TOY TESTER REVIEW - Iball 3

Ruby has been fantastic at testing some of the best toys available from The Hub and creating incredible You Tube vidoes to help bring those toys to life!  This month we asked her to try out The Gadget Show's No1 toy for 2011 - The Iball3!  Here's what she had to say: 

Toy Tested - Iball 3 - £16.99

 

PLAY VALUE how much fun is the toy?

I am getting loads of fun from this Toy, and so is everyone else who has tried it. You can play with it just about anywhere and also while you are doing other stuff like watching telly or listening to music. It is good for car journeys and it is fun to help another person when they are playing. I play this all the time as I am really trying to pass level 2. The only thing is dont start playing just before you are to go to sleep, as you wont be able to put it down.  

Play Value Marks out of 10 (10 being top): 10

LONGEVITY – Is the toy a one-off or will you play with it lots?

This toy will keep you hooked for ages, and everyone else in the house. The idea is simple so you can pick it up and play at any time and play for as long or little as you want. You can put it on silent and play it on trains or waiting rooms. There are spare batteries included, which will make it last longer.

Longevity Marks out of 10 (10 being top): 9

PACKAGING – How easy was the packaging to remove? Is there too much packaging? Is it eco-friendly? 

The iBall just came in a carboard box which was easy to recycle  

PACKAGING Marks out of 10 (10 being top): 10

BUILD QUALITY – Will the toy last? Is it built well?  

The iBall is made of really tough plastic and comes with its own stand, I have dropped it a few times and it has survived fine!

BUILD QUALITY Marks out of 10 (10 being top): 10

VALUE FOR MONEY - Looking at the price above, do you think it is value for money?

I think this is excellent value for money, as it will keep everyone in the family entertained for hours and hours. It would be a really fun challenge to do over Christmastime. The spare batteries are good as you wont have to pay for more when the first ones run out.

VALUE FOR MONEY Marks out of 10 (10 being top): 10

OVERALL IMPRESSION – Are there any other comments you would like to make about this toy?

Really good fun, but can be very frustrating!  Is so addictive you will be dreaming about it. Think this will be the new craze.

OVERALL IMPRESSION Marks out of 10 (10 being top): 10

Ruby has been a fantastic toy-tester and we'd love to thank her for all her hard work over the past few months.  In particular she's produced some excellent videos to really help you see how the toys work when being played with.  We've loved watching them and reading all her reviews and hope to bring her back for some guest appearances in the future as we discover more great toys at The Hub!  

TOY TESTER REVIEW - LEGO Star Wars Watches

As the last month for toy testing approached we wanted to make sure that each Toy Tester tried out something really fantastic that will give them long-term fun!  We knew that Archie was a HUGE fan of LEGO, but wanted him to try something LEGO based, but with a twist, so the LEGO Star Wars Watch seemed like the perfect thing!  We chose the R2D2 watch for him to try out last week (we also have a LEGO Star Wars Stormtrooper design available).  Here's how he got on....

LEGO Star Wars R2D2 Watch - £16.99

 Toy Tested: LEGO Star Wars R2D2 Watch - £16.99

PLAY VALUE - how much fun is the toy?  

You can change the strap and switch the edges of the face. You have also got a choice of colours for the edge of the face. For a watch it is lots of fun. The R2D2 figure is an added bonus and adds to the amount of fun you can have. As well as having fun it will help me to improve my timekeeping and my telling the time skills!

Play Value- out of 10 (10 being top): 10

LONGEVITY – Is the toy a one-off or will you play with it lots?

 

I really like looking at my watch and so do all my friends! I will put it on my wrist every day and expect to until I grow out of it (this won't be for a while because I still have lots of spare links for the watch strap.) I will also love switching the colours on the strap.

Longevity - out of 10 (10 being top): 10

PACKAGING – How easy was the packaging to remove? Is there too much packaging? Is it eco-friendly? 

I am in an eco school so I am quite good at answering this question! The packaging was very easy to remove. The cardboard box is easy to recycle. Although there is a plastic box it is very useful for keeping the spare links and watch in so you do not need to throw it away.

PACKAGING - out of 10 (10 being top): 9

BUILD QUALITY – Will the toy last? Is it built well? 

I think the toy will last an awful long time. Once I had got the hang of how to put the links together it was easy for me to do myself - the instructions tell you clearly how to do this. I just needed a little bit of help to get the strap the right size for my wrist. You can put the R2D2 figure on the watch which is great but I don't do this at school as I would be a bit scared of losing the figure as I think it would be easy to knock off.

BUILD QUALITY - out of 10 (10 being top): 9

VALUE FOR MONEY - Looking at the price above, do you think it is value for money? 

The watch costs £16.99 so I would have to save up my pocket money for it but I definitely think it would be worth it.

VALUE FOR MONEY - out of 10 (10 being top): 9

OVERALL IMPRESSION – Are there any other comments you would like to make about this toy?:

 

I would recommend this watch to lots of my friends as I think it is really cool and you can do lots of things with it. You will look at it so much you will never be late for anything again and you will be great at telling the time.

OVERALL IMPRESSION - out of 10 (10 being top): 10

Archie has worked hard for us over the last 3 months testing a variety of Toys & Games.  You can find all of the toys he's tested on our website, and be confident that you are picking toys & gifts that real kids will really love.  We've enjoyed reading all his reviews and want to send a huge thanks to him from The Hub!  Merry Christmas Archie!