Toyology Review: Spin Mania

Ah, Drumond Park. Home of the simple yet fun games. I was slightly disappointed with the last one I played, however I'm very happy to report that Spin Mania is a return to form.

One player takes the three stands and places them around the room. The other player tries to get spinning disks on the stands as quickly as possible. The time is recorded and the players switch over. Easy peasy lemon squeasy.

It's not long before children start getting clever with the placement of the stands and House Rules come into play to ensure it's physically possibly to get disks onto them (no hiding them in another room, down jumpers, in the fridge...). You also have to watch that small children aren't knocking your disks off behind your back when you're going to get the next one.

The box has an age recommendation of 6+ however after a couple of practice goes my 4 year old was more than capable of playing. It's possible to play with any number of people (although there are only 4 markers for the timer) so a perfect family game for over Christmas. It does require moving/bending (depending on where the stands have been put) so might not be best for any elderly relatives.

But really the only downside to his game is the size of the box. It's no exaggeration to say the box could be a third of the size, if not a quarter. It's completely ridiculous being the size it is and makes storing it really, really annoying. Either I end up storing a load of air, or I have to hunt round and find something smaller to put it in.

Toyology Review: Pumpazing

I'm usually a big fan of Drumond Park games, but this one I'm not so sure about. Each player pumps the arms until a bit zings off. If Ziggy says 'uh-oh' you lose. Simple as.

It's definitely lacking something. It might be that there are only 4 shooty-out bits so the tension doesn't build up quite enough before the 'uh-oh'. Maybe it's because if you're not paying complete attention you can miss what sound Ziggy made. Maybe it's because it shoots on every person's turn. The zinging is too common and therefore not a surprise when it happens, unlike, for example, something like Pop-Up Pirate.

That said, it's a quality toy and while we haven't played it a hundred times over, the children do keep picking it up just to shoot the zingers off (and then have a jolly time hunting round the room trying to find them again). I wouldn't rush out and buy Pumpazing, but I wouldn't start thinking up excuses if I was asked to play. It's just that it could have been a bit better.

Toyologist Review: Foooz Pro Match Set

We had a table football game when I was small. It was awesome. I have many happy memories of that table. I'd still have it now, no doubt, except somehow along the way one of the players managed to have his legs snapped off. It became a bit of a handicap for that player afterwards.
I didn't play again until I arrived at uni. There was a table in the common room. It was here that I learned that 'spinning' was frowned upon, which meant a complete change of tactics from those I'd used for the past 15-odd years.

Foooz is based on table football (or 'foosball', which I suppose is where they took the name from), but you only play with one man, who you pick up and move about. I've played with a few Drumond Park toys and they always manage to take a simple idea and make it a lot of fun. Foooz is no different.

Stupid name aside (can you imagine asking for it in a shop?), Foooz is a lot of fun and I can imagine a lot of children (and parents) crawling about on the floor playing with it. I will hold my hand up and admit I'm one of them.

nb Coming soon to ToysRUs.co.uk!

Toyologist Review: Pig Goes Pop

£16.99 from Toys R Us.

I went to university for…well, it was a long time.  It was there that I met my wife (this is good) and Andy (this is…well, he’s left the country now. Phew!). While I was there, in between eating Snickers Pie, ‘working from home’ and dressing like a crazy person, I did quite a lot of Research.

Before this game arrived I did some Research on the internet. I found the official website and discovered the following –

‘Quite a few throws later, the ever-expanding pig will have reached max in the digestion stakes - and 'explodes', to everyone's delight!’

It may just be because I’ve watched quite a lot of horror films, but I was quite scared by this description. First, that this pig was going to ‘explode’ all over my living room, and second, because 2-6 players aged 4 & up would be ‘delighted’ to see this rather messy event.