Moshi Monsters plush toys

The virtual pet and online games website Moshi Monsters was launched in 2008 and most of the people playing on the website were then aged between seven and 12 years. The idea of the website was that you had to adopt a pet monster and care for it.

Those who cared for their monsters the best were rewarded with ‘rox’ which is a type of currency to use in the game. This allows the players to buy additional things for their monsters and special decorative items within the game.

Since its launch the membership of the website has grown rapidly. After one year over 10 million people were registered with the website and in the middle of last year membership reached 50 million people. The success of the website has meant that many other products related to it were launched, such as physical toys and a special children’s magazine.

Plush toys are one of the main releases related to the franchise and there are currently six different types of Moshi Monsters available on the market. The first of these is a creature that looks like a rabbit and is known as a Katsuma. These are very social pets and enjoy being tickled by their child owners as well being kept in well decorated rooms.

The second type of toy resembles a demon and is unsurprisingly more popular with boys. This creature is known as a Diavlos and is a friendly but mysterious creature. It also craves attention and if you ignore it, it is likely to become fiery and angry, much like a demon would.

The furriest of the creatures is known as Furis, and other than being known for its excessive amounts of hair it is known for enjoying food as well as the decorations that surround it. If this type of toy is not bought nice decorations they tend to complain and will become angry at their owner.

The toy that is most popular with girls is known as Poppet and likes beautiful things and fashion. They are the most bossy of the toys and enjoy getting attention from their owners.  The last type of available toy is called the Zommer and this toy is one of the most difficult to look after. They need to be fed every day if they are to survive but if they are looked after they are certainly one of the most delightful monsters to have.

The plush toys that are available are interactive and children can squeeze on the tummy of the toy to hear them talk, laugh and giggle. When you buy the toy it will come with an adoption certificate to show that you are the owner and there is also a secret code to be used on the website to gain a special type of reward.

While the website is mostly targeting children seven years and older, these soft toys are suitable for any children who are over four years old and any child is sure to love and care for them.

Transformers offer even more toys

If by some strange chance you’re not familiar with Transformers, you might need a little of the back story to appreciate the overwhelming popularity of these action figures.  Transformers are not just robots, they’re Autobots.  These characters are also shape-shifters; they may start out as an armoured vehicle and turn into a walking, talking, laser-shooting, virtually indestructible weapon that’s shaped quite a bit like a human, or at least a biped.

The Autobots have a mission:  to save the Universe, including the planet Earth, from the bad guys like Megatron and his cohorts.  Well, that’s a very simplified back story, but you get the idea, hopefully.

Now pay attention, because here are the latest and greatest of the Transformer series, and anyone who is hooked on the whole Transformer scene (and that includes uncounted millions of kids, of all ages) will want to add them to their collections.

Optimus Prime is the best known figure in the Transformers inventory; he was the leading character in the latest Transformers movie, Dark of the Moon.  Now he is available as the biggest and most versatile action figure yet, the Ultimate Optimus Prime that can be converted from vehicle to robot to robot with a suit of armour.  There is a trailer that serves as a weapons depot and is also used to make wings and armour, and two feet of arm and leg extensions.

He also has the Ultimax Super Cannon, a huge weapon that makes cannon noises and lights, and can be gripped and pointed to fire, or stored on the action figure’s back.  The Ultimate Optimus Prime is one amazing Autobot, and there’s more.  The Transformers Leader Optimus Prime has energy swords that snap out, it produces the noise of engines revving and racing, its eyes light up and there is electronic speech between robot and vehicle.

Another figure from Dark of the Moon is the MechTech Voyager-Optimus Prime.  This one lacks a couple of the features the Ultimate has, but it’s also a bit less expensive.  MechTech Voyager lets you convert Optimus from truck to warrior, and it comes with a battle cannon.  You can also purchase other   weapons that are sold separately but can be used with any MechTech action figure.

This Transformer craze seems to be escalating rather than declining, and a lot of imagination and techno-wizardry has gone into action figures that just get more detailed and more fun to play with every time a new one comes out.  None of them are recommended for youngsters under five, mostly due to the danger involved with small parts.  With that one warning, the rest of the kids and oh yes, their parents, will find the new Optimus Prime action figures to be irresistible playmates.

Finn McMissile from Disney and Mattel

The toys that are a joint tie-in between Disney and Mattel are always something special, and the secret spy attack Finn McMissile is certainly no exception. Part of the new  Cars 2 range, this is another of those toys that is going to make children everywhere want to be an international super spy.

Just in case you aren’t quite up on the background intel, spy speak for knowing who is who, Finn McMissile is the ultra sophisticated and suave British master spy who, in the upcoming Cars 2 film, has sniffed out an evil plot that is being hatched regarding the World Grand Prix. He does, of course, like any master spy would, embark on a thrilling adventure to save the day.

Just like in the film, the secret spy attack Finn McMissile comes with a great variety of the kind of high tech weaponry that will hep him succeed in his mission. This toy is the ultimate in cool, he talks and says many of his signature lines from the film, you just press the hood to make Finn talk, and to make it even simpler they have even put a sticker in the appropriate place saying ‘press’.

If you press Finn’s hood in as far as possible 2 ultra high tech missile launchers pop out, all ready to launch the missiles needed to feel the nearest adversary. As if that wasn’t enough, this unique toy has even more hidden features to amuse the kids for hours. Press on the back bumper another launcher pops up from the boot as well as an infra green spy screen appearing from the roof.

When these have been used and Fin needs to return to normal in the way that only a super spy can, you just push them back in again. With all these features and attention to detail, this is set to become a hot favourite, and is likely to sell out fast once Cars 2 hits the cinemas.

Angry Birds at Christmas

Angry Birds is a computer game that has been immensely popular since its appearance in the Apple Store in 2009. It is not only being limited to appearing on the Apple devices and has become a popular part of mainstream culture. A new board game has recently been released which is based on the popular video game and is called, “Angry Birds Knock On Wood” and is targeted at children aged five upwards. The board game is very similar to the videogame in that it utilises the same addictive gameplay that can be found in the digital version.

This is just the latest in a range of products that has been hitting the market-based on the game. T-shirts, flip-flops, pillows and keychains are just some of the items that have been created around the Angry Birds franchise.

The videogame tells the story of a group of birds who have had their eggs stolen by some pigs. In order to get these eggs back they work together and use their special abilities to attack the pigs. In the game the birds are launched towards the pigs and the idea is to hit as many as possible.

The physical boardgame works in a very similar way and players have to construct a formation of wooden blocks as specified by the instructions. The wooden blocks are very similar to jenga and it is very easy for a player to build a wooden block structure.

As with many boardgames it starts off by players determining what order they are going to play and once this has happened they draw a card from a deck which determines what sort of construction is going to be made from the wooden blocks. These wooden blocks are what the pigs use as their defence from the birds.

There are three different types of cards in the game and they have different levels of difficulty. The more difficult cards mean that structures are made to be more challenging to destroy. There are also two special cards in the game which create very complex structures which are difficult to destroy but will earn the player points if they manage to do so. The structures that can be created by players are very complicated and range from simple barriers to complex towers which players will find very hard to destroy.