Our latest review for The Toadstool Online Toy Shop is a real classic. We've been sent the Brio Remote Control Railway set. Whenever you think of toy trains it's almost impossible not to consider Brio. All of my children have at some point received at least one Brio set, and fortunately some was not given away between having the bigger lot and the two little ones, so we've enough to make an impressive layout now.

We've been sent the Brio Remote Control Railway Set and the Brio Clever Crane Wagon to review. Our review for the Clever Crane Wagon is here.

The Brio Remote Control Railway Set

Everything is neatly packaged in the box, and there are no small parts, so there's no worries about losing anything before you start.


There are various bits of track , a road sign, a traffic light with moving parts, the remote control and the train itself with 2 carriages.


The track makes a good sized layout with plenty of scope for play and is fantastic quality with completely smooth edges and lovely wooden parts.




The train looks gorgeous. It has 2 trucks, one which can carry the canisters of liquid rolling stock and one which has what looks like a cement mixer on the back. The mixer turns as the train wheels turn, which delighted my boys.


I love the attention to detail. The engine and one set of wheels on the mixer truck have chunky grippy tyres and the train doesn't slip at all, nor does the mixer stop mixing!


The remote control is infra-red, so the controller needs to be able to 'see' the train in much the same way as a TV remote needs to 'see' the TV. It's incredibly simple and intuitive to use and my boys needed no tuition at all, they both got the hang of it instantly.





There is a track piece with a large storage silo and there are also 2 smaller canisters that form rolling stock for the train, but we aren't told what is in them, so this leaves loads of scope for different role play and encouraging the imagination.

The set includes a traffic light which you can move to show red or green and a 'caution' sign. I'm incredibly impressed with the sign as we've had literally hundreds of road and trackside signs over the years and they've nearly all been trodden on and snapped. This one is rubber and bends, so not only won't it hurt when someone treads or sits on it, but it shouldn't break during normal use.


My boys love this set and have played trains non-stop since they opened it on Saturday morning. They have created long and complicated storylines around what is in the tanks and where the train is going.

We brought out the rest of the track and my 15 year old spent hours with them designing layouts and playing with the Remote Control Train...I don't think you ever really grow out of train sets...


The Remote Control Railway Set has a suggested age range of 3+ and I think that's right although I believe it to be better for 4+. My youngest child is 3 years 8 months and while he can manage the controls just fine, I've always found that at times younger ones mess about and find fun in setting powered vehicles off across the room randomly without even paying any attention or letting them run off the table. It's annoying at best, uses up the batteries to no end and abuses the toy. My 5 year old is well past that stage and carefully makes a track before he even thinks of starting the engine.

This is a really good starter set because it has a full track and loads of scope, and you have plenty to fire the imagination. Train sets are brilliant for hand-eye co-ordination, problem-solving and learning about friction, speed and how vehicles move. They're brilliant for making up stories and learning about the world and this one has everything to encourage a child to start thinking and asking questions.


This month sees the start of  ToadTest Parties (toy talk & reviews) and they're kicking off in style with Brio wooden train play.

Join in the conversation on Twitter (7th Nov), Facebook (12th Nov) and Google+ (18th Nov) from 8pm-9.30pm to learn more about Brio, read reviews of the Brio range, have your questions answered and even win prizes.

After reviewing the new Lego Batman: DC Superheroes Unite movie our appetite is well and truly whetted for next year's full length The Lego Movie.

Due to be released on 14th February 2014, The Lego Movie tells the story of a minifigure called Emmet, who is mistakenly picked up by a group of strangers who think he is the most extraordinary person in the world and key to helping them in their quest to stop an evil tyrant and save the world.

The movie has a fantastic cast including Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks and two of my absolute favourite voice artists - Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson.

I don't think it'll surprise anyone when I say that Lego is incredibly popular in our house. I knew about my partner's love of Lego early on because we'd both bought Lego Clickits Advent Calendars for our girls in a big Manchester branch of Woolworths the first year we were courting. It wasn't until we moved in together that we discovered just how big a collection we both had.


In the intervening 7 years we've seen our children progress from Clickets and Lego City through Spongebob, Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars. We've had the 2 little boys and they moved swiftly past Duplo because they had the bigger children to influence them. This year Santa has requests from our family ranging from The Battle Of Hoth game and Monster Fighters Crazy Scientist to 'more wheels' and a Lego City Garbage Truck.

We don't believe Lego is just for children here, not in any way. Lego is for everyone. For the last 3 years my birthday present in November has been that year's Lego Creator Winter building, so now we have a really impressive display that it's become tradition I spend days putting together - and I love every minute of it. It's our first Christmas decoration to go up each year.


My favourite Lego memories though are those that we made together as a whole family in the Summer of 2011. We took all 7 of our children, and my partner's parents, and travelled up through Belgium, France and The Netherlands and went to visit the original Legoland in Billund, Denmark. It was a real holiday of a lifetime and took a lot of planning and arranging. We didn't have a lot of money and we camped en route and managed to do the whole trip on just over £3,000 including staying in the Legoland Village Family Hostel for 3 nights. Not bad for 11 people.

We were all smiling even before we got there....

3am and some of us were trying to sleep before the 6am ferry

The Family Hostel was absolutely lovely

Waking your nearly 3 year old up in the morning and asking him "where are we?" and the answer is "Legoland" really is priceless...

Legoland really was magic...

Legoland was our first real experience of a Sealife Centre...

We walked into town past the Lego Headquarters - can you imagine what goes on in there?! There was a great display in the window of Lego through the years, and a very special memory for me - Lego people that I used to play with when I was little....

Counting Caterpillars is another new game for Autumn from Orchard Toys. Aimed at 2-4 players aged 3+ the gameplay is very simple and it's the act of putting the numbers into the right place on the caterpillar that is the tricky bit.


All players have their own 'board' which is a fairly large jigsaw with a 4 piece frame and 10 caterpillar parts which each have their own number.


For younger children the numbered caterpillar segments each have their own colour, which matches the caterpillars feet, so the numbers can be put into the right space even when they aren't in direct order yet.

Counting Caterpillars is an absolutely fabulous game for children who are learning numbers to ten, whether verbal or written. All children can learn to say the numbers from 1 to 10 in the same way as they can learn the words to Incy Wincy Spider, but it doesn't make them able to count and associate those words with items. Once they progress to reading and writing they need to learn to recognise all of the numbers, and this game is also brilliant for that.


Players take it in turns to take an upturned segment from the table and see if it matches a space on their caterpillar. If they already have that number/colour then they put it back on the table and their turn is over. If they need that piece for their caterpillar then they take it and put it into the right space.


At 3 1/2 and 5 my boys are the perfect age for this game. My younger one is not quite confident with counting to ten - although playing this has meant he's not far off now - and my older son is not quite confident with all of his written numbers - again, he's really getting there now that we've been playing Counting Caterpillars over half term.


Counting Caterpillars is not only brilliant for teaching and reinforcing numbers, it also has 10 different colours to learn. Because of the jigsaw layout it is brilliant for hand-eye co-ordination and problem-solving. It is a good game for teaching turn-taking and gameplay, and getting children used to winning and losing. Gameplay is quick, it only takes about 10 minutes for a game, so children don't wander off or lose interest. Because you have to remember where the segments you need are, it promotes memory skills and concentration.

Like all Orchard Toys games and puzzles this is bright and modern and designed and manufactured in the UK from thick, high quality 100% recycled board. It's built to be played with and will last to be passed on when your child has finished with it.

Counting Caterpillars currently retails at £9.50 and is available from all good toy stockists or online direct from the Orchard Toys website. My boys really enjoy it and get a real feeling of accomplishment when they finish their caterpillar whether they're first or not, everyone goes away happy. We give this one 5/5.

You know that thing when you repeatedly say to your kids "Don't do that, someone will get hurt", "stop play fighting", "get off the bed and stop jumping".....

Well that....


And today when they were jumping on the bed again....*sigh*

Sew Personal To You is a small business based near Bristol turning your children's drawings into hand sewn motif's on t-shirts, shopping bags, tea towels, cushion covers, vests and just about anything you can think of.

I chose a 'shopping bag' as we use them all of the time, and was asked to supply a design from one or both of my children. Before I'd had a chance to sit down with them and ask them to draw, my 5 year old brought home a treasure map he had drawn at school and it was perfect. This is the image that I emailed over.

We were challenged by The Toadstool to make something special using Plus Plus for Halloween and I've got to say I found it a lot harder than I expected!!

Before he went to bed my 5 year old made us a great spider...


He then played with it for the next half hour, creating an entire scene and story about the spider hiding behind a wall and waiting to eat a bug who was eating grass....not exactly Halloweenish, but I was impressed.


With the kids in bed it was my turn. It was easy enough to make a 2D ghost.....at least I hope it's recognisable as a ghost....I didn't have enough white so I improvised, and put it through photoshop to reduce the colour of the grey...


But then I stupidly decided to try something more complicated and 3D. It really gives your brain a good workout trying to decide how to make the right shapes and put them all together...

2 hours and a movie later and this is my best shot. I'm pleased with it because it went through several different incarnations until it reached this point and this one is definitely the best looking! I hope you can tell what it is!




If you don't have Plus Plus then it is available to buy from The Toadstool and prices start at a stockingfiller rate of £5....

Ozeri have sent us the Moderna 8oz Double-Wall Thermo Glasses to review. We've previously reviewed the Curva Double-Walled Thermo Glasses and these are a perfect compliment. Whereas the Curva all have an individual and distinct pattern, the Moderna glasses are more classic, straight-edged except for dimples on each side which assist with grip.

The Curva Glasses

The Moderna Glasses

The glasses are made from Borosilicate glass, which is the same as Pyrex and can withstand different temperatures. It means you can use them for everything from soup and coffee to ice cream sundaes. You can even put them in the freezer if you wish.

Borosilicate glass is far tougher than regular glass. They can be microwaved and washed in the dishwasher, and they're shatterproof, so if you do drop and break one, it shouldn't smash into a bazillion tiny pieces that spread across the whole room.



We think they're a gorgeous thing. They look and feel lovely. They aren't cheap, but they're reasonably priced, something beautiful and special to have, and make a fantastic gift.

Ozeri Moderna Double-Walled Thermo Glasses are currently available to buy on Amazon for £24.95 with free delivery.