Usually you try to protect your drone and avoid any obstacles, Air Wars Battle Drones turns that around. This 2 drone, 2 controller set also has a selection of 'weapons' to attach to each drone before you try to knock your opponent out of the sky.


Packaging is almost all card and very easy to open. Inside the box are two drones, two 2.4GHz  controllers, two USB charge cables and battery charge packs, 10 assorted weapons, a complete set of spare blades for both drones and instructions.

The Jungle Bunch family animated movie was released by 20th Century Fox on DVD on Monday and we were sent a copy to review, along with some snacks and merchandise for the boys so that we could have a bit of a party. It's mainly for families with children aged around 3-7, but my 8 and 9 year olds were happy to watch with me.


Set in the jungle, as the name suggests, this is the story of a group of quite eccentric animals. The main character is a penguin who was raised by a tigress and believes he is The Great Warrior Tiger. She also painted him stripey to fit in.

We all know Dr Beckmann make fantastic cleaning products and they've saved me from many near-disasters over the years! The Dr Beckmann Carpet Stain Remover has won Which? Magazine Best Buy for 4 years running and is brilliant at removing all kinds of stains including food, dirt, crayons and make up, yet so simple and easy to use that you don't need to get changed or break into a sweat.


Usually you want to get the entire surface clean, but Dr Beckmann Carpet Stain Remover is almost 100% spillproof and has a unique curved brush applicator, so it's possible to direct it precisely where you want it. This has allowed Britain’s Got Talent contestant Nathan Wyburn to create a unique piece of Carpet Art.

Pop culture portrait artist Nathan specialises in creating art using unusual materials and was commissioned by Dr Beckmann to create a unique portrait of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in celebration of their engagement and upcoming marriage.

Unbelievably Nathan only used 3 bottles of Carpet Stain Remover in total and here is the finished product! He certainly has some unique skill there...

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.

My latest review for the Blogger Board Game Club is not a board game, but a brand new puzzle called Arokah. This is a wooden shape-fitting game, based on a set of 23 unique shapes which together form a hexagon. Arokah is one of the most beautiful products I've ever reviewed.


The Arokah box looks really nice, but is actually very flimsy and not ideal for future storage, however this possibly isn't the sort of puzzle you'd re-box any way. More experienced puzzlers, mathematically minded and logical people will have an advantage.

The most stressful and full month has passed and now we're all deflated, shattered and left with the tidying up. Over Christmas you're often too busy to sit and pose for photos - which has got to be right, surely. If you've got it in your memory, it existed. You did capture plenty of your smiles though - Christmas, snow and tons of gorgeous pyjamas which put all of our to shame! Most of all, some genuinely happy faces with grinning eyes. I hope your Christmas was an excellent one.

Here are 9 of the brightest smiles shared by people on Instagram over the last month. Anyone can join in, just tag any smile with #TBCSmiles and take a look at the others, it's an amazing collection to warm you from any cold weather.

It's taken me 5 years and 2 weeks to reach 1500 posts, so I guess that means I've averaged 300 posts a year. It would be disingenuous to assume they were all brilliant, so please let me take a moment to apologise for all the drivel and  the posts that were crap. The blurry photos, the videos where I'd put the model together wrong or made up a phrase that made no sense whatsoever. The times I blagged it completely, the Twitter party where the product hadn't even arrived. The times I got the title wrong, or accidentally published a draft post which contained a few swear words and little else. The time Gary the cat wrote and published a post while I was on the school run. It wasn't even his best work.

It's dark, it's cold and everyone is shattered. No-one wants to play. With this in mind, here are a few of my most light-hearted posts. Hopefully something here can bring a smile to your face, whatever the weather outside....

I haven't watched 13 Reasons Why. Maybe I will one day, maybe in 10 months or 10 years. Maybe never. I don't need to find 13 reasons why, I've spent the last 3 1/2 years thinking of thousands of reasons why, Thousands of straws that could have added just too much to the weight carried.

A couple of years ago I wrote a post called 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Decide To Leave This Christmas Or In The Period Thereafter. I always felt I had more to say - so you may recognise some of these points, along with some more...

Home Robotics: Maker-Inspired Projects For Building Your Own Robots is written by Daniel Knox and will be released on 18th January. Recommended for younger readers and scientists aged 8+, I actually passed this on to my 20 year old Uni Student Engineer, as it's not only interesting to children. He can help his little brothers make something next Summer...


There are 13 different project robots that you can build at home, split into 3 difficulties - Basic Bots for beginners, Simple Robots for those with a little bit of confidence and understanding and Smart Makes, for when your child is ready to take over the world...

Black Panther is an upcoming movie release and will be the 18th film in the incredibly popular Marvel Avengers series. We've been sent two of the brand new Hasbro Marvel Black Panther toys for review - the Vibranium Strike Nerf Gauntlet and Vibranium Power FX Mask.


The Vibranium Strike Gauntlet is quite an exciting toy for a Nerf fan like myself, so I played with this first. It comes complete with 3 x Nerf Elite darts and is manually powered, so doesn't need batteries. Packaging is almost entirely string and card, you can undo it, or cheat with scissors.



The Vibranium Strike Gauntlet is designed to look like head of panther and takes a little assembly as it arrives in two parts. You don't need any tools, it just slots together and it's obvious how to do it.