12 Days of Christmas Toys - On the eighth day of Christmas...

So it's getting to the point where you can't really deny it any more, Christmas is well and truly on it's way, before you know it, the presents will be unwrapped, the dinner eaten and the living room scattered with toys. So for those of you who are still looking for the perfect toys for your family, that hopefully won't be discarded in favour of the wrapping paper, over the next 12 days I am going to be featuring  a variety of toys aimed at a range of ages from toddler to teen.

We will also have some giveaways to help you get an extra present under the tree!

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love  Santa gave to me...

                                                     

Go Mini Freestyler Tiger

 Go MINI from golden bear bring you fast action stunts and ultimate style to any Christmas wish list this year!

Go MINI Crew-zers are the perfect stocking filler gift to start a collection. There are five super cool styles each with its own character name, such as Chilli the red hot Crew-zer and Jaxx the patriotic royal blue dude emblazoned with a Union Jack.

The show offs of the forecourt, however, are the Go MINI Stunt Racers. There are six to collect* and each comes with two modes – race and stunt, with every car having a different unique stunt. The Stunt Launcher is a must have accessory and will auto charge any of the six Stunt Racer cars. Just position it on the launcher, pump up the power to see the rev counter climb and hear the engines roar. Once charged it’s ready to launch so press the start button and watch as the car speeds ahead or performs a stunt!

Alternatively, the Go MINI Freestylers have their own unique and quirky features that make them a truly customised crew!  

Ben reviewed the Go Mini Stunt Launcher earlier in the year and he was thrilled to have another from the collection to play with! The Go Mini Freestyler Tiger looks the part, decorated in bright orange and black colours with a changing tiger graphic on the roof that really fascinated him, but the 'icing on the cake' had to be the Roaring sound it makes when you touch the windows! This gave him a fright the first time, as he activated it unintentionally while picking the car up, but now he won't stop doing it and I seem to have the noise constantly in my head! Despite the 'noise' this is a really good quality toy that I would recommend as a stocking filler for both boys or girls this Christmas...

Go Mini Review

Last month I was lucky enough to go down to London and visit the Christmas in July toy event! As you can imagine I had great fun playing with all the toys! One particular range that caught my attention was Go Minifrom Golden Bear...

    

As you may know I usually prefer wooden toys to plastic battery operated noisy things, however having young children, they are inevitably attracted to brightly coloured plastic toys! So there has to be a compromise and that's why I was so impressed with the toys on offer from the Go Mini range.

They were bright and colourful enough to appeal to Ben (and Elizabeth of course, anything her big brother's got, she wants too!) but they are also well made and sturdy and best of all don't take batteries!

There is a good selection in the range and we were thrilled to be sent the Stunt launcher to review, which comes with its own exclusive stunt racer. There are 5 more to collect that each have an individual stunt. All of these would also work with the stunt launcher.

 

As soon as Ben saw the box he got excited! What 4 year old boy doesn't love cars?! After getting out of the box (From a mummy point of view I was impressed with this, instead of those annoying twisty wires that I'm used to battling with every time my children get a new toy, there were simple plastic discs to turn which release the toy from it's box quickly and easily and before Ben started to get impatient!)

The set consists of just two pieces, the launcher and the racer, so there are no small, fiddly parts at all, because of this I feel that it may reach under it's recommended age range of 3 - 6, Elizabeth, who is 20 months was fascinated with it and loved carrying the launcher around by it's chunky handle!

And so to the playing...

The launcher has a big chunky handle, a large faced dial, a pull back lever and a start button. After securing the racer on to the ramp (this was a little fiddly and Ben needed help with this the first few times) He proceeded to pump the lever back and forth, both him and his younger sister were very impressed with the revving noise it made while he did this! As he pumped, the needle on the die rose and as it reached the top he pushed the start button to see it race off! At first it wasn't going as fast as we expected, until I realised we had it in stunt mode! Once I switched to race mode, boy did it go!!

After the first few goes where I showed him what to do, Ben can easily do this independently now and it seems to be his go to toy at the moment, being played with most days! It also seems to make a regular appearance in the evening when Daddy gets home from work, I wonder why?!

I like the fact that the stunt racer can be used separately so when we've been visiting family and I only want him to take a small toy along he's quite happy to take just the car and 'pull back' to play.

This is a great set and seems very well made and good quality so it will stand being bashed around by an enthusiastic pre - schooler. At around £20 for the set and £10 for the individual stunt racers it's quite good value for the quality and of course the 'mini' brand! To be honest the link in with the brand is lost on Ben, at four he loves playing with cars, but has no concept of brands and their merchandise. It does however appeal to my (big Kid at heart) Hubby and I'm sure it would have pull with older children.

Needless to say , this set has been a huge hit in our house and I think some of the other cars in the Go Mini range will be making an appearance on Ben's (and possibly Daddy's) Christmas list this year!