Netmums Review: Littlest Pet Shop Hamster Playground

My children love getting toys to try out and review. Unfortunately, having a girl and a boy of primary school age, toys are rarely unisex so one of them is generally going to be disappointed and we have strops about the unfairness of it all.

This week, it was Monkey who was disappointed as I was sent the Littlest Pet Shop Hamster Playground - really not his thing these days. I did my best to keep it away from him for a while - I forgot to hide the parcel before they came home from school one day and he spied the word "TOYS" on the box. He actually believed me when I said it was not toys then read the word "Hasbro" as "Hash Browns" so I got away with it for a day or two as he honestly thought he could eat the contents of the box. Bwahahaha.

So, yesterday afternoon, Missy Woo and I gave the toy a run for its money whilst he was at football. We had an hour or so. The first fifteen minutes were spent getting the toy out of its packaging. Grrr.... it's a pet peeve of mine but this seemed worse than normal. In particular, there were lots of what looked like small animals that were actually just cardboard cut-outs. There was sticky tape, double knotted thread, and some plastic clasps, bit of plastic, and that thin stretchy, almost invisible yarn. Honestly, is all that completely necessary when it's already in a cardboard box?

Once devoid of its packaging, there was thankfully little or no assembly to be done. The playground comes with two small animals - hamsters, I guess, d'oh! - but there is space to fit more on. I guess it's a collectible set, so they are encouraging you to buy more, but Missy Woo was a bit disappointed she couldn't put animals everywhere. Annoyingly, nearly all the promotional images I've seen of this on toy shop websites show up to 8 animals on the playground, giving the visual impression that they are all included. Please, don't do this - children of that age don't read the small print.

The playground consists of a hamster wheel, which you turn with a handle, a spinning hamster ball which is detachable for rolling around the room, and a spinning apple perch. There's a little house in the shape of a piece of cheese, and a cute little water bottle. It also has some tiny pieces of hamster food and a bed, which I'm sure to curse when I tread on them in the days to come. It's pretty solidly made, unlike some flimsy plastic toys. The animals need to be clicked into place on the wheel and perch which Missy Woo seemed to find quite hard to do at first. It was the same with the hamster ball - she had to ask me to twist it together properly.

That said, Missy Woo seemed to love it from the moment we (finally) got it out of the packaging. She told me that she thought it was great and that she loved the apple and the hamster ball best. She also said she might not play with it every day - go figure! She was however moved enough to draw a picture of it, which she insists she is going to take into school to show everyone what her new toy looks like. She also made me take a photo of this masterpiece so that I can share it with you all. Here, then, is Missy Woo and her tribute to the Littlest Pet Shop Hamster Playground.

All in all, I thought this was pretty good value, although I can't help feeling it would be better with more figures to play with. And much less packaging.

Oh, and true to form, Monkey came home from football and promptly threw a tantrum about not having his own toy. Hopefully, we'll have a boy toy to review soon. At which point, Missy Woo will sulk. I can't win.



Littlest Pet Shop Hamster Playground is widely available. I found it for £14.99 in Argos but it's more usually £19.99.

I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network. I am paid an expenses fee to cover my time but Netmums have no editorial control whatsoever about what I blog about. Being a member of the Netmums Blogging Network means that I get to try out products and brands and get my expenses covered but that I retain full editorial integrity.

Review: Some stocking filler ideas

Toys R Us are still sending us lots of toys to review. So that the kids don't get overwhelmed, we've held some of them back til Christmas so you may well get a mega post from us over the festivities. 

But there are lots of smaller things we've been sent that I thought I'd mention. 

Back in September, we reviewed the Hello Kitty Plaster Rotator Creator which was a qualified success. Since then, we've been sent two more plaster based craft kits to try out. The first one is the Ben 10 Shaker Maker (£9.99) which, of course, appealed to Monkey. There are two moulds - one of Ben10 himself and one of him in Heatblast form. You pour the plaster straight into the moulds and you shake, oddly enough, to create the models. This was far more successful than the Rotator Creator at creating a good mould first time round. Obviously, Monkey was not impressed about the overnight wait to let it dry fully, but what can you do? He liked painting the mould. This required less adult supervision but still, even though it is suitable for 5 year olds and upwards, it still needed adults around to keep an eye and do some of the steps. 

And then there was the Galt Cute Cupcakes Kit (£5.99). The moulds on this are tiny as they make 4 mini cupcakes (in two halves) and a cake stand to put them on. The moulds are in a tray like a silicon baking tray. What we found this with this is that the instructions left you with a lot of plaster mix even after all the moulds had been filled. Luckily, we had some spare moulds from something else and still filled all of those too! Missy Woo was delighted with these - and she enjoyed painting them in the pretty pastel colours supplied. They also come with glitter glue which is sparkly girly heaven for a 4 year old. Again, she needed some adult help but still, it was more successful than the Hello Kitty stuff as the models are more robust, but maybe the instructions need looking at to make sure they are correct. 

Moving on from plaster moulds to construction, we also got sent a K'Nex Construction Case (£9.99), which contained all the parts and connectors - and instructions - to build 10 different vehicles. This is great for a child who is showing an interest in building things as the construction ideas go from simple ones to more difficult ones, which means it will remain useful as your child develops the skills to build more complicated models without it being too advanced to start with. We love it for this, as it makes it very good value for money. 

And finally, we were sent the Littlest Pet Shop Blythe Sitters - Perfectly Plaid (£12.99). Now, Blythe dolls have largely passed me by but I can't help to notice the increasing proliferation of them around so I assume they're popular. I'm also guessing, judging by the price, that these aren't the real deal. No matter. The set comes with the doll, fetchingly dressed in a riding hat, woolly jumper, and plaid mini skirt plus her pet horse, a doll stand and a comb as well as a few small accessories that are very sweetly done. These are good for children who love dolls, but as I have pointed out before, Missy Woo, although she oohs and ahhs when she sees stuff like this, she's really not that into dolls and not that bothered about playing with it often. A little girl into dolls would love this more than her. Or you could keep it in a box, and boast you have a Blythe doll. Just don't try selling it on ebay as "authentic". I don't think you'd get away with it - the dolls are really very small! 

Hope your kids' stockings are now suitably filled! Come back soon for some more Toyologist reviews. 

(I was provided with the above toys to review and have received no other compensation. The opinions stated here are my own, and have not been influenced by the aforementioned compensation.)