Superhero Dream Team

My boys have been challenged to come up with their Superhero Dream Team which is right up their street as they are both big Superhero fans with loads of toys and books featuring the likes of Batman, Spiderman and Hulk.

So this is who they chose and why.

Spiderman because of his amazing webtastic skills.
Hulk for his amazing super strength.
Yoda because of his wise old ways even though he can forget them.
Harry Potter for his magical abilities.
Captain Underpants for being a super powered potty hero.

Regular readers may not be surprised that the boys mentioned Spiderman and Hulk first, as they have featured on the blog previously.

So I’d love to hear who would be in your Superhero dream team? If you need some inspiration, try comics as your starting point. There are lots of comic book collections on the invaluable marketplace.

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Disclosure. I have not received anything for this post. All opinions are my own. 

My two young Superheroes

My boys are both Superhero fans with plenty of toys and books featuring the likes of Batman, Spiderman and Hulk, so who else was I going to ask to help me test out a Marvel Spiderman pen that I have received free to review from Cross.

They immediately decided that Superhero dressing-up was in order, so we have two Spidermen accompanied by two Hulk bears.

I asked son1 to use the Spiderman pen to make his mark by answering the following questions.
• Tell us about your favourite superhero and why?
• If you could choose one superhero power, what would it be?
• If you were a superhero for a day what would you do?

And here are his answers.

And son2 also answered the second question.

You can see we appear to have a Hulk bias in their answers. I blame the bears! With all that smashing going on, I think I had better choose invisibility as my own superhero power.

Cross have just launched this new series of fine writing instruments featuring the most prominent icons of the Marvel Universe – Iron Man, Captain America, and Spiderman. This ties in with the new Marvel movie, Captain America: Civil War which will be out in the cinema at the end of this week.

We will have our fingers crossed that son1’s blood counts will be high enough for a cinema visit. We’re all certainly counting down the months to the end of his chemotherapy when our lives can regain a sense of normality. No more worrying about picking up a bug which could be potentially life-threatening. He has been such a superhero throughout his treatment.

The pen we received is the Tech2 style, which transforms from a ballpoint pen to a stylus in a flash, so great to use on the iPad too. It is finished in a metallic lacquer and displayed in a Marvel themed gift box. This style of pen currently retails at £30, but is also available in the brand’s evolutionary Century II rolling ball style for £95.

This dual-use pen would be an especially great gift for Dads.

The Cross Marvel collection can be purchased online at www.cross.com and at select retailers. You can access the online store locator for more details.

So I’d love to hear who is your real life super hero or your answers to the questions that I asked the boys?

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Disclosure. This post is a review of a product I was sent for free. I will also receive 2 free tickets for the new Marvel movie, Captain America: Civil War after this review is published. All opinions are my own. 

Heroes aren’t born, they’re made – more Sprükits

What makes a hero? You do.

Regular readers of my blog may remember how excited the boys were when we received four free Sprükits from Bandai last month for them to construct. I already blogged about the fun they both had constructing the level 1 kits.

They have now moved up from level 1. Son2 got the level 2 Batman Dark Knight Rises whilst son1 got the level 3 Halo Master Chief.

Bearing in mind that son2 is below the target age 8+, he did really well. He assembled it in phases over the course of a few days. There were some bits where he asked me to help to put the pieces together and sometimes when I had to assist to undo pieces that were back-to-front. But I expect that may have possibly been my fault in the first place.

Son1 also took a few days, but he needed no help at all, even though this was the most complex kit of all.

They both had no trouble twisting the pieces off the Sprü this time, having learnt how to do that a few weeks ago with the level 1 kits.

We found that both kits had several spare hands in different positions, open and closed. These didn’t appear to be mentioned, but I think it is so they can be swapped, as currently the assembled models are holding guns.

These construction toys are recommended for age 8+ and they retail at amazon, argos, the entertainer, smyths, tesco and toymaster. Level 1 kits have over 30 pieces with an RRP of £8.99. Whilst the larger level 2 kits with 20+ moveable joints have an RRP of £15.99. And finally the most challenging level 3 kits have over 150 pieces with an RRP of £49.99. So something to suit all budgets. The full list of Sprükits is displayed in their catalogue. No cutting, painting or glue is required.

You can see the TV commercial here.

I have been very impressed with all the kits. The boys have had great fun building them and then playing with them afterwards. I consider that Level 1 and Level 2 kits are very good value for money, but in my opinion, the Level 3 is a bit over-priced.

And last time I hosted a giveaway courtesy of Bandai for a Batman Dark Knight Rises Sprükit, just like the one son2 has made. This has now closed and the lucky winner is Michelle P.

I’d love to hear what you or your family have ever made from a kit?

Disclosure.  This post is a review of products I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.

Heroes aren’t born, they’re made – Sprükits review and giveaway

What makes a hero? You do.

The boys were really excited when I opened the big parcel that has just arrived and saw it was packed full of toys. We had received four free Sprükits from Bandai for them to construct.

There were two level 1 toys, one level 2 and one level 3 toy. They are all targetted at age 8+ but son2 didn’t want to be left out of the fun, so they each started with a level 1 toy. Son1 got The Joker and son2 got Batman.

They both love building lego but neither of them had come across this type of toy before. We opened the boxes and put everything on a tray each. I showed them how they would identify each piece by its number and letter and left them to follow the instructions themselves, reminding them to leave the pieces on the Sprü until they were ready to use them. No cutting, painting or glue is required.

Son1 immediately got the hang of it and needed no help at all. Son2 was initially a little unsure of how to twist the pieces off the Sprü, but was fine by about piece 3. He also demanded help when some of his pieces didn’t stay together too well. I felt it just needed a little more force to snap them together, but remember he is under the target age for this toy. He also has the same issue with Lego.

I was amazed how quickly son1 finished making The Joker and son2 wasn’t that far behind with Batman. They then had great fun role playing with their models.

These construction toys are recommended for age 8+ and they retail at amazon, argos, the entertainer, smyths, tesco and toymaster. Level 1 kits have over 30 pieces with an RRP of £8.99. Whilst the larger level 2 kits with 20+ moveable joints have an RRP of £15.99. And finally the most challenging level 3 kits have over 150 pieces with an RRP of £49.99. So something to suit all budgets. The full list of Sprükits is displayed in their catalogue.

You can see the TV commercial here.

Batman Dark Knight Rises Sprükit

The next project is to move on to building the level 2 and level 3 Sprükits. I’ll do a separate blog post to tell you how the boys get on with those. But I certainly was very impressed with both the level 1 kits, plenty of fun and good value for money in my opinion.

In the meantime, I’m hosting a rafflecopter competition to giveaway a Batman Dark Knight Rises Sprükit (level 2 kit) to one lucky winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway – Please click on the link to enter.

And you may see my other giveaways here.

I’d love to hear who is your favourite super hero.

Disclosure.  This post is a review of products I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.