On Thursday my 2 boys and I caught the tram into Manchester for a very special event. We were invited to a preview screening of BBC One’s Christmas animated special, Mimi and the Mountain Dragon. Based on the tale by Sir Michael Morpurgo, the story has been brought to life by a huge team, and it was made right here in Altrincham.


We were super lucky because not only were we going to be among the very first people to see the film, a long way ahead of it's BBC One Boxing Day screening, but the crew behind the film would be there.

My boys have both spent a large portion of this last school year studying Sir Michael Morpurgo, reading some of his books and looking at how his life experiences have shaped his writing. I was under an embargo, so I couldn't say anything until we were on the way there or they'd have told all of their mates at school.

Lat weekend we were guests of CBBC and Croxteth Hall And Country Park for the CBBC Summer Social. The weather was on our side, dry and not super hot, and unusually gates opened at 9.30am, so we set off bright and early, in time to take a few photos before the crowds really descended.


The CBBC Summer Social is a festival for families with children aged around 0-11, and loads of children's TV favourites were there. It was lovely to find the whole site is really flat and relatively compact, especially when you consider what they managed to fit in!

The Hexbug Robot Wars Arena is a small scale replica of the real arena, with a large printed floor, barriers and screens and remote controlled robots made in the image of some of the most famous and popular robots from the TV show. It's really quite exciting.


Robot Wars used to be a really big deal in our house. For many years we sat and watched every episode, we even went to see it live and have a collection of remote controlled 2ft high models in the loft somewhere. We're also quite keen on Hexbugs and have played a little with the Battlebots. A Hexbug Robot Wars Arena has to be a great thing.

When we visited Waterside in Sale to watch their Winter show The Bear, we also took time to visit their exhibition space, where they have a Cosgrove Hall Film Exhibition running until February 17th. The exhibit is free to visit and well worth popping in if you are visiting or nearby and have half an hour to spare.


I'm a big fan of Cosgrove Hall and have been lucky enough to work with them a few times over the last couple of years. Based in Greater Manchester, they are the people behind loads of children's TV and movies, and are masters of both illustration and stop-motion animation.


Cosgrove Hall created several of my own childhood favourites, including Chorlton And The Wheelies, Dangermouse, Count Duckula and Jamie & The Magic Torch. Still in the business 40 years on, they have more recently brought us Pip Ahoy!, Bill And Ben, Fetch The Vet, Noddy and Roary The Racing Car among many, many others.

The Transformers 1-Step Changers are designed to be the most easily transformed ever, with one smooth action taking you swiftly from robot to vehicle or creature. The Last Night Mega 1-Step Dragonstorm is one of the biggest models and he's definitely an impressive beast.


Packaging is mainly card and as long as you have scissors, opening is very swift. Demonstration batteries are included, so they may not be fully charged, but usually last very well. Christmas morning friendly. Replacement batteries are 2 x AAA


Your Dragonstorm arrives in 4 parts, but needs no actual assembly. The main body of the figure has 2 detachable wings and the dragon tail, which also serves as weapon for the robot.

The Stink Before Christmas is an especially festive book release from Scholastic. Written by Children's TV presenters Sam And Mark (Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes) and illustrated by Tom Knight, it is of course a retelling of Twas The Night Before Christmas - with just a little tweaking of the storyline. In Sam and Mark style...


We were sent a bonus item - a whoopee cushion. I never thought I'd pretend 'I don't know what I'm about to sit on' so many times in my life. This is child no.7, I can spot a whoopee cushion from the next room.

The ROXI from Electric Jukebox is a small music streaming hub unit which connects to your TV and can be used for 5 different functions, including streaming music from Electric Jukebox. One year's premium pass is included, as is a remote control which doubles as a microphone and can be used for Smart Voice Search and karaoke.


Our house has always been full of music and my older kids have introduced us to a variety of apps and gadgets over the years, they all have subscriptions to various music streaming services too, so reviewing the ROXI is a very natural step for us.


In the box you have the ROXI hub, ROXI controller, USB charge lead, Power adapter, HDMI cable and 12 month Premium Music Pass. It's nicely presented and looks really neat. The hub itself is very small, wall mountable and in a choice of 3 colours - classic charcoal grey, bright blue or coral red.



The controller is USB rechargeable.  A charge takes around 2 hours and lasts 24 hours of constant use, so it'll not need recharging often. It really isn't too big or unwieldy. It's surprisingly light and comfortable in any size of hand and your children shouldn't drop it every 5 minutes.


Set up was ridiculously simple and took about 2 minutes. You don't have to register, add your card details or make an account, you just plug in the HDMI and the power, log into your wifi and use the controller to control the onscreen cursor to say 'yes' to starting your first Annual Premium Pass - which is included.

When I visited Waterside Arts Centre in Sale, Manchester before Christmas, we were lucky enough to catch the Puppet Masters Return with Aardman Studios exhibit. The even better news is that it's there until 1st April 2017, and it's FREE.


Part of the Manchester Animation Festival, Puppet Masters Return with Aardman Studios lets members of the public get up close and personal with the characters from some of those well-known family favourites including Wallace and Gromit, Timmy Time and The Pirates, An Adventure With Scientists!

It's been a while since their last outing, but Blythe and her gang of pet pals are back when Littlest Pet Shop: Lights, Camera, Fashion struts onto DVD and Digital Download on 13th June. Fashion is now the order of the day, and all of the cattiness that competition brings out in some people...and animals...


We reviewed the last Littlest Pet Shop DVD release, Lights, Camera, Mongoose!, and since then Blythe really has proven herself as the trendy teen and talented fashion designer. She has managed to keep her ability to talk to the pets a secret, and enters them into a ‘Terriers and Tiaras’ talent show.

My 2 young boys love Alvin And The Chipmunks,  and were more than happy to preview the upcoming DVD release of their computer animated Nick Jr TV series Alvinnn!!! And The Chipmunks. Volume 1, Summer Of Sport, will be released on DVD on June 13th and contains the first 14 episodes from the show.


Summer Of Sport features all of the regular characters, including the guys - Alvin, Simon and Theodore, the Chipettes - Brittany, Jeanette and Eleanor, and their long-suffering carer David Seville.  The total runtime for the 14 episodes is over 2 1/2 hours, making this a pretty hefty DVD, but it is broken into short bites and universally rated, so it works for any child, whatever their attention span.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Half Shell Heroes: Blast To The Past is a brand new DVD release from Universal Pictures and Nickleodeon. Available from Monday 16th May, it's a bit different from some of the other Turtles DVD's we've reviewed because Half-Shell Heroes aims to capture the interest and imagination of the younger members of your family. Less dark and more about the fun side of crime-fighting and sewer-living pizza-eating.


In Half-Shell Heroes: Blast To The Past, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles accidentally time travel back to the Jurassic Era. During their stay they encounter several friendly dinosaurs, but also rather bizarrely some dangerous aliens from the future. Using their ninja skills the Turtles have to find a way to save the day and possibly just as importantly get back home.

This year would have been Beatrix Potter's 150th birthday, and her most popular character Peter Rabbit is 114 himself. He's looking good for it and that instantly recognisable blue jacket has worn very well.

My children have mainly moved on from Beatrix Potter stories, but they have all enjoyed them, as did I when I was young, and he is still as popular today. We've been sent the latest DVD release from Abbey Home Media to review, and I also have a copy to give away to one of my readers.


The Tale Of The Great Breakout is the fourth compilation of animated adventures and comprises 6 Peter Rabbit episodes lasting over 70 minutes in total:

The Tale Of The Great Breakout
The Tale Of The Mystery Plum Thief
The Tale Of Benjamin's Strawberry Raid
The Tale Of The Downhill Escape
The Tale Of The Unguarded Garden
The Tale Of The Cat And The Rat

Yes it's true. The long wait is over and Game Of Thrones: Season 6 starts on Monday 25th April. The public have been listened to, and it will be broadcast simultaneously with the US at 2am GMT on Sky Atlantic and then repeated at 9pm. Plus the Catch Up episode will be available from around 3am. You can find out if Jon Snow is going to come back at exactly the same time as everyone else on your Facebook friends list. Spoilers may be a thing of the past...

Transformers : Robots in Disguise – A New Mission is available on DVD and Digital Download from today - 28th March - just in time for the Easter holidays. Rated PG this contains 7 episodes, which is almost 2 1/2 hours of the of the latest Cartoon Network Transformers series.


This is the first release for the Transformers: Robots In Disguise series, and is set years after the Prime series. Earth has been peaceful and the Transformers are just living out Transformer lives.

In the first 2-part Story 'Pilot', Bumblebee receives an urgent message from Optimus Prime and gathers together the Autobots to return to Earth and rescue the planet from the Decepticons, who have escaped when their prison ship crash landed.

I thought it was about time to remind you that I'm a NOW TV blogger, and have a look at what sort of things you could be watching with NOW TV. There are no contracts, subscriptions or minimum memberships, for Entertainment or Movie channels you pay for 1 month at a time, whenever you actually want it. Sports fans can pay for a month, a week, or even a single day.
 


NOW TV is really easy to use, and navigating around the site is intuitive enough that an absolute novice (or a 5 year old) can find what they're after.


Spring may be coming, but so is Winter over at NOW TV. Game Of Thrones season 6 starts on 25th April and so now is the time (for anyone who wants to join in) to watch all 5 previous seasons on Box Set. Included in your Entertainment Pass for £6.99 per month.

The latest Littlest Pet Shop release from Hasbro on March 7th this year is Sweetest Pets, featuring over 2 hours of episodes from the universally suitable children's TV show. Available on DVD and Digital Download.

We've watched a lot of Littlest Pet Shop over the past couple of years, and it's still one of the more gentle animated children's TV shows that my boys enjoy. Featuring Blythe Baxter, a young lady who lives with her Dad above the Littlest Pet Shop, and spends most of the time she isn't at school or sleeping playing and having adventures with the animals.

Just in time for Christmas Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick are back with a festive DVD from Pip Ahoy! Christmas Ahoy! will be released tomorrow December 14th, and we were lucky enough to be among the very first people to see it because we have been sent a copy for review...


Pip Ahoy! is created by the people who brought us Count Duckula, Chorlton & The Wheelies and Jamie & The Magic Torch, and a character that David Jason made famous, Dangermouse. Christmas Ahoy! also features the voice talent of Sir David Jason as a handful of the friendly animal characters living in Salty Cove, including Pip's Uncle, Skipper.

We cancelled our Sky package about 3 months ago because we actually felt after 11 years of watching movies every day, we'd caught up with the back catalogue. We are happy with Sky Movies, but just felt we didn't need it all of the time and some months we didn't get our money's worth. We knew we would want to look at alternatives and NOW TV was one of the options we were looking at anyway, and then I was asked if I wanted to become involved with the NOW TV Blog Squad.
NOW TV still hosts Sky Movies, there is no ongoing contract, you pay for 1 month, so if there's nothing to watch, you're super busy or on holiday, you can take a couple of months off free of charge and then go back when you want.You aren't tied in to a huge bundle contract, and so you pay for only what you wish to have access to that month.

Earth To Luna is a new children's series which airs on Tiny Pop (Freeview). It is mainly aimed at pre-school children aged around 2-6 and follows the adventures of a 6 year old girl, Luna, her brother Jupiter and pet ferret Clyde. Luna is passionate about science and sees the world as a giant laboratory, full of interesting things to discover and experiment with.
We love science, so anything that encourages youngsters to become excited about their world is brilliant. If it then gives them answers to vital questions such as why things happen and where they come from, that's even better in my book. Young children can learn so much from watching short TV shows, it's a great preparation for starting school and can give them an excellent base for understanding much more complicated subjects later on. My boys are getting a little old for the pre-school style of Earth To Luna, but they can still learn a lot from it, as can I!

I read Miffy books with my children, and I well remember Miffy from when I was a child. In fact Miffy has been with us since 1955 and is celebrating her 60th birthday this year. One of the oldest lasting children's favourites, the Dick Bruna classic Miffy is returning to our TV screens in Miffy’s Adventures: Big and Small

Launching on Tiny Pop on 2 October 2015, at 7pm, this is the first time Miffy will be seen in CGI and is ideal for bedtime. The episodes in the series are a comfortable 7 minutes long, perfect for your pre-school viewers.