My children have never read any Harry Potter books and they've never watched any of the films. I've read a bit of one of the books, but that was only skimming through to find out which character died. I went to the cinema, however, to watch 1-6. 7a &b await me at some point.
My journey through the LeapFrog product catalogue continues, this time time with the Scribble & Write.
A letter is shown in lights on the screen and the child has to write over it with the pen. An extremely happy voice-over person states what the letter is and how to pronounce it. The S&W does both upper and lower case letters & there's a 'game' mode where lights slowly appear on the screen and the child has to guess which letter it's going to be.
It's a bit like an interactive version of this, but now you actually get to write on the screen -
I was a little unimpressed when I got this out of the box. How much fun can writing letters be? How is this any better than a pen and piece of paper? Turns out I know nothing, and to a 4 year old it's fantastic! Yes, my little monster will happily sit there writing letters on the screen for hours on end a lot longer than I thought he would. At one stage there were 3 children crowding round it trying to guess the letter.
Unlike a similar (in premise) game we have for the LeapPad (the name of which I can't remember), there's no feedback provided for the letter writing. You could scrawl anything and the S&W won't know if you've done it correctly or not. I haven't found this to be too much of a problem. It's easy for a 4yo monster to see for himself if he's doing it right or not, and a 2yo monster can try his best without being put off by lots of 'that isn't quite right!' cries from the S&W (since his motor control isn't spot-on, he got very frustrated playing the LeapPad game). He was very proud when he managed to write three-quarters of an 'H'.
The biggest flaw (/annoyance) with the S&W is the horribly, HORRIBLY annoying music it insists on playing all the time. It's so annoying that every time it starts up I want to get something pointy, shove it down my ears and destroy my eardrums.
No, I'm not exaggerating. It really is that annoying.
The other problem is that you can't use it outside or anywhere brightly lit as you can't see the lights.
At under £20 (currently reduced to £14.97 on the TRU website) it's reasonably priced and perfect for any child who's just starting to write letters.
Just ensure you stick the children in another room while they're playing with it.
Other Toyology reviews can by found in the Toys R Us Toy Box on Facebook.
It is a time when big hair is BIG. When plasma balls are exciting and ridiculously expensive. When holograms are taking over the world. It is the time of the Visionaries!
It's the 80s and you're after a new gimmick. Holograms are proving to be a big hit. 3D without glasses! How awesome is that?! It's not long before Hasbro rolls out Visionaries and Tonka has Supernaturals.
Considering the line is based completely on a gimmick (because no other toy line is, obviously), the storyline for Visionaries isn't half bad. Sure, a few of the details in the cartoon are a little...suspect because they have to fit with what accessories, etc, come with the toys, but generally the idea of a society losing all its technology and regressing back to magic is pretty interesting.
The figures themselves are incredibly well articulated for an 80s line. More importantly they come with the most child-demanded accessory for any toy: removable helmets!
There is a bit of a problem with getting these guys to stand up. I know of more than one person who's resorted to blu-tak to get the things to stand up for display. Getting them to hold their staffs is another problem since - oddly - their hands aren't really shaped to grip them.
There were four vehicles released for the line - one small & one large each for the baddies & goodies. These are pretty basic, but they do have a bunch of holograms all over them to make up for it.
One of the problems these days is the state of the holograms. Quite a few of the figures around have either lost the sticker from their chests, or the hologram isn't quite as hologrammy as it once was.
Also worth noting: drop figure on lump of metal & you will break figure's crotch. Ouch.
The toyline only lasted one year - 1987. The initial release of 12 figures was never followed up by the second wave of 18. The comic lasted 6 issues before being cancelled and the cartoon ended after 13 episodes (along with every other cartoon made by Sunbow as it lost its contract).
I was fortunate to buy almost a complete set of Visionaries figures at Memorabilia earlier this year for not very much money. On ebay, individual figures seem to be listed at around ~£20 each which is a bit pricey.
