and have to be attached separately. If you are looking for a big boxed gift to make a mini Marvel fan's eyes light up, this will definitely do it.

It's a solid plastic figure - my son noted that the legs don't move much, so this limits the movement. He's an action hero but he's no Action Man

You will need 3 AA batteries for this (they're not included, which is disappointing for a toy that retails at around £30 ).

Once you insert the batteries, Iron Man's eyes and chest button light up in blue. The weapon attached to his arm turns and fires missiles quite a long way across the room. He can fire 5 missiles at a time, and there are 5 red and 5 blue ones included, so you do have some spares for those inevitable moments when they disappear under the sofa.

 We thought this toy was pretty cool and a lot of fun.

 

We were also sent the Iron Man 3 battle vehicle, which retails at around £20 (no batteries required). This is basically an ejecto-seat type of car. It comes with changeable arms, footplate and weapons, so lots of potential for storytelling and imaginative play.

 

And if you want to see these toys in action, here is my son AKA Mr Turtle, to demonstrate:

 

 

 

 

Hasbro's Iron Man 3 toys are available now online from a wide range of toy shops. Iron Man 3 opens in the UK on the 25th April 2013 and we will be right at the front of the queue. Might have to buy an extra ticket for Sonic Blasting man though - he's big enough to need an extra seat.

Nokia Lumia vs the iPhone

My very first mobile phone was a Nokia but I hadn't looked at the brand in years until last month when I was asked to try out the Lumia Windows Phone. Now I totally luffs my iPhone and had a slight wobbly lip at the thought of being unfaithful to it, even if it was only for 30 days. But new experiences are good for the soul, right?

So which is better, the Nokia Lumia 920 or the iPhone 4?

There's only one way to find out....

 

 

Nooo! Not by setting them to hand to hand combat. I'm not a barbarian. Plus then I'd have no phone.

There's no denying that the Nokia Lumia 920 is a very handsome piece of tech. It comes in bright, pop art colours and has a large 4.5 inch screen. A recent BBC report informs me that bigger screens are cooler these days, to the extent that the word phablet (phone/tablet) has been coined.

So just how fab is this phablet?

• At 185g it's heavier than an iPhone, a relatively lightweight 112g. It's hardly a Kettlebell but you do notice the difference at first.
• The Lumia smooshes all your contacts from your sim card and Facebook together and shows them on the home screen. They flap around like a jigsaw made of the people in your life, which is quite nice once you get used to your mum's pic merging into your bank manager's.
• You have to create a Windows Live account to download apps, which is a pain - I really don't want to be creating more accounts for stuff.
• When texting the autocorrect offers you a choice of words and you can tap the relevant one (rather than it automatically replacing words it thinks you've got wrong), thus cutting back on those Damn you autocorrect moments.
• There's no swooshing sound when you send a text. I love that swooshing sound! That's the best bit of texting. Missed that, and also didn't totally believe that my texts had landed - obviously the swooshing sound makes all the difference
• The 8 megapixel camera on the Lumia is terrific and we liked the facility to shoot panoramic views. We took some lovely images which I forgot to download before I sent the phone back so you'll have to take my word on that. Trust me, they were peachy.
• Wireless charging is being touted as a major bonus for the Nokia Lumia, but you'll have to shell out an extra £40+ for the charging plate so I wasn't able to use that feature. Looks good though.
• Lots of apps to choose from, but no Instagram. If I am to make my cat look like he's on a 1970's album cover, this Windows Phone will not be able to help.
• Great local mapping & navigation. Look through the camera display and it shows local suggestions for places to eat, drink and visit.
• Battery life seemed about the same for me for both phones, though as always it depends on what you use your phone for.
• Homescreen can be easily customised so you can keep up with work & social networks
• Comes with Office - I've just bought a new PC and even that didn't have Office. There's also Powerpoint and Excel so you can create documents. You can sync documents so you can move from phone to laptop to desktop easily. This handset recognises the fact that making calls is probably only a tiny part of what you use your phone for.

So on Friday a courier came and took my Lumia back to Nokia and I will miss it. I've gone from thinking This looks a bit big to Geesh, my iPhone looks a bit small.

It'll have less  appeal to anyone looking for a mini phone to slip into their shirt pocket. But for what amounts to a mini office on the move it's extremely handy. The big screen was great for reading documents and web pages. I'm not planning on changing my phone just yet but if I was then this would be a very strong contender.

You can find out more about the Nokia Lumia range of smartphones here

Tariffs vary, so, y'know, shop around.

 

They blinded me with science (not literally)

 

The last time I went to Hastings it was to see Nick Cave performing live on the pier. It was amazing.

It was a very different flavour of amazing that took us up the A59 to Hastings again on Friday night, as we went to see Guinness World Records Officially Amazing Science Live.

Alas there were no murder ballads this time but to be honest we were spoiled for those the last time.

This show is part of a science-themed 42 date live tour currently visiting theatres around the UK.

The family-friendly event is a high energy mix of world record attempts and recreations. I won't give too much away, but this video introduces the show:

 

 

We learned a lot about what actually makes a world record, and saw several re-created and new attempts made.

All in all it was fun, educational and enjoyable, though I was less keen on the fact that the only female cast member was frequently the butt of the jokes. I want girls to engage with science, and they need decent role models for that - she should have been kicking those fellers' asses with supercool experiments, not dressing up as a dog and getting gaffer taped to a wall.

Over all, we thought this was a good show for kids aged around 6-12. My kids enjoyed all the facts and seeing a world record getting broken but were less keen on the explosions - there are a lot of loud bangs which you'll either love or hate.

And the next day my son got out the last two year's Guinness World Record books to see what had changed. Looks like a spark's been ignited.

 

Guinness World Records 2013

 

 

Guinness World Records Officially Amazing Science Live is currently on tour around the UK until the middle of April. You can see full tour dates here. Ticket prices vary; our family was given tickets for the purposes of review.

This show is not in any way connected to Thomas Dolby, but it reminded me of this song:

 

The dark knight's New Year's Eve DVD review

We're having a little bit of time off right now, but as a household of film fans this has been rebranded as a Movie Visualisation Experience Opportunity.

Yes, we've been watching films. Lots and lots of films. Most of the films we've been watching I can't really tell you about as they are Bafta screeners of new movies so JMR can vote in the Baftas.

 

{instead I will whisper - Django Unchained! Les Miserables! The Hobbit! Lincoln! Skyfall! Truly Bafta screener season is better than Christmas}

 

But I can tell you about some other movies, as Warner Bros sent us a Christmas stocking filled with their latest releases, plus some sweets.

First I will review the sweets: They were nice and we ate them.

(nb I am not planning to move into food blogging)

Next up, the movies.

 

The Dark Knight Rises  AKA The New Batman Film is a certificate 12, but I was happy to take my 9 year old to see it in the cinema. It's quite a long film at 164 minutes, and if anything we preferred watching the Blu Ray over 3 nights at home. 

There's fighting and plenty of menace in the form of villain Bane which isn't for everybody. Director Christopher Nolan is a class act and this is a good film, though it is very serious and lacking in the humour that gives many superheroes their charm. You have to wait an awfully long time before the big bat actually puts in an appearance.

 

The Dark Knight Rises Blu Ray has a generous array of extras - over three hours' worth; plus a digital copy to download. All in all it's worth watching, worth buying but best suited to older kids and adults.

 

The other film we were sent, New Year's Eve is (in theory) more of a crowd pleaser. It's an ensemble piece (think Love Actually-style multiple storylines) with an all star cast including Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Sarah Jessica Parker, Halle Berry, Michelle Pfeiffer and oodles more.

 

There are less extras with this one, though you do get treated to John Bon Jovi singing with Glee's Lea Michele.

What you also get with New Year's Eve is a terrible, terrible reputation, as it comes saddled with many Worst Film of 2011 nominations. On its' release, this film attracted some of the stinkiest reviews known to cinema.

So if you're a film fan like me it's worth watching for that fact alone, to see how even with that many stars in the room, a bad script = bad film. It's quite astonishing how charmless it is really. Makes you wonder if the actors signed up to a different script.

On the plus side, with so many plot lines, there's always something happening (though sometimes not that much - one plotline involves Ashton Kutcher getting stuck in a lift). It's passable enough for a wet afternoon movie, just don't make it your big New Year's Eve film.

The Dark Knight Rises is out now on DVD and Blu Ray, priced from around £10. We were sent the Blu Ray which contains over 3 hours of extra material.

New Year's Eve is also out now on DVD and Blu Ray, priced from £10

Christmas gifts for kids aged 8-12

Children aged 8-12 can be hard to please. They have a definite idea of what they like, but it might not necessarily be what you the adult would expect or approve of. It could be anything from cuddly toys to wildly unsuitable video games.

The cliche about kids this age is that they're only interested in expensive bits of technology. But whilst you might not be able to get away with a stick and a cardboard box like you could with a toddler, many tweens still like the simple stuff.

So if you're trying to please one of these hard to please pre-teens, I wanted to pick out some of the biggest hits from products we've reviewed this year. Click through and you can read our full review.

• Claymation Studio by Honestech is undoubtedly our favourite product we've reviewed this year - and since we reviewed it, it's come down in price to £30. It's a system to let children make animated films, via a camera that looks like a dog. My children have gone back to it time and time again - it's creative, imaginative and easy to use. Doggycam is currently being put to work making a Lego animation. This is one dog you can give for Christmas.
• Lego video games are the ones to go for if you're buying for a junior gamer. We enjoyed Lego Batman 2 this year, but the older titles in the Lego video games series are worth revisiting because they will have come down in price now. Our favourite is Lego Harry Potter. These games are great for promoting co-operative play and (in theory) will encourage warring siblings to play nicely together.
• Stationery is a fairly safe bet for this age group. Notebooks, pens, things with owls on them etc. And if you've got a junior drawer in the house, my son would like to recommend How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. We love this book.
• Books in general are another good bet for this age group - if you can remember it as a classic from your own childhood then try it on a new generation. Black Beauty, The Hobbit, E Nesbit, Noel Streatfield and the rest. Here's our pick of books that even reluctant readers will like.

And if you are buying a Christmas gift for a pre-teen who's not your own and are scared you've got it wrong, then there is only one failsafe solution - tape a chocolate bar to it. Works every time.

What are your 8,9,10,11 & 12 year olds after this year?

Gandalf style: The Hobbit toys reviewed

This week Peter Jackson's long-awaited The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey reaches cinemas, and we'll be in the queue to meet it. In fact jammy JMR managed to wangle his way into a preview screening and has given it the thumbs up already.

We got very excited at the prospect of Hobbit toys when we spied Hobbit Lego plastered all over the most recent edition of The Lego Comic. But - my out of stock precious - it turns out this range has only limited availability this side of Christmas.

What's a Hobbit fan who wants to re-enact the film/book with teeny tiny figures to do?

Luckily, a new range of Hobbit toys and collectibles are available now from Vivid Toys, and we were sent some samples from the shire to review.

 

The Hobbit Five Figure Pack by Vivid Toys

It's fair to say that you will need to know your Tolkein pretty well or have seen the film to recognise the guys in The Hobbit Five Figure Pack. This pack includes: Bilbo Baggins with sword, bottle and bag; Thorin Oakenshield with sword and dagger; Kili Le Nain with bow and arrows; Fili Le Nain with hammer and swords and Dwalin Le Nain with three axes and dagger.

So as you can tell, weapon-wise they're totally tooled up. Normally I'm not keen on toys with weapons but these axes and knives are so teeny tiny you're unlikely to get stopped at customs.

The down side to this set is that the accessories are extremely small, so it's hard to keep the set intact without at least one sword disappearing inside the hoover. Also there's no Gollum or Gandalf, though they are available separately. 

The great part is that the figures are incredibly well detailed - they look just like their film counterparts. They move well too, with up to 12 points of articulation (toy-speak for: their arms, legs and head all move). My son liked that you could manipulate them and found them to be a lot of fun. He has blogged his Hobbit thoughts here.

We were also sent three of the individual packs of collectible Hobbit figures.

Each individual figure comes in gold, pewter or bronze coloured. These come in sealed packs containing one figure, but (like Lego Minifigures) you won't know which one you've got until you open it. Each pack contains one of the 17 figures in the set, a plinth to stand it on and a collector's card.

These are simpler figures whose arms and legs don't move - they're sort of cute and menacing at the same time. Coming to a cinema (and possibly a Christmas stocking) near you soon.

 

The Hobbit toys are available now in toyshops, online and in some branches of Waterstones.

Suitable for age 4+. The single collectible figures are around £2.50 each (best price I found was £1.99 at Forbidden Planet) and the five figure set is RRP £29.99 Amazon have it for £26).

Toblerones are forever: Christmas at the 99p Store

A terrible thing happened on our recent visit to 99p Stores.

They'd run out of Toblerones.

Although they did have the white ones which nobody likes. They were reduced to 89p, which is the 99p Store equivalent of saying I shun you.

And then we spotted it tucked away on a high shelf - The Last Toblerone.

Can you spot it too?

 

Perhaps somebody had tucked it away to come back for later. Too late, mate. You snooze you lose when it comes to bargain shopping. The Last Toblerone is long gone by now, in our house and in our tummies.

You may recall from earlier in the summer that we've been tasked with a reviewing mission by 99p Stores. This involves them giving us £50 worth of vouchers and us going forth on a bargain hunt the like of which has never been seen before (apart from the last time we did it).

After our last visit, weirdly enough, the big hit was the Abidec raspberry flavoured vitamins. I had to go back and re-stock several times, quite pleased as I did so to be paying 99p rather than the regular price of £4.50. But now the vitamins are out of stock, which is kind of the problem and also the thrill of discount stores - the stock is always changing.

Here's our Winter haul:  (Hand, model's own)

Highlights include: a mechanical pencil sharpener, miles of tinsel, a Christmas cracker for the cat and a week's day's supply of Viscount biscuits.

After the last round of blogger reviews, we discovered that Single Parent Dad had snared the best bargain of all - a foot grater! Naturally we wanted one too, so we splashed out and now have our own. Just the one though - don't want the kids to get spoilt.

On our recent visit to the Brighton 99p Store, we were mainly focusing on the Christmas range. And what a range it is - great Christmas crafts for kids and even pets are catered for. We particularly liked the felt stockings, ornaments and 4 Santa hats for (you guessed it) 99p

Of course, no visit to a discount store would be complete without something that's a bit WTF.

Queen sized belts anyone?

I guess they could come in handy if you're a royal lady of expanding girth. Yet this picture was taken before the royal pregnancy was announced. So not only do 99p Store bring you amazing bargains, now they're psychic as well.

All this and change from a pound. Merry Bargainmas!

 

What treasures have you found in a discount store lately?

Review: Epic Mickey 2 for Wii

Epic Mickey and me go back a long way. Back in 2010 I was taken to the E3 game show in Los Angeles by Disney to meet creator Warren Spector as the original video game was launched.  

So now here it is two years later, I'm in the rain in Brighton and Epic Mickey is back - and this time he's brought a friend.

In Disney's Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, you can play as Mickey Mouse and for the first time ever, Walt Disney's first cartoon star Oswald the Lucky Rabbit has gone game-style too.

The plot returns Mickey and Oswald to Wasteland, an alternate world filled with 80 years of forgotten Disney characters and theme park attractions.

Mickey is armed with his magical paint brush from the first game that produces both paint and thinner. Oswald is packing a powerful remote control that lets him command electricity. His character is either automatically controlled by the computer, or another player can take over the role.

The gameplay delves into the Disney archives, as we meet classic Disney characters. There's a real charm to this, as you'll spot elements from Disney cartoons you haven't seen for years.

A big change from the original Epic Mickey is that this time the characters speak - in fact, such is the attention to detail that they're voiced by the official voice actors of those characters. There are even a few songs, as play stops for a musical interlude.

Now given our personal history, I really wanted Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two to be a big hit in our house -  but alas it wasn't. We gave it a few goes but it just didn't engage the kids.

Partly this is because the plot picks up at the end of the original Epic Mickey, so it's hard to figure out what's going on if you haven't played it before. 

My 9 year old son is a keen gamer, but he found the controls on this too tricky. And it didn't help that the narrator would repeat the same thing over and over again - this was more annoying than helpful.

This game is a Certificate Pegi 7, but it's certainly not a babyish game and is more suited to players aged 8 and over. Younger players would probably enjoy something like Disney Universe a lot more.

The reviews on this one have been mixed, so just because it wasn't for us doesn't mean it won't be for you. I think the people who'll get the most out of it are the Disney geeks, who'll enjoy spotting the trivia and references.

Epic Mickey 2 - The Power of Two has just been released and is available in all major games formats, priced starting around £23. We were sent the Wii version to review.