Schleich Horse Riding Arena Review

I've always loved horses, I took riding lessons as a child and I'd love my own children to follow in my footsteps and learn to ride. There is a riding school in our local park and my youngest always takes an interest when the horses come trotting past, I don't think it will be long before she is asking if she can start lessons. In the meantime she was delighted to be sent the Horse Riding Arena from the Schleich World of Nature range to play with and review.

What's in the Box?

The box contains:

Arena roof (comes flat packed)

Perimeter fencing (10 pieces)

Rider

Horse

2 x Jumps

Accessories (including; saddle, bridle, blanket, hay bale and carrot)

Imaginative Play

After setting up which didn't take long at all, Elizabeth couldn't wait to start playing. She loves making the rider and horse go over the jumps again and again and even got excited and started jumping them over the fences! After a while of working hard the horse had a well deserved rest and a much on some carrots while Elizabeth dismounted the rider and covered the horse with it's blanket.

It was really sweet to watch her play, she was chatting along all the time and  noticed she had named the horse Rosie!

Considering there is no interactive stimulus to this set and it all relies on imaginative play  was impressed with how long it held Elizabeth's attention, at almost four ad a half this is the first time I have seen her spend so long playing with toys like this without her brother's input.

Value for Money

We've had a variety of Schleich toys and always found them to be of great quality with fantastic attention to details and this set was no exception.

The Schleich Horse Riding Arena has an RRP of £24.99 and is sold at Amazon and other toy shops. Prices fluctuate so you may get a better deal if you shop around. I'd say that you get a lot of play value for this price and the pieces are all excellent quality and seem hard wearing and durable.  I especially love how easy it is to dismantle and pop it away in the box then get it out again to play another day.

Just for fun, here's a picture of me as a toddler with one of the first horses I rode...

This post contains an affiliate link.

Racing Truck Technokit from Interplay - Review

My son Ben loves to build things and the idea of constructing his own battery powered Monster Truck that he could then play with, delighted him!

The Racing Truck Technokit from Interplay comes neatly packed in a cardboard box. Inside the box you get:

• Die Cut Cardboard Panels
• Axles
• Pulleys
• Pulley insert
• Electric motor
• Motor mount
• Foam wheels
• Drive band
• Battery box
• Colour Instruction Manual

As the kit is aimed at children 8 years and over and Ben is still a few months off that, he roped in Daddy to help.

They illustrated instruction sheet was easy to follow and they started popping the cardboard panels out straight away, some of these were a little stiff so Daddy had to help. Once the cardboard parts were fitted together it was time to get started on the axles and wheels, Ben really enjoyed this part as he could see it becoming recognisable as a car.

Fitting the motor and drive band were again a little fiddly so again Daddy provided some assistance.

The finished article looks fab and Ben couldn't wait to take it for a spin, it was reluctant to move on the concrete outside so we brought it to the wooden floors in the kitchen for a smooth racing surface...

The Racing Truck Technokit from Interplay has an RRP of just £9.99 and is available to buy from Amazon. It's an ideal gift for a child of 8+ to enjoy independently or a younger child to enjoy with the help of an adult. Ben got a real sense of accomplishment from building something almost on his own that he was then able to play with and loved that it had it's own 'engine'! From doing something that he saw as fun he was also learning and getting a practical understanding of how technology worked. It was great to see father and son working well together to create something so cool.

One thing to note is the kit doesn't come with batteries, so two AA's are needed, I would suggest getting these ready before you start building or you may end up having to 'borrow' some from the remote control like we did!

Once built it is safe for younger to children to join in the fun too. The reinforced card is sturdy and even the rough play of Ben's four year old sister could not destroy it! This isn't just a toy for chidren, I would recommend this for big kids too as I believe my husband would have been quite happy putting this together all on his own and keeping as a trophy on his desk!

We were sent this kit from Interplay to review, all thoughts and opinions are our own. Affiliate link.

Frozen Elsa's Magic Snow Sleeve Review

We love Frozen in our house, we recently went to see Sing-a-long-a Frozen and are very excited about the planned sequel in a few years and of course the special short; Frozen Fever that will be in cinemas alongside the new Cinderella Film from 27th March 2015! This bite sized follow up  will see our favourite characters; Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and Olaf reunited to celebrate Anna’s birthday and it will also feature an exclusive new song that i'm sure my children will soon be singing along to!

My daughter Elizabeth loves to dress up and although she can often be seen dressed as her favourite Marvel superheros she also loves to play princesses. She has had a beautiful Anna dress for a while and you can see some lovely pictures of it in our review, so she was delighted when we were sent a stunning Elsa dress from Rubies along with Elsa’s 2 in 1 magic snow sleeve from Flair!

The Dress comes with a detachable lace cape covered in snowflakes that is really very pretty. The dress itself is great quality with lots of detail including long transparent sleeves, sequin trims and a Queen Elsa motif on the front. Elizabeth usually wears age 4 - 5 clothes and the 5 - 6  (M) fitted her really well. Although not too baggy or loose it had plenty of movement for running round and playing in!

Of course as soon as it arrived we had to have a play!We added a tiara from our dressing up box and Elizabeth insisted I plaited her her 'just like Elsa's!' I even treated her to blue glittery nails to match... (she *may* have insisted I had coordinating nails too!)

Elsa's 2 in 1 Magic Snow Sleeve is the perfect addition to an Elsa dress up outfit to make princess play even more fun! In the box you get a stunning fabric sleeve with lace trim, a can of Frozen Snow Spray (essentially white silly string), a blue plastic water bottle decorated with snowflakes and the snow snow sleeve contraption itself, which is decorated with pretty patterns and the name Elsa.

The snow sleeve has two functions; the magic snow can can be attached and squirted out to create fun messy play or alternatively the pump action water bottle an be used in it's place for water spraying fun, perfect or hot sunny days!

We started off with the snow spray. The can fitted easily onto the mount which strapped on to Elizabeth's arm without any trouble, with the combination of the plastic and the can I worried that it may be heavy or uncomfortable on her arm, but it wasn't at all.  She was soon running around the front garden singing Let It Go at the top of her voice and lifting her arm to spray snow into the air!

It was lovely to see how excited she as to 'be just like Queen Elsa', all she had to do was lift her fingers and out came snow!

When the silly string runs out or if you'd rather have some water fun, you can easily replace this with the blue bottle provided filled with water. This has a pump action release so the water squirts out in short bursts rather than the longer streams of the silly string. Elizabeth did need to use more pressure to make this work than the can but she didn't mind and had great fun soaking me! I can see some interesting battles between Queen Elsa and my son's super soaker water gun coming up this summer! 

This set is aimed at children between 5 and 8 years old and I agree with that age range. Elizabeth will be five in a few months time and I would say that children younger than her may struggle to lift the 'trigger' with the back of their figures while children older than eight may find the straps tight on their wrists. (I *may* have attempted to try it on my own wrist to find this out...)

At an RRP of £29.99 this is a toy that is definitely worth it's price in play value, it will be the ideal gift for a little Frozen fan who would love to spray snow out of her fingertips just like Elsa! One thing I would mention is that the Snow spray runs out very quickly (around five minutes of continuous play) so you may want to factor in the cost of a few more cans of Silly String.

You can see the Elsa Magic Snow Sleeve in action in this two minute video we made:

 


Like this? Check out our other Frozen posts:

Disney Frozen Anna Dress

Singalong with Sing-a-long-a Frozen

LEGO Frozen Disney Princess: Elsa's Sparkling Castle

These products were sent to us for the purpose of this review. Contains affiliate links.