Toys

Monster High New Skull Shores Dolls Giveaway

April 24, 2012 By Colleen Padilla 42 Comments

Win it! Monster High is hot for tweens. We haven’t started on this series for Kenzie (who is only 6 years old) but the more I read about it and hear, the more interested I am in the positive messages this show and franchise is intent on bringing to young girls.

Monster High utilizes the monster metaphor to encourage girls to “Be Yourself. Be Unique. Be a Monster” and truly accept yourself and others. It’s all about the freedom of self-expression for girls. Love this!

We’ve got a Monster High giveaway featuring their newest collection, Skull Shores, with the limited-edition black & white Frankie Stein doll and lots more!

The new Escape from Skull Shores episode aired on Nick on Friday April 13th, and you can learn more about it here.

Here’s the details on our big Monster High Prize package complete with 4 Skull Shores dolls:

Black and White Frankie Stein
Draculaura
Lagoona Blue
Ghoulia Yelps

Here’s how to enter:

1. Enter to win by leaving a comment below by May 6th, 2012.

Other entries:

2. Daily entries allowed for more chances to win.

3. Like ClassyMommy on Facebook here and leave a comment telling me you liked our page.

Disclosure: Thanks to Mattel for providing this prize package for 1 lucky ClassyMommy reader.

Look for a Monster High New Skull Shores Dolls Giveaway on eBay - maybe you'll get lucky and find a great bargain!

Filed Under: Giveaways, Reviews, Toys

Ireland Barbie Dolls of the World Collection & Video

April 23, 2012 By Colleen Padilla Leave a Comment

We’re impressed with the new 2012 Barbie Dolls of the World collection featuring dolls from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and China. Take a peek at our Irish Barbie below. Kenzie is super excited about this gorgeous doll and the special carrying case and passport – which doubled as the doll’s box make the entire doll “kit” more fun to play with. The Barbie also comes with a hairbrush, passport, stickers, and a little doggy. They retail for about $29.99.

Take a peek at Kenzie’s video demo of her new Barbie doll from Ireland. Isn’t this doll beautiful?

Check out the entire Barbie Dolls of the World collection here. You can also play fun online games to learn about interesting facts about each of the doll’s countries and heritage too. Kenzie and I enjoyed checking out the Ireland doll’s page, learning facts, and playing games – that included Barbie doing some “Irish dancing.”

Here’s a close up of the doll below.

And here’s the box it comes in that doubles as a special carrying case.

Disclosure: Thanks to Barbie for sending Kenzie a sample doll to facilitate our review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Look for a Ireland Barbie Dolls of the World Collection & Video on eBay - maybe you'll get lucky and find a great bargain!

Filed Under: Reviews, Toys Tagged With: barbie, barbie dolls of the world

Air Storm Pop Rocketz

April 19, 2012 By Colleen Padilla Leave a Comment

At $4.99 these Air Storm Pop Rocketz from Zing Toys pack so much fun in a tiny pocket sized take anywhere package. These are fabulous fun for the entire family too. Super easy to use, they take up hardly any space, and provide endless fun and excitement for everyone. You literally just squeeze the “air powered” rocket launches and it will blast foam rockets into the sky.

We’ve been having our own BLAST with these in the backyard and let me tell you they go SUPER FAR and also shoot SUPER HIGH into the sky. I love it. And the kids are wild for the fun – and even my 6 year old can squeeze this trigger launcher and propel these pop rocketz far into the sky or yard with little effort – just a squeeze of the hand!

We highly recommend these for birthday gifts or a neat surprise to bring as a hostess gift for any summer family BBQ’s you’re planning to attend. ClassyMommy.com Approved!

Disclosure: Thanks to Zing Toys for sending us samples to facilitate this review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Look for a Air Storm Pop Rocketz on eBay - maybe you'll get lucky and find a great bargain!

Filed Under: Reviews, Toys Tagged With: pop rocketz

Little Tikes Ultimate Beach Ball Sprinkler – A Ball Fun!

April 17, 2012 By Colleen Padilla 1 Comment

Imperial Toy’s Little Tikes Ultimate Beach Ball Sprinkler is so much fun for the kid but even better it’s a total cinch to set up for Mom. We’ve been maximizing the warm weather of the past 2 days and yes using our “sprinkler” in April. What a blast! And in this case literally a whole ball of fun!

The ball has 4 sprayers that literally sprinkle out like a sprinkler. It’s a great size – big but not so big you can’t handle it. (88 inches) You can roll it around or leave it stationary. And when I said it was easy to set up – truly this is beyond simple. Just connect the hose to the ball, twist and you are good to go. I have trouble with complicated contraptions but this is so easy my Kindergartener can also set it up herself!

There is nothing like good inexpensive fun in the backyard. And it’s great exercise for the kids too as they race around the yard sprinting through the water.

Priced at $12.99 and available at Target nationwide.

Disclosure: Thanks to Little Tikes for sending us this sample to facilitate our review. As always all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Look for a Little Tikes Ultimate Beach Ball Sprinkler – A Ball Fun! on eBay - maybe you'll get lucky and find a great bargain!

Filed Under: Reviews, Toys Tagged With: sprinkler

Best Flower Buds

April 2, 2012 By Colleen Padilla

The newest hot toy from Jay at Play has hit the market – Best Flower Buds.

Jay at Play has been having a series of hits lately – from the contagious Happy Nappers to the constantly sold out Little Miss Muffins last holiday season, they’ve now introduced Best Flower Buds. My 6 year old Kenzie and even my 4 year old son Kyle find these dolls irresistable. There is just something about them – particularly the smaller – medium sized dolls that is just so compelling. The perfect birthday party gift or this time of year they will make a really fun extra in Easter Baskets.

Here’s a video demo of these adorable “flower” dolls that rest in pots and how the pots flip to form the dress on the dolls. Very cute.

And here’s what the Best Flower Buds doll looks like after the pot flips into the dress:

The Best Flower Buds are available in 5 inch, 9 inch and 15 inch dolls priced at about anywhere from $4.99 -$19.99 depending on the size of the doll. A variety of blooms are available in a range of fantastic floral colors from violet to iris to daisy and more. On sale at Toys R Us. The packaging is very cute too and I think these are going to be another hot seller in the toy market given their reasonable price point and interesting pop and flip versatility.

Look for a Best Flower Buds on eBay - maybe you'll get lucky and find a great bargain!

Filed Under: Reviews, Toys Tagged With: best flower buds, jay at play

American Girl Crafts from Historical Characters

March 27, 2012 By Colleen Padilla

Take a peek at these engaging crafty creations from American Girl.

Each new craft is based on a specific Historical Character and generally inspired by a craft from that doll’s time period – think stitching a pillow for Felicity. Everything from painting a jewelry box to designing cute hair bows and bands – inspired by Kit Kittredge of course. Love it!

Ages 8 + but some of these are more simple than others – my daughter is almost 6 1/2 and with my help she can’t wait to dive into these kits. The boxes are labeled really nicely too so you can tell if each kit has only 1 product to make or a few – in which case it is great for an American Girl inspired playdate where each girl can design their own piece of jewelry and so on.

Take a peek at the American Girl Craft collection in our video here:

These can be purchased at either AmericanGirlCrafts.com or Amazon.com. Prices range from $16.99-$21.99.

Disclosure: Thanks to American Girl for sending these samples to facilitate our review.

Look for a American Girl Crafts from Historical Characters on eBay - maybe you'll get lucky and find a great bargain!

Filed Under: Crafts and Activities, Reviews, Toys Tagged With: american girl, American Girl crafts

My Little Mommy Princess and the Potty Review & #Giveaway

March 13, 2012 By Colleen Padilla

Win it! If you have a potty training kidlet or soon to be potty trained child, the My Little Mommy Princess and the Potty doll from Mattel is the perfect toy to inspire your child. And kids already potty trained will be fascinated with the magically appearing and disappearing pee and poo in the toilet. The doll comes with a pretend toilet that does indeed “flush” away the pretend pee & poo with real flushing sounds.

Kenzie and Kyle along with the friends that visited our house this week and took this toy for a demo were indeed beyond enamoured with the pretend potty and of course the “waste” that appears when you put a little pressure on the toilet or sit the doll on the potty. See the demo here:

Priced at about $21.99 (and sometimes more on Amazon – as I think this toy is a hot seller – today it was listed on Amazon for $34).

This is a great toy for any child who is currently potty training or recently trained. The official age is for 2-6 year olds so my kids fit right into that target market – thus their fascination.

Enter to win by leaving a comment below by March 28th, 2012. Daily entries allowed for more chances to win. One winner will be selected.

Disclosure: We received this unit as a free sample to facilitate our review. As always all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Look for a My Little Mommy Princess and the Potty Review & #Giveaway on eBay - maybe you'll get lucky and find a great bargain!

Filed Under: Giveaways, Reviews, Toys Tagged With: my little mommy princess and the potty, potty training

Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 DVD & Merliah Transforming Doll Giveaway

March 4, 2012 By Colleen Padilla

The new Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 releases on DVD this Tuesday March 6th, 2012 priced at about $14.95. We received a sneak peek at both this DVD release and one of the hot new Barbie toys that go along with film. As expected, both the latest Barbie in a Mermaid Tale movie and the new hip transforming doll were a hit in my house with my 6 year old daughter Kenzie.

Barbie movies are always surprisingly excellent for my kids – and I find them entertaining too. Truly after seeing a dozen of these movies, I can attest to how great these really are. Each fall and spring we all look forward to the latest new release and can’t wait to buy it.

We have already watched this new flick 3 times in only 3 days! In this story, a sequel to the original Barbie in a Mermaid Tale, surfer girl Merliah heads to Australia for a big surf competition and then finds her self on another underwater adventure as a Mermaid Princess with a mission to stop the evil Eris in order to save her fellow mermaids and all of Oceana. Good stuff!

Even more fun for my kids are playing with toys that go along with the movie. My favorite is this Transforming doll Merliah ($17.99) – where Barbie converts from a Mermaid to a regular girl with bendable legs who can be propped on her surfboard. See our demo here:

The board doubles as a tail fin combo when it’s not in surfboard position! Simple to transform and great for imaginative play. Kenzie especially loves the body art tattoo on Merliah and her pink & blonde hair. We found our body art in appears and disappears based on the temperature which is very cool. If the body art dims from Kenzie’s warm hands holding it, she just grabs a piece of ice and the body art pops back to full color. Brilliant!

To celebrate the release of these new goodies, we’ve got a sweet giveaway.

2 lucky readers will win both the new DVD release and Merliah the Transforming Doll. 5 lucky readers will win a copy of the new Barbie and a Mermaid Tale 2 DVD.

Enter to win by leaving a comment below by March 15th, 2012. Enter daily for more chances to win.

Disclosure: Thanks to Mattel for providing us a free sample of the new Merliah Transforming doll and a copy of the new DVD to facilitate our post. As always, all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Look for a Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 DVD & Merliah Transforming Doll Giveaway on eBay - maybe you'll get lucky and find a great bargain!

Filed Under: Giveaways, Reviews, Toys Tagged With: barbie, barbie in mermaid tale

Zinkies: The latest super tiny toy from the makers of Squinkies

February 20, 2012 By Colleen Padilla

Here’s a new toy trend. We’re excited to review the new line of Squinkies- called Zinkies. The very same toy as a squinkie – only so much smaller and called a Zinkie. You can collect 100′s of styles of Zinkies. We received play set package which retails for $12.99. The Zinkies come with about a dozen Zinkies, a small magnifying glass, tweezers – so you can grab, place, and play with your zinkies – and an actual playset – in the form of a cube box, train, castle or mushroom.

The kids loved Zinkies as their smallness made them only even more intriguing and adorable. Although, the smallness factor will definitely play into the “toys that go missing” factor as we’ve already probably lost a handful of these Zinkies to who knows where.

Here’s Kenzie’s set up all her Zinkies:

Take a peek at our video below for an up close look at Zinkies:

Disclosure: Thanks to BlipToys for providing us samples of Zinkies to facilitate this review.

Look for a Zinkies: The latest super tiny toy from the makers of Squinkies on eBay - maybe you'll get lucky and find a great bargain!

Filed Under: Reviews, Toys Tagged With: zinkies