As I mentioned in my Christmas list post a while back, the main present for The Boy from The Hubby and me for Christmas this year was the ELC Happyland Rocket (RRP £32). I found a good deal on the ELC website for Happyland products when I was making my decision on which Happyland product to get him (the success of the train set, station and vets surgery that he received for his first birthday makes the Happyland range a go-to for The Boy) Eventually I decided to purchase both the Happyland Rocket and the Happyland Mobile Moon Base (RRP £16) set too (This gift was labelled as from The Hairy Hounds of Hell).
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Happyland Light & Sound Lift Off Rocket |
The Happyland Rocket is an eye catching bright shiny red, with three doors up one side. The top door opens to reveal space for two spacemen to lie side by side for take-off. The middle door opens to show the living area, which has kitchen units around the outer edge, with a bed attached to the door (so it moves out of the way as you open the door) and when you flip the bed up it reveals the toilet (highly practical, space-saving design!) The bottom door is a drop down door and in here the little moon buggy fits perfectly, and can be driven up and down the ramp. The Rocket comes with two spacemen, a space dog, moon buggy, alien and moon crater which the alien can stand in. It’s a very practical design, as all these items can be put into it and the doors secured shut and there is a handle for easy carrying, so this toy quickly became a favourite when we went to visit my in-laws, as it provides The Boy with plenty of entertainment. There’s a red button on the carry handle, and when the Rocket is in the upright position and this button is pressed it begins the ‘countdown’ for launch, with the bright red lights on the underneath of the Rocket flashing red as if the engines are lit and the thrusters are burning! After the countdown, there is a lot of whooshing noises as if the rocket is taking off. Once the Rocket is horizontal, if the button is pressed again it makes noises of a rocket travelling through space (more whooshing and ‘space’ noises). While this makes it a noisy toy, The Boy loves it, and he can often be found spinning in circles with the rocket in his hand, whooshing away and scattering spacemen all round the room. The product is durable and hardwearing – he’s dropped it countless times, yet still the shiny red exterior is shiny and looking good. The downfall of this product is the doors – they keep coming off. In one way it’s good, because when The Boy puts too much pressure on them or tries to open them too far, they pop out of place rather than breaking, which is great as it means I can just pop them back into place again, but it seems to be a habit that within a few minutes of him playing with it he is moaning for me to put the doors back on again. To be fair, though, this is the only downfall, and as I say I can see the point of them being so easy to remove, as it makes them easy to replace and more difficult to break.
The Happyland Rocket gets a very happy four out of five! I am very pleased with this purchase, and it confirms the Happyland range is definitely a go-to for children of this age group.
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Happyland Mobile Moon Base |
As I mentioned, as well as the Rocket, The Boy also received the additional gift of the Happyland Mobile Moon Base set. This set comprised of a moon buggy (different from the one included in the Rocket as this one has a moving front digger section) the mobile space station unit which attaches onto the moon buggy and opens out to reveal the computers inside; it came with two spacemen and a robot. This one doesn’t have any buttons for noise, but encourages dexterity with the hook and catch system of linking the moon buggy to the mobile space station, though again the only downfall of this product is that the doors of the mobile space station come out of place easily and I’m forever clicking them back into the slots. Again for travelling purposes you can fit all three characters into the mobile space unit, which makes this an excellent addition to the Happyland Rocket when going out for a long day with The Boy to somewhere he’ll have the space to play but no toys already there, such as my in-laws house.
I am also very pleased with this purchase, would recommend it to my friends especially as a great compliment to the Rocket, and would also rate this four out of five.
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Happyland Moon |
In addition to that, my mum also found the offer at ELC on the Happyland range, and after we discussed what I’d already brought, she decided to spend her pennies on the Happyland Moon Mobile (RRP £16). This funky, turquoise blue space car comes complete with three different aliens, and there are buttons either side of the car which activate either alien ‘speak’ or more ‘whooshing’ and ‘space’ noises. In addition to this, the red lights around the back circle section of the car flash when the noises are activated, and the friction wheels mean that when the car is pushed along a level surface it activates the ‘whooshing’ and ‘space’ sounds, which all add to the amusement of The Boy. This one is again another fantastic compliment to the Rocket and the Moon Landing set, or great as a stand-alone toy. Another noisy one, though not so practical for travelling with as the aliens can’t be locked into place in the car – the times I have taken it to the in-laws with us, I’ve put it in a bag, whereas the Rocket you could just pick up and go with as it is. Further happy entertainment and once more a product I would recommend, this one has no doors so there is nothing to fall off, the only thing you have to worry about is the location of those aliens once they’re out of the vehicle because they, like the spacemen, are just the right size to vanish under the edge of a sofa when you’re not looking!
Another brilliant Happyland product, once again I would recommend it, another four out of five rating!
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