Toyology Review - Jumbo Colouring Pad (Blue)

A few years ago on the He-Man forum I frequent stumbled upon by complete accident, someone decided to put together a colouring book of (you've guessed it) He-Man pictures! Everyone was invited to draw something that could later be stuck together in one big pdf file for everyone to download and hand to their kids to scribble all over.

The problem was that a lot of people didn't seem to understand what was required of a picture for a colouring book. Many just sent in black and white versions of some of the art they had been working on, not pictures they'd drawn especially for children to colour. It was highly detailed and would have been impossible for an adult to colour within the lines, never mind a child to manage.

Imagine asking a 4 year old to build a 1:1 scale model of the Eiffel Tower out of Meccano - it was that level of difficulty.

Thankfully, there's no such problem with this pad from Melissa & Doug.

This has been put together by people who know a thing or two about colouring. The pictures are large and bold and excellent for using chunky crayons, pens or paint to colour them.

My masterpiece. Shortly before someone scribbled all over his head.

The cover claims that the pad is suitable for all the colouring utensils I listed above so we decided to test it out on this rather fetching picture of a car with extraordinarily large wheels. The paper is of sufficient quality that it'll take felt-tip pen without it soaking through to the other side, so they could - if Mel & Doug had really wanted to - have put pictures on both sides of the page. They didn't however, so when it comes to the much wetter activity of painting, a child doesn't have to choose which picture to sacrifice in order to paint the other.

I was this close to writing that the pages easily tear from the pad, but as I was doing so my 4 year old son managed to rip one in half as he pulled it out, so now I have no idea what to say. My 2 year old managed it fine. Make up your own minds.

I may be stating the obvious if you've read this far and seen the pictures but the pad is definitely aimed at boys, and therefore anything that maims, kills or destroys. Dinosaurs, cars, pirates, crocodiles - expect these in abundance.

And so finally we come to the opinion of a baby. Since Baby is female, her opinion will doubtless be essential if you're thinking of buying this for a girl.

Thank you, Baby!

In today's review we saw that rushing ahead without thinking leads to accidents. Sometimes this results in something minor like a picture being torn, but sometimes it can end in a greater disaster. Rushing across the road without stopping and looking carefully can end up with you having to stay in hospital, or even worse. Whether working at school, or playing with your friends, make sure you always take your time and act with care and consideration for yourself and those around you. Until next time...

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