SpongeBob Squarepants Mega Bloks
Recently we received a few products from the brand new SpongeBob SquarePants Mega Bloks range. Bud is really starting to enjoy construction toys and I know how great they are for improving fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. He's also developed a recent liking for SpongeBob SquarePants so this delivery couldn't come at a better time.
The first item we opened was the blind bag. These are a great pocket money toy, retailing at just £1:99 and each bag is a surprise. With characters from across the series - SpongeBob himself, Patrick, Squidward and others - it's great fun to try to collect each one. This is a bag from Series 1 of the collection and I assume that there will be future series to collect too.
Our blind bag contained SpongeBob complete with apple and Bud was able to put this together with only a little help. They stand on their own block which makes it easy to display them and use them in other Mega Bloks sets.
The next set was Bud's favourite - the SpongeBob Racer. This arrived in a cardboard tube containing 74 pieces, including another SpongeBob figure. This time SpongeBob is ready to race and wearing his bright red cap and sunglasses.
The pieces arrive in two bags, with the SpongeBob figure in his own bag. Bud wanted to build this set himself and, for the most part he did. I helped him to identify which pieces he needed and helped him with some of the trickier bits. I really enjoy watching him build with the blocks and he was really delighted by the end result. He put SpongeBob himself together in a couple of minutes and then moved on to the racer.
The bags in this kit aren't numbered and you need to open all of the bags from the start as you will use pieces from each straight away. I think the build took Bud and I around forty minutes and it's a great little project for little hands who are learning to follow instructions and build in this way. The only truly tricky part was the silver pipes on the back of the car and it took us a little while for them all to sit correctly. These sets retail at £9:99 which I think is reasonable value for money for a character branded set with this many pieces. It's certainly comparable to other ranges we have bought and I have seen.
There is also a Patrick Racer in this range, which Mummy of Two reviewed. You can see what Little Mr A thought of Patrick's Car here. Another really great thing about this set is that you can use the tube to store SpongeBob and his Racer when it is built. No torn, thrown away cardboard boxes here.
The final set we looked at was the biggest. The Invisible Boatmobile Rescue features SpongeBob, Patrick and a Plankton, with two vehicles and three landscape items. Patrick is Bud's favourite character so he was really pleased to see, and build the two characters in this set. In total there are 337 pieces included so you know from the start that this is a good sized build.
The pieces arrive across ten bags. Six are numbered (although we didn't have a number 5) and then there are four smaller bags including the characters - SpongeBob, Patrick and Plankton, and an attachment for the Invisible Boatmobile.
As with the previous set you will need to open all six of the main bags from the start.We have some fantastic plastic trays which are brilliant for this sort of thing so I opened one bag into each section. This made it much easier to find every piece needed.
You'll see from this photo that there are a lot of 'clear' bricks. They are used to build the Invisible Boatmobile, to give it the illusion of being see through. This makes the build quite complex and Bud started off helping me then lost interest. He is only four though, so slightly younger than the recommended age of 5+. He asked me to build it instead and I got stuck in and completed the whole set in just under an hour. The clearly illustrated instruction book takes you through every step and the boatmobile is very cleverly put together, making use of hinged pieces and more unusual shapes well. I loved how the headlights and side fins attached.
Plankton's truck has an arm which can be used to launch missiles at the net on the back of the Boatmobile. This was a much simpler build then the Boatmobile and Bud helped a little with this one. Both vehicles are really well thought out and designed. They are solid too so suitable to be played with as a playset, not just put up on a shelf. This is exactly right, this playset absolutely lends itself to imaginative play with SpongeBob and Patrick coming under attack from the Plankton and moving their net to catch the missiles. It's a really pleasing set once built. Both Bud and I really enjoyed it.
The Invisible Boatmobile Rescue set retails at £19:99 which is very good value for money. There are a lot of pieces and, at the end you have toys rather than models. We've already had played with them lots and they are showing no sign of being put down yet.
This was our first experience of the smaller Mega Bloks for older chidren, we have tonnes of the toddler blocks, but, based on our impression of the SpongeBob SquarePants blocks I don't think it will be our last.
The SpongeBob SquarePants Mega Bloks range is available from Mega Bloks and all usual stockists.
Disclosure: We received the Mega Bloks for review purposes.All opinions are honest.
