Toyology Review: Bakugan Mechtavious Destroyer

I really like Bakugan. Whereas electronic toys get all the press for being clever and inventive, I am much more impressed by the engineering that went into getting a bunch of little spheres to spring out into a huge variety of creatures via a magnet/metal card.

Mechtavious Destroyer, the internet tells me, is one of the main villains from the cartoon. He consists of 4 little biomechanical guys and is definitely not a sphere. The design is a bit...weird. I'm not exactly sure what the guys are supposed to be. Obviously there are restrictions on how things will look when it has to hold into a ball, but these guys don't fold up so the designers could make them look however they liked. And of all the limitless designs they could have chosen, they went with Weird.

Articulation is limited and you can't pose these guys very well. Each of the little chaps retains the 'place a bit of metal on a certain place and something pops out' element from the Bakugan spheres, however what springs out isn't especially clever, which made me a bit sad.

Stand the little 'uns on top of each other and they form Mechtavious Destroyer. The instructions aren't the easiest of things to follow and it's far, far easier to just look at the picture on the box to see how they're supposed to combine. Basically, they stand on top of each other. The faces of the little guys are still visible, MD retains all the little legs of the individual robots, and there's nothing that really meshes the four together into one large creature.

If you asked my boys about Bakugan they wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about. Mention 'Transformer Balls' instead and they'd be covering the radiator in the things from their toy box to show you how they worked. It was only when they saw the metal card in the box that they realised that MD was from 'Transformer Balls', but since MD doesn't really transform they had little interest in it.

If your child watches the cartoon or plays the card game then I'm sure MD will go down well, but as a toy on its own MD isn't that great and doesn't fit particularly well with the spheres/pyramids/cubes etc that have already been released.

Toyology Review: Redakai Championship Set

Eons ago I used to play the Star Trek Collectable Card Game made by Decipher. I say 'play' but mostly I just collected the cards because I didn't know anyone else who played. Which makes me wonder why I bothered, but 'reflection' reveals so many things at all too late a stage.

I attempted to teach my family how to play, but the rules were a bit complicated and they quickly gave up. Which was a bit sad. Though not quite as sad as playing a Star Trek Collectable Card Game.

Time moves on and one of the newest collectable card games on the market is Redakai. There are any number of similar card games available at the moment, so a new one has to have a definite hook, something that clearly sets it apart from its competitors.

Spin Master have gone for making the cards look as good as possible. And, well, these cards are pretty darn awesome-looking.

I must have sat for hours now, rocking the cards back and forth in my hand and watching the little animations. They're brilliant creations and, though I will admit I'm no expert in the field, they seem to me to be a step up from everything similar available. You might get some special 'rare' cards having these kinds of lenticular images, but every single card?

Eventually, however, the boys grew impatient and demanded to actually play the game. The rule booklet looks intimidating, but reading through, the rules weren't too complicated. There are two different versions of the game - basic & advanced. With the Championship Set you get more than enough cards for the basic game, though an additional set is required to place the Advanced.

We ended up playing a hybrid of the two, along with a few House Rules. Both 5 year old and 3 year old were easily able to understand the rules and really enjoyed playing. I had one game, but kept being shouted at because I kept tilting the cards back and forth and forgetting to have my go.

They really are very pretty cards.

And since they're made from plastic, not card, they're hard-wearing and drink spillages from younger siblings won't do any damage. Phew.

There are more than enough cards in this set to trial the game and if a child becomes a fan they'll politely ask their pocket-money provider for additional funds for more cards. And with the rules simple, there's no excuse for a parent not to play with their opponent-less child!