Ravensburger Indigo Board Game Review

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Dragons and Fairy Dust

I love playing board games with the family. We often get out the snacks and have a board game night. It all gets very competitive with everyone wanting to win. I was very pleased when I was sent the new Ravenburger Indigo board game to try out.

The game is named Indigo after the deep shade of blue obtained from the Indian Indigo plant and the colours in the game are striking. With deep blues, golds and brightly coloured gems it is visually appealing before you even open the box. Inside the box is everything you need to play, the counters, the gems, the board and the hexagonal pathway pieces. Originally the counters and pathway pieces need to be popped out of a cardboard sheet. The box is cleverly designed so the pieces can all be put away in plastic insets so they don’t slip out.

A comprehensive instruction book is also provided, which comes in several different languages. My son was fascinated by this and was trying to find out what the same word was in different languages.

The game is aimed at age eight and above and can be played by four players. Setting up the board is easy. Each player gets six coloured counters and these are placed in sets of two round the edge of the board. These make the goal posts which you are aiming to reach. In the game below there were two players so we each had three goalposts marked by the red and blue counters.

There are seven blue hexagonal squares, six are placed round the edge of the board and one in the middle. On each of the edge hexagons a yellow gem is placed. In the middle is a blue gem and six green gems. The aim of the game is to build pathways to get the gems into your goal posts. This is done by picking up the hexagonal route cards, which are face down, and placing them on the board to form a pathway. The players take it in turn to place their route cards. It sounds very simple but it is actually quite tricky. You just think you are about to get a gem into your goal posts when the other player can divert the path toward his goal. If two gems collide on a path then both get removed from the game.

Gems mean points, the more gems you get the more points you get and the person with the most points wins. The blue gem is 3 points, the green ones are worth 2 and the yellows are worth one point.

Indigo is an absorbing strategy game which we really enjoyed playing. When you have finished playing the board almost looks like a work of art with the interconnecting paths spread across it. Every time you play it is different and the more players you have the more complex it is. This is a game we will be getting out on a regular basis as we really enjoyed playing it.

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of Indigo in order to do an honest review.

OiDroids Review

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Dragons and Fairy Dust

Have you ever dreamed of having a robot army to take over the world? OiDroids might be just the thing you have been looking for. OiDroids are new collectable trading cards aimed at Primary School children. They are a bit different from normal trading cards as each one contains a little robot that you can pop out and build.

Each pack contains four robot cards and at the moment there are 64 in total to collect. The robots are pictured on the inside of the packet so you can easily see which ones you have and which ones you need. My son quickly spotted that some were rare and some ultra rare that have foil on them.

The robot cards themselves are about the size of a postcard. The little robot model easily pops out and there is also a little data card which tells you all about the robot.

The OiDroids are really easy to build, you just fold along clearly marked lines and pop tabs into slots and a few minutes later you have your very own robot. There is no need for clue or scissors. How fab does he look? The printing quality is excellent.

My son loved these and is now in the process of building an ever expanding robot army (dreams of world domination).

At the moment you can only buy the cards via the OiDroids website which is a bit of a shame. I am sure we will be seeing them everywhere soon. The prices are reasonable, a pack of four costs £1.50, a multipack of 12 is £3.85. You can also sign up for an Annual Subscription for £15 which gets you a pack a month for a year and access to any new exciting Oidroid developments. This would be great for a gift. These are great value for money, they kept my son occupied for ages just making them and that was before he even looked at their abilities and setting his collection out to make it look good.

Disclosure: I was sent some OiDroids in order to do an honest review. I was not told what to write and my opinions are my own.

My Living World – Spider World Review

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Dragons and Fairy Dust

I am one of those strange people that likes spiders. It is just as well really because my husband hates them so I always have the fun of removing them from the bath. Luckily my son likes them as well. Recently we were sent My Living World – Spider World to try out. My son was quite excited at the thought of catching and keeping a spider and learning more about it.

Spider World is part of a range of products from Interplay which are endorsed by Nick Baker who is a TV nature specialist. My son is familiar with him from The Really Wild Show and also enjoys his Weird Creatures program. Spider World, and the other products in the range are aimed at children aged 7 to 12. Spider World includes everything required to help you become an expert about Spiders.

Opening the box we found various things to help us catch and keep a spider.
There was a glass box to keep it in and some cotton wool to plug the hole at the top of the box. This was meant to be kept wet using the pipette provided to ensure the spider had water to drink. Also included was a very interesting booklet.
The booklet was fascinating reading. It started off with information on how to find and catch a spider without hurting it. It also gave lots of information about the different types of spiders you were likely catch and the differences between them. My son was really interested by the booklet and we learnt a lot about different spiders.

Before we set of on our spider hunt we set up the glass box to make sure our spider was comfy. We collected some leaves and put some kitchen roll at the bottom. We also added a twig so it had something to swing off when it created its webs. We then searched the house for spiders. We pulled out chairs, looked behind cupboards and moved beds. Normally when we do this we find lots of spiders but this time we had no success. I wonder if the cold weather has stopped as many appearing. My son is still really keen to find a spider and add it to his Spider World. Hopefully when it’s a bit warmer we will manage to catch one. Even without finding a spider we learnt a lot and it was a fun way to spend an afternoon. The house is a lot cleaner as well which is a bonus.

The My Living World Kits are RRP £9.99. Spider World, Snail World and Ladybird World have been added to the range this Spring and join Worm World, Ant World and Triop World. I think I might try one of the others in the range as soon as we start seeing more insects. It is a great way to encourage an interest in nature.

Disclosure: I was sent Spider World to try out in order to do an honest review. I was not told what to write and my opinions are my own.

Ravensburger Science X: CSI Kit

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Dragons and Fairy Dust

Have you ever wanted to investigate a Crime Scene? Well with this new science kit from Ravensburger you can. The Science X: Crime Scene Investigation Kit is one of several Science activity kits aimed at getting children involved in Science. They are for children aged 8 and above.

The kit contains a lot of different activities which are related to investigating Crime Scenes. The enclosed instruction book guides you though each of the activities in detail. We follow German forensic biologist Dr. Mark Benecke who provides tips and instructions on how to examine clues and become a forensic expert.

There is quite a lot of reading involved so it is a kit that is best used with parental supervision. The activities are interesting and very in-depth. It is not a kit that can be completed in minutes, you need at least a couple of days or more to work though all the activities. Most of what you need is in the kit, but some of the experiments needed extra items so it is best to read the instructions first to make sure you have everything you need before you start.

My son really got involved with this activity kit. He had great fun taking fingerprints and trying to compare them to work out who had made them.

He also enjoyed collecting the evidence from the crime scene (living room) and adding it into the evidence bags. He did find a lot of dog hair which led him to the conclusion that the dog was a murderer, which I hope is not the case. He was particularly good at solving the crime themed logic puzzles. One involved looking at a scene before and after the crime occurred and working out from the pictures of the people who had committed the crime. He worked out the answer almost straight away while I was still puzzled.

The kit also had several more involved projects such as making a copy of a key from a mould and getting impressions of footprints and comparing tyre tracks. The activities were interesting and absorbed my son’s attention as well as being educational.

These kits are a great way to get children to learn about Science in a fun way and I will definitely be looking at the other kits in the range. In case you are not aware it is National Science and Engineering Week from 15th-24th March 2013 so what better time to try these kits?

Disclosure: I was sent the Ravensburger Science X CSI Kit in order to do an honest review. I was not told what to write and my opinions are my own.

The Trash Pack Scum Drum Review

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Dragons and Fairy Dust

If you have children you will probably know all about The Trash Pack or The Trashies. They are little plastic toys which are basically shaped liked monsters you can find in a garbage bin. They are collectable and you can buy them in packs of two, building up a collection of different sets. Now 100 new trashies are joining the group including Slime Bucket, Gutter Grub and Mouldy Mushroom. Children love to collect them and my son is no exception, the packs of two Trashies are available at pocket money prices.

If you have a lot of Trashies you need something to do with them and for Christmas there will be some new playsets. I was sent the Trash Pack Scum Drum playset to review, this gives you the chance to launch your Trashies into the ooze pit.

This actually seemed an appropriate thing to do with them given that they are Trashies. Parents will be pleased to know that the Trash Pack Scum Drum does not actually come with ooze but is a plastic representation of a pit.

Inside the pack you will find four Trashies which is great if your child has not started collecting them already.

These were the four I got, as you can see they are very strange looking things indeed but my son loved them. The only issue is that they are quite small and easily lost so make sure you get a container to put them in to keep them safe.

The Trash Pack Scum Drum set also contains the Scum Drum.

At the top are two holes to launch the Trashies into and the object is to get them to come out of the side holes, covered by the yellow plastic and into the orange bins below. If they get stuck in the cage you can flip the green lever with the skull on to open it. To flip the Trashies you use the launching platforms provided.

These also follow the trash theme. There is a small peg to place the Trashie on and then you just flip them using the lever. The lid opens and launches the Trashies into space. There is a slight knack to doing it but you soon get the hang of it. The aim is to get the Trashies into the hole in the top of the Scum Drum.

There are a number of different variation to the game which gives different ways to play. It is easy to set up and get started, my son could just get on with playing without any help from me. It can be played alone but also with friends. I had a game with my son and it is actually quite enjoyable trying to get the Trashies to hit the target. A simple game but good fun.

Scum Drum Playset is available at RRP £24.99

Disclosure: I was sent the Trash Pack Scum Drum Playset to review but was not told what to write and my opinions are my own.

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