UniVerse | Slimy Unicorn Collectibles - Review

[AD/Gifted products - We received these toys free of charge for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to buy anything through a link on this page, I will earn a few pennies at no extra cost to you.]

My daughter E is like any typical five year old girl - unicorn obsessed! Add slime into the mix and you've got the perfect toy.

UniVerse are emoji-themed clouds that need to be submerged in water to reveal a surprise inside.

We filled our bowl with slightly warm water and E set to work dunking a UniVerse cloud inside. After a few seconds, the cloud disintegrates and the water turns into slime! As a parent, I am not a fan of slime at all but E loves it. She wasn't too fussed of the texture and smell of this one though, I think it does depend on how much water you use and what temperature it is - maybe we used too little!

The slime/water turns a different colour, for each cloud this gives you a clue as to which world the UniVerse unicorn is from; orange for Sweet Treats Landing, yellow for Pet Party Peak, Red for Nummy Bay, Pink for Glam-a-Ganza Land, purple for Superstar City, blue for Funtasyland and green for Mist-terious Land.

You will then find four blind bags ready to be opened. Inside, you'll discover your unicorn, some accessories, a best friend for your unicorn and a card with more information about your new unicorn such as what their favourite food is, their likes and dislikes and how uni-que or rare they are. These work like scratchcards and it is recommended to use your unicorns horn to scratch them off but we found the hoof worked better.

There is a collector's sheet that comes with each cloud so you can tick off who you get and you will also find a key that tells you if they are special in any way. We managed to get a good variety in our UniVerse clouds with unicorns from a few different lands as well as a translucent one and a glow in the dark one! My personal favourite was definitely my namesake - Bun Appetit Becca! 

As much as I disliked the mess, E absolutely loved the idea of UniVerse as they are a little bit different. The unicorn characters are great as they have their own little personalities and can be used in lots of different types of play.

UniVerse from Spinmaster retail at around £9.99 each but are available from Smyths at £4.99 at the time of publication.

Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Royal Snowball Jewellery Box Dozen - Review

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One of E's favourite toys over the past couple of years have been Hatchimals CollEGGtibles. We love how they always add something new and she finds it so exciting trying to collect all the characters from the series.

It is Hatchimals Week of WOW over social media this week and each day, the Spinmaster Twitter account will be giving away that day's featured Hatchimals toy and you can read reviews of the toy from a selection of bloggers. There will also be a Twitter party on the Spinmaster account on Saturday 9th November at 6pm where you will have the chance to win more prizes and discuss the range. 

I knew the Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Royal Snowball Jewellery Box Dozen would be a huge hit with E as she loves all things fancy and wintery which, judging by the name, I thought these would be.  

The 12 pack comes in a egg box style and upon opening you'll find two Hatchimals characters that aren't in eggs and 10 that still need to be "hatched". The eggs themselves in this set are beautiful and glittery and we love the colours. E instantly exclaimed "Ooh, the dark blue is very royal!" 

If you have never had Hatchimals CollEGGtibles before, in order to hatch the animals out, you simply rub the purple heart motif on the front of the egg. It will start to turn pink from the heat and then begin to crack. You can then break it apart and see who's inside.

You get a collector's sheet and before you've even opened any eggs, you can see that there are loads to collect. They are split into types and the egg colour refers to whether they are common, royal rare, ultra rare or limited edition so you have some sort of an idea about who will be inside.

E was super lucky and got one limited edition (Salon Foxfin from the "Glitter Salon" in the Royal Hatch range) and two royal rare ones (Royal Koalabee and Royal Pandor from the "Polar Royals" in the Royal Snowball range). We also only got one dupe which E has declared must mean that they are twins.

The concept of Hatchimals CollEGGtibles are so much fun. It is similar to the surprise of a blind bag but makes it a little more fun. The plastic egg box can then be saved to store your animals in so that they don't get lost. One thing that is different about Royal Snowball from the Hatchimals CollEGGtibles that we've owned before is that not only do you get an animal in the eggs, but most will come with accessories too. Some of ours had scarves, hats, crowns and even a little snowman - adorable!

We can't wait to collect the rest!

Luvabella Newborn - Review

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Ever since E was a baby herself, she has loved dolls and that love has only grown as she's gotten older. She enjoys playing mummy, looking after her babies and even getting "granny" (me - but at 27 years of age, I'm not too impressed with that title!) to babysit when she's off to work.

Luvabella have brought a new doll out - Luvabella Newborn. Although we never owned the original Luvabella, I had read reviews and liked how interactive and realistic it sounded so we were delighted to see what the new Luvabella Newborn was like.

Luvabella requires 4 x AA batteries which aren't included so it's worth having some at home if you are picking this up as a Christmas present. Once you have inserted the batteries, there is a switch above the panel on her back to switch her off or choose between two different volume levels - I love when toys have this!

When switched on, Luvabella will wake up, yawn and make noises. She is very interactive and will react to your touch. If you tickle her, she will giggle and babble, or leave her on her back and she will drift off to sleep.

Like a real baby, she can get fussy and need settled. At this point she will take either her dummy or bottle. Simply bring either of these to her mouth and she will start sucking on it. We did find that we had to wait a few seconds  before the doll registered that the bottle or dummy was there.

If feeding Luvabella, she will probably need winded afterwards so she will need to be held up and have her back tapped a few times.

The way the face moves has really impressed both myself and E. Her eyes open and close, her mouth moves and when you lie her down to sleep, you'll even see her chest rise and fall like she's breathing. For me, this definitely sets Luvabella high above the rest of similar dolls on offer.

Luvabella Newborn is suitable for ages 4+ and she has a lovely soft body to make it suitable for young children. Her arms and legs are not poseable so really she can only lie down but this hasn't been an issue for E. She has enjoyed looking after her "real baby" and swaddling her like a newborn.

You can find out more by watching the below video.

Luvabella Newborn is available with blonde or dark brown hair and is priced at £59.99 from Smyths all good toy retailers.

Awesome Bloss'ems - Review

[AD/Gifted - We received these items for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. [This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to buy anything through a link on this page, I will earn a few pennies at no extra cost to you.]

We love blind bags and any toy that incorporates that but adds a more exciting element is a winner. Enter: Awesome Bloss'ems from Spinmaster.

Awesome Bloss'ems are flowerpot toys that you "plant" and feed to grow your own doll. We received two to try out and E couldn't wait to see how they worked.

Once you've unwrapped and lifted the dome off the top, you'll find a piece of thin cardboard with some decorations that you'll need for later and an instructional manual that you are advised to read before you start.

Inside the flowerpot, you'll see a large "seed". You will need to remove the insert and pull the tab in order for it to work. Once you've done that and popped it back in the pot, take the bag of sparkly play soil (from the dome that you removed from the top) and pour it all around the seed. E loved this part - mostly because it was sparkly and fluffy! 

Also inside the dome, you will see a plastic leaf. With this you scoop spoonfuls leaf-fuls of water (we had a plastic cup next to us to take the water from) on top of the soil. As if by magic, your doll will then grow!

E absolutely loved the little mini dolls that grew from her pots and she loved that they were scented. There are 25 to collect, each of them belonging to a group: So Wild, Sweet Chic, Posh Floral, Fierce Petals and Fashion Buzz. They don't have names, leaving your child with complete freedom. E decided hers were Sugar and Sally, even creating a backstory. Sally is shy and reserved whereas Sugar is diva-esque.

Once you've grown your doll, you can use the dome as a little playset. The cardboard pieces slot in easily for decoration and the leaf acts as a hammock. You can even put the lid on the dome in order to display it on a shelf and also keep all the pieces together. 

As if that wasn't enough, there is an Augmented Reality Awesome Bloss'ems app so you can have some digital fun too. If you give the app camera permission you will be able to plant seeds around your home and keep track of the real dolls you've grown from your Awesome Bloss'ems in there too. 

The Awesome Bloss'ems toys retail at £7.99 and are available from Smyths and all good toy retailers.

 

Candylocks Dolls - Review

[AD/Gifted - We received this item for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. [This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to buy anything through a link on this page, I will earn a few pennies at no extra cost to you.]

Who's in there with the cotton candy hair?

E was very excited to get her hands on some of the new Candylocks range from Spinmaster. 

Within the Candylocks range you have 23 different dolls that you can collect. These can either be in the form of large 7-inch dolls, mini dolls and a twin pack of BFF dolls. We received one large doll and one mini doll.

Each of the Candylocks dolls have a different look and scent - all very sweet! Our larger doll was Straw Mary who, you guessed it, was themed around strawberries and the hair does have a faint strawberry scent. She comes with three accessories - a hair extension, a strawberry hair clip and some hair chalk.

This doll is not like anything I've seen before with regards to its hair. The texture and length makes it very easy for younger children to experiment with. E will be turning 5 in a couple of weeks and I feel like she is the perfect age for it. She loves Rapunzel so she instantly adored her Rapunzel-like hair.

E wouldn't be confident when doing hairstyles on her other dolls but the Candylocks hair stays in place without the need for hair bobbles - the shape means that it doesn't come apart. E's favourite thing to do was colour the hair with the help of the hair chalk. She liked seeing the change in colour once applying.

Straw Mary's dress and shoes can be removed so if you end up getting the other larger doll, Lacey Lemonade, they can be swapped.  

The mini dolls are exciting because you can't actually see who you are going to get, your only clue is the hair colours. 

Upon opening, you unwrap the hair to reveal your Candylocks doll. Inside you'll find a collector's guide (you get one of these with the larger dolls too) so you can find out the name of your new doll. We got Kelly Bean.

Similarly to the larger dolls, you receive some six hair accessories but these come in the form of a blind bag - our favourite! These are two hair pins, a hair twirler and three hair gems.

These dolls have a whopping 38cm of hair and it looks a lot compared to their bodies. It is the exact same as the larger dolls so again, you can have fun experimenting with their hair.

Candylocks are a lot of fun and not like any dolls I've seen before. The hair can tend to shed a little, but not so much that you'd notice your doll going bald!

The Candylocks dolls retail at £19.99 for the large 7-inch dolls, £9.99 for the mini dolls and £17.99 for the BFF twin pack. You can find them at Smyths and all good toy retailers. 

Hatchimals Pixies - Review

[AD/Gifted - We received these items for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. [This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to buy anything through a link on this page, I will earn a few pennies at no extra cost to you.]

I'm sure everyone is familiar with Hatchimals toys, from their original HatchiBabies large eggs that crack to reveal an interactive fluffy baby that could be nurtured to adulthood, to the smaller CollEGGtibles range which my daughter E loves! Spinmaster have now added a new range - Hatchimals Pixies!

E was so excited to get her hands on two eggs from the new collection and was dying to see who was hiding inside.

The Hatchimals Pixies are from a fictional place called Hatchtopia. There are four different coloured eggs available and inside you will find one of eight Pixies. The Pixies themselves hail from different areas within Hatchtopia; 'Glittering Garden', 'Polar Paradise', 'Crystal Canyon' and 'Wishing Star Waterfall'.

The Hatchimals work in the same way as the rest of the range, simply rub your thumbs over the purple heart motif on the egg and it will crack, revealing the surprise inside. 

In our first egg, we found Glittering Gracie from Glittering Garden and five accessories - one stand, a pixie bed that fits perfectly inside the egg so it can be kept to play with, a hairband, a watering can and a flower. These fit into her hand so can also be used for play.

Our second egg contained Wishing Star Willow from Wishing Star Waterfall - E was very happy with this one as her cousin is called Willow! Her accessories were a stand, a pixie bed, a hairband, ice cream cone and an artist's palette.

E has really enjoyed playing with her new Hatchimals Pixies - so much so that she brought them to nursery the day after opening to show them off to her friends. They stand at 2.5 inches tall so they were the perfect size to pop back into her tray when she wasn't playing with them. The Pixies themselves are plastic but the wings are rubber so they move to give the effect that they are fluttering. E was also very impressed with the glittery hair and poseable heads. 

I like that the fun aspect isn't over once they have been cracked out of their eggs, the eggs can be played with too and that the accessories that come with each pixie gives a little bit of an insight into their personalities, as does the collector's sheet, encouraging your child's play.

The Hatchimals Pixies are recommended for children aged 5+ and retail at £7.99 per egg. You can find them at Smyths Toys, The Entertainer and all good toy retailers.