Reviewed by
Mary
Blurb:
· Age Appropriate Reading Book
· Trading Cards
· Fred’s Box Pencil
· 4 x Design your own Postcards
· Fred’s Box sticker
Fred’s Box has two different box options, an Ooshie Subscription Box, and a Mystery Box.
I was sent a Mystery Box. This costs £11.99 plus £2 p+p. You can buy a one-off box, or you can buy a rolling subscription, which has a 10% discount.
There is also an option for twins.
When you order you give the child’s age and reading age.
You can choose girl or boy options, and as my lovely assistant, Little C, is a girl, I was sent the girl option called Lily’s Box.
The box is thin and flat so fits through the mail box. No trips to the sorting office!
For some reason I didn’t take a ‘box opening picture’, but I can tell you that everything is packed very well.
All Fred’s Boxes include a colouring pencil and an Ooshie.
Ooshies are little rubber figures of various characters. There is a hole in the bottom so they can be used as pencil toppers. Ranges include Disney princesses, DC, and Marvel.
This Ooshie is Harley Quinn, from the DC comics universe. Little C was very pleased to see that, according to the Ooshies menu included, this particular figure is ‘rare’.
This a Care Bears Hanging Charm. These are blind bags, so you don’t know which one you might get. As it happened we got the blue one pictured on the top right.
Little C is aware of Care Bears, though she doesn’t have any and we haven’t watched the show, so she doesn’t know any names. However this is small and cute, and it does indeed smell quite nice. She liked it!
Another regular inclusion of Fred’s Box is trading cards. Little C adores the Avengers, so she was very happy with these!
She was extra happy because she got a card of Black Widow, who is her favourite Avenger!
These Star Wars Top Trumps were another hit. We got the DC comic version in a previous box so these are a great addition to the collection.
Little C is also a big Star Wars fan, but has only seen the movies, not the animated serious upon which these are based, so she enjoyed finding out about different characters in the Star Wars universe.
These are a great little set of accessories. Five Shopkins rings!
Little C doesn’t have many fun accessories, so she was thrilled to have these rings.
Yay, more Star Wars! These wristbands are fantastic, practically indestructible, and Kylo Ren is a terrific villain.
We’ve actually got a couple of other Star Wars wristbands, so we were pleased to be able to add to them!
Every Fred’s Box also includes a book. When you order the box you specify the child’s reading age, so whatever they send will be appropriate to their reading level.
Little C loves the gross and gory, so there was a splendid amount of yuck-factor in this book!
A cute addition to these boxes are postcards. The reverse is blank for children to create their own designs. Encouraging children to write notes and letters is very important, so this is a great way to foster their creativity.
Thoughts:
First of all, value.
Value is always tricky because you’ve got to think about postage and the general time involved in accumulating all these things. I looked up some prices using Amazon where possible, as you’re less likely to find dodgy knockoffs.
Care Bears Charm £1.99
Ooshie: £3
Shopkins rings £2.50
Avengers cards: £1
Top Trumps: £1.99
Star Wars Wristband: £2.29
Book: £6.99 (RRP on the back of the book) Very few books are sold at RRP, and this isn’t a huge book (though there’s plenty in it!), so I would put it more at £3.99.
Pencil: £0.50? Doesn’t matter, you’ve got more that your money’s worth anyway.
So this is pretty damn good value!
Little C’s tastes are extremely mixed, so this combination of cute and cool was perfect for her.
One of the things I like about this box is that Fred’s Box is extremely receptive to personal requests. The fairy-themed book in the last box (also excellent) wasn’t quite Little C’s thing. As Little C is rather good at reading, lovely Clare (who runs Fred’s Box) suggested one of these fantastic ‘Horrible History-type’ books, and it was absolutely perfect.
While yes, there are ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ boxes, you can specify when ordering if your child is particularly keen on one thing or another. So my Shopkins- and Star Wars-loving daughter was very happy! I’m sure you could say ‘nothing pink’ or ‘everything pink’ and you would get a great selection.
Fred’s Box is not about every box being identical. While the item types are similar (books, trading cards etc.) the details are much more personalised. I think they really work extremely hard to create something that will suit individual children.
This would be a lovely monthly treat for your child, and if you’ve got a birthday party coming up, an epic party bag!
Lily’s Box might be the Princess division of Fred’s Box, but these princesses can enjoy anything and everything!
By Evelyn 
