1:16 RC Ultimate Lightning McQueen

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Disclosure - We were sent the product below for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are ours unless stated. This post contains affiliate links. 

The 1:16 RC Ultimate Lightning McQueen is the perfect choice for any Cars fan with some very special effects.

You may have read a few months ago that we headed to the cinema to see Disney Pixar Cars 3. It was our first ever visit to the cinema with Little J but he loves Cars so much we knew it would be the perfect first time experience for him. As such a huge fan of Cars and Lightning McQueen I knew little J would be thrilled when he opened the 1:16 RC Ultimate Lightning McQueen.

Little J has quite a few remote control Lightning's but they were originally big J's from when he was younger so as you can imagine the features and design on the Ultimate RC Lightning McQueen are so more advanced and little J is absolutely hooked. 

Disney Pixar Cars 3 1:16 RC Ultimate Lightning has many functions including

2,4GHz Remote Control

On/ Off button on the bottom of the cars

Light and Sound

Rev and Turbo

Drifting

Reverse Parking

Donut turns (360 degree turns)

Brake

Smoke

As you can imagine from the list little J was most intrigued by donut turns and the idea of smoke. None of his cars he owns has these functions so they were the first he wanted to try out. 

Donut turns were extremely fun and using the button on the remote control you can make Lightning spin 360 degrees. 

Smoking is an amazing feature that I wasn't sure how would work. Basically there is a small water tank under Lightning which you fill with water. Then when you are ready to make Lightning smoke from behind his back wheels you press the smoke button. 

The smoke is like a mist effect but looks just like the real thing and little J loves it. 

We are extremely impressed with the quality, design and functions on the Ultimate Lightning McQueen. The remote control is the perfect size for little hands and although the buttons take a little getting used to little J is know a whizz. 

1:16 RC Ultimate Lightning McQueen is available to buy in most good toy stores and online at Amazon

Michelle

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Enjoying The Warm Weather Plus The Chance To Win An Amazon Voucher

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Summer will soon be here and if you have been lucky enough to experience the warm weather recently then you will know a little bit of sun puts everyone in a good mood. We definitely feel much better when we can be out and about having lots of fun in the garden. We've had lots of play days in the garden, paddling in the pool and playing with little J's new garden toys he got for his birthday. This has been the first time ever I have enjoyed playing in the garden and it's all because we had astro turf fitted last year. Its amazing and I would definitely recommend it.

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Review - Rory's Story Cubes

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Disclosure - We were sent the products below for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our unless stated. This post may contains affiliate links. 

As you may already know we are a Board Game Club blogger and each month we receive a game to play. We received something a little different this month, Rory's Story Cubes. I have never heard of them before so we were all  eager to try them out. The idea behind the story cubes is you create a story using all nine icons shown on the cubes that you roll out in front of you.

The nine cubes have various images on and once rolled out you let your imagination take over. They come in a handy pocket sized box that closes with a magnet so you could take them anywhere.

At first I was unsure how or when we would use something like this as it's not actually a game. There is no board, rules or winner at the end. I did check the website for inspiration on how or when we could play this and it gave me lots of ideas.

Fun storytelling for family and friends, create magical moments with all generations, especially useful for the holidays.

Promoting literacy and language in the classroom – used and endorsed by educators across the globe.

Teaching Foreign Languages – endorsed by TEFL educators.

Creative Writing aid – Used for improving creative writing skills and as a tool when hitting the dreaded writer’s block.

Background story generator in role playing games – Create background stories and character scenarios for your next role playing game.

Ice breaker – At a party or in a work meeting, break the ice by rolling the dice and create shared experiences.

Idea generation and problem solving.

Agile coaching.

Bedtime stories – Create unique stories and adventures with your little ones every night. Never run out of ideas.

Improves social connections – Encourages, empathy and self esteem through storytelling.

It's amazing how a package so small and simple can be used in so many ways. We have used ours at bedtime to create a story for little J. It's been so much fun because you can take the story anywhere and create as much fun and silliness as you want. Each night has been a different story and last night little J created his own.

What We Loved

Handy sized cubes that are portable.

Lots of different uses.

Allows us to create unique stories each night at bedtime. 

What Could Improve

Nothing, we love them

You can read more about Rory's Story Cubes and check out the full range available. Rory's Story Cubes retail at £9.99 and can be purchased online and on Amazon

Michelle

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Chad Valley Post Office Review

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Disclosure - We were sent the product below for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our own unless stated. This post may contain affiliate links. 

One of my favourite toys when I was younger was my Post Office play set. I would play with it for hours and I remember picking up leaflets and paying in slips when we visited the post office so I could add them to my play set. When Chad Valley sent us their Post Office Play Set it brought back so many memories. I knew little J would love it as he loves anything like this especially as it has lots of accessories.

The play set looks like a post box but when opened it turns in to a post office counter. It comes with lots of different accessories including money, stamps and parcels. 

Little J loves adding stamps to the letters, postcards and parcels. We have used the money to help with little J's basic addition and subtraction and it has really helped. He likes to work out the correct amount of change he needs to give us. 

The post office also comes with driving license, tax disc and savings book. We received a stamper in our post office however there was no ink pad so we had to improvise and use paint. I'm not sure whether it was supposed to come come with an ink pad or not as I couldn't find an exact list of contents in the box. 

As a play set it is quite sturdy but it can be quite tricky to unfold and set up, it definitely needs an adults help. 

What We Loved

Folds away in to a post box. Easy to store and carry. 

Lots of accessories.

Perfect role play toy and great for a little ones imagination.

What Could Improve

No ink pad.

Little J has really enjoyed playing with the Post Office play set and I know this will be something he will continue to play with. I will add a few extra accessories to add the fun including some extra money. 

The Chad Valley Post is available to buy at Argos and Amazon and is currently priced £16.99

Michelle

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Review - Chad Valley Air Pump Loader

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As you may already know we are part of the Chad Valley Play Panel and this month we have been sent the Chad Valley Air Pump Loader to try out. We have said it before but we are huge fans of Chad Valley and have been since we were children so for us to be able to showcase their toys on our blog is a huge honour for us. Even before we were on the panel are home was full of Chad Valley toys and I know it will continue to be like that until little J is too old for them.

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Christmas Stocking Filler Ideas For All The Family

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Happy Christmas Twirlywoos

I have to admit that I haven't bought any Christmas gifts yet this year which is not like me as I usually begin as early as September. However I have started to make a note of some gift ideas that I have seen on other blogs and I have been sent some fabulous gift ideas to share with you. I have popped them below and I hope you enjoy having a browse.

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Review - Shark Bite by Drumond Park

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We have a new addition to our every growing games collection this month and it's Shark Bite by Drumond Park. I've mentioned it before but even though he is only 4,  little J absolutely loves playing games and playing them regularly as a family as really helped with learning to share and take turns. Little J loves 'fun' games and Shark Bite really is just that. It's a game where you have to go fishing in a shark's mouth before he snaps it shut.

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Board Game Club Blogger - Pandemic

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I have said before just how much we enjoy playing board games. We love playing games suitable for kids, family and adults. We love finding new games to play so when we were asked to join the Blogger Board Game Club a few months ago we had to say yes. It’s the perfect opportunity to try our new games and add to our ever growing collection. When this month’s game arrived we were excited to see it was an ‘adult’ type game. Pandemic puts you on a disease fighting team with the hopes that you will not only keep four deadly diseases at bay but also discover their cure.

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Disney Guess The Film

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Disclosure - We were gifted Disney Guess The Film by Jumbo for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our own. 

Disney Guess The Film game will test your knowledge of Disney movies by showing you just a small part of a bigger image. To win a token you must get correctly, if you don't you are frozen out the round. Disney fun for all the family.

Setup for the game is really easy as are the rules. Guess the Film is similar to Guess Who however you are guessing a film not a person. 

How To Play

Shuffle all the movie image sheets that you’re going to play with and put them in the holder at the back of the screen with the coloured strip facing upwards. 

The sheets are divided into three levels of difficulty

Green - Easy 

Bue - Medium 

Red - Advanced level

 When playing you take turns rolling the dice and open the window with the corresponding colour to the die. 

Each coloured window reveals part of an image from the Disney film, and it’s down to you to guess which film the image is from. You must shout the film name out loud and the turn the screen towards you to check if you are correct. If you do guess correctly, you win a Mickey token. If you guessed incorrectly then you are frozen out of this round. If you don't want to guess you can just close the window and play will continue which the next player.  

If you roll the dice and reveal a star you can open any coloured window of your choice. 

The first player to earn four Mickey tokens wins the game.

Depending how good your knowledge is of Disney films each game can last up to approx 20 minutes.  You can play with as little as 2 players and it's recommend for ages 4+.

Disney Guess The Film really does test your knowledge of Disney and is a fun game for all the family. 

Unfortunately our giveaway is now closed however you can still enjoy Disney's Guess the Film by heading to Amazon to buy

I am always so grateful for any support I receive on my blog and social channels. If you did find this post useful there are a few ways that you could say thanks and support Playdays and Runways.

Have you played this game? Leave us a comment below and let us know what you thought. 

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Michelle

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Review - Hot Wheels Roto Revolution

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Hot Wheels has been popular with us since Big J was small. We have amassed a decent sized collection of Hot Wheels cars, and Little J loves each and every one of them . We were asked to review the Hot Wheels Roto Revolution Track Set, and Little J was so excited to try it out.

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Review - Mi Mic

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As a family we love trying out new gadgets so we were eager to receive Mi Mic Microphone. We had seen it on TV and it looked great and lots of fun. The Mi Mic Microphone is a karaoke microphone and speaker in one. 

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Super Wings Scan 'n Talk Flyer Jett

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You may remember back in the Summer I teamed up with the lovely people at Alpha Animation and became a Super Wings Ambassador. If you missed it then just to let you know Super Wings is a hugely popular, action-packed, animation series that can be watched twice daily on Cartoonito. Little J absolutely loves watching Super Wings and we have just started to watch series 2. I have teamed up with Alpha Animation again for a fabulous giveaway to win a Scan 'n Talk Flyer Jett.

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Oregon Scientific Smart Globe Adventure

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Disclosure - We were sent the products below for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our unless stated. This post contains affiliate links. 

I'm not sure who was more excited about receiving the Oregon Smart Globe Adventure a few weeks ago, little J or John and I. I absolutely love anything to do with maps, countries, capitals but have never actually owned a globe so this was very exciting. The Smart Globe Adventure is an interactive globe giving you the chance to explore and learn about 220 countries, interesting facts, play games and even unlock a 3D Augmented Reality feature using an app on your smartphone.

The Smart Globe comes with a smart pen so this took little J a while to get used to. He is only really familiar with touch screen on his iPad and our phones but once we showed him how he could easily use it. 

We explained to little J that The Smart Globe was a map of the world and the first thing he wanted to do was spin it. It is so much fun spinning a globe around,  it does spin left and right but it does not spin up or down. This can be annoying if you are playing a game and it asks you to find Antarctica and the pen doesn't quite reach it. 

Once he had finished spinning he asked where we are on the globe. We showed him the UK and he used his smart pen to touch it. It played a little song but to find out more about the UK or other countries we would have to go to the base of the globe and choose an activity. If you leave the globe idle for a few moments it will ask you what you would like to do. 

First we chose a 'find' game. You can choose from Continents, Capitals, Countries and our personal favourite The Ultimate Challenge. 

Once you have chosen what 'find' game you would like to play the Smart Globe will ask you to find and touch as many of your chosen topic as possible. It does tell you what to look for and plays music while you try and find it, the music will go faster as your time starts to run out. 

The Ultimate Challenge is our favourite and is a time challenge were you have to find as many places as you can in the time provided. We are very competitive when it comes to this game as so far we can't seem to get more than 10 on Level 1 however we are still trying. 

Next you can choose a 'touch' activity. There are lots to choose from including Continent, Name, Capital, Population, Area, Currency, History, Features, Geography, Language, Highest Point, National Anthem and Amazing Facts. 

The touch activities are jam packed with lots of different facts about the countries you touch with your smart pen. Our personal favourite is listening to all the different National Anthems from around the world. 

Within the 'touch' activities there are 6 that can also be played in French.

Next you can choose the 'compare' activities. You choose 2 different countries and the Smart Globe will compare the area or the population of both countries. 

On the base of the globe there is a more detailed map of Britain and Ireland. Here you can do all the activities that are mentioned above but for cities too. 

As we live in Liverpool it was nice to hear some facts about where we live. 

The base also has a pause, repeat and volume button which you will need as it is very loud. 

What We Loved

Great Quality

Makes learning fun with lots of games and fun facts

220 countries to explore

6 French activities

Detailed map of Britain and Ireland which allows us to find out more about cities we are close to.

Love hearing little J playing with the Globe and then shouting to us 'Where's Japan Mum?"

Will be a perfect learning tool throughout Little J's school journey.

What Could Improve

There are some places, mainly on the bottom of the globe which the pen doesn't quite reach and it takes quite a while for the globe to detect the pen. 

When playing some of the games you have to be quite precise with pen, this can get a little frustrating especially if you are playing the Ultimate Challenge and trying to beat your score. 

At the moment we haven't quite grasped the AR side of the globe yet as there are just so many features to get to grips with we are just having fun exploring at the moment. 

Little J has just started reception so I know from a learning point of view the globe will be a perfect tool throughout his school journey. for now we are enjoying finding out facts, exploring the globe and playing games.

The Smart Globe Adventure is recommended for age 5+ however little J is still only 4 and he really enjoys it.

You can find out more about the Smart Globe Adventure by visiting Oregon Scientific Store and it is also available to buy over on Amazon

Michelle

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Giveaway - Teletubbies Big Hugs CD

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We have mentioned on our blog before that we are huge fans of the Teletubbies and you may have read recently that we reviewed some Tiddlytubbies which are a new addition to the Teletubbies Dome and they are so cute. As parents we have been fans since big J was little, over 15 years ago. I absolutely love that they are still going strong and they have just released a new CD called Teletubbies - Big Hugs.

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Review and Giveaway - My First Scalextric

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Scalextric has always been one of favourite toys, from growing up to today, there has always been at least one set around, even if it’s been stored in the loft until one of the little ones has been old enough to play.  I think I was more excited than anyone when ‘My First Scalextric’ was due to arrive for Little J to try. The box is quite compact and reminded me initially of the micro sets. We have had a couple of these over the years, transformers being the last I remember.  Included in the box are a simple track set up, controllers, adapter and 2 reasonably sized BMW cars.

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Review - Havex Machines

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For the past week or so we have had lots of fun playing with Havex Machines. We had seen an advert on you tube for them and they looked amazing so little J was excited to receive two to play with. The tag line is Race Transform Battle and that is exactly what they do. The Havex Machine comes with a small micro car very similar to Micro Machines for those old enough to remember. You can play with the car but once you are ready to battle you drive the car into the Havex Machine and it triggers the machine to transform in to a bot ready to battle.

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Review - PJ Masks Headquarters

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Little J first heard about PJ Masks quite late on when we stumbled upon it on TV. We had no idea what it was but it was really good. Now, he absolutely loves it and like most boys and girls runs around our living room pretending to be Cat Boy, Owlette and Gecko. He recently was given some PJ Masks figures from his Grandparents which was perfect timing as we received PJ Masks Headquarters to review recently.

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Review - Chad Valley Street Showdown Racing Track & Cars Set

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You may have read our recent announcement that we are back on the Chad Valley Play Panel and we are super excited. We love receiving toys and as part of our new role we were very lucky to receive the new Street Showdown Racing Track & Cars Set last week. Little J loves cars so was super excited to try this out.

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We're On The Chad Valley Play Panel and Giveaway

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I am so excited and honoured to let you all know that we have been chosen once again to be part of the Chad Valley Play Panel. I mentioned last year just how much we love Chad Valley toys and how Argos and Chad Valley were a huge part of our childhood. I think everyone I know would spend the lead up to Christmas writing out their Christmas lists from toys in the Argos Catalogue. I used to write out the product codes too. Chad Valley have been making toys for over 150 years and I really do hope they continue to make toys for little ones for many more.  

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Disney Mickey Roadsters Super Training Tracks

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Disclosure - We were sent the product below for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our unless stated. This post contains affiliate links. 

We are huge fans of all things Disney and especially Mickey Mouse. Little J absolutely loves the new edition to Disney Junior, Mickey and The Roadster Races. We first heard about it when we were in Walt Disney World and little J wanted to collect the cars. Then when we got home we found it whilst browsing the TV. If you haven't heard of Mickey and The Roadster Races before its very similar to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so you can imagine that its very bright, colourful and features the main Disney Characters. 

We were recently sent The Mickey Roadsters Super Training Tracks to review and as you can imagine it was a big hit with little J. He loves making tracks and cars so two of his favourite things in one package. 

The Mickey Roadster track is simple to set up - even I was able to do it. I followed the instructions and every piece is labelled. I'm not sure if you can see it on the piece above but They all have letters and numbers on to make it easier to build. 

Once the back of the playset was built I started making the tracks. The back has a lift which you use to take the cars up to their starting position. 

Last but not least I added the traffic lights to the starting lines. 

Once built you put the two cars in their starting positions and get ready to race. 

The set comes with Mickey and Pete. Mickey comes in his Hot Dogging Hot Rod and Pete in his Super Crusher. Each car can be pushed off the started line by using a flipper type switch. 

There is 100cm of track for the cars to race down.

The winner is the first car to pass the finish line. 

The Disney Mickey Roadsters Super Training Tracks are bright, colourful and perfect for roadster fans. It has 100cm of track which are easy to build with all parts labelled

The set features two cars, however they do work with normal cars too which is an added bonus. 

The Mickey and The Roadster Races Super Training Tracks is available from most good toy stores and online at Amazon.

Michelle

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