Reviewed by
Sharon
When the latest toucanBox popped through our letterbox it couldn’t have been better timed; we were off for a family wedding so had my sons grandma staying with us and the pair of them love their arts and crafts! I’ve always thought that toucanBox would make a lovely craft activity for children to do with grandparents or a wonderful gift from grandparents – wanting to ensure they get something fun but also with an element of education (and not just a magazine from the supermarket that comes with free plastic tat). Therefore I was overjoyed that my mum would get the chance to make this box with my son.
Christmas Craft-acular
Unsurprisingly this was a Christmas themed box, with enough bits to make two hanging gingerbread men as well as the usual stickers, activity book and instructions. I think for £5.95 it’s a good deal as in this fortnight’s box you had glitter glue as well as pom poms, eyes and ribbon. Yes it probably didn’t cost £5.95 but it is unlikely that you would be able to buy all of these for less as you’d need to buy bigger quantities than you’d need (and then find somewhere to store them!). There were also two little gift vouchers and envelopes so that you could give a gift to two friends – we will be using these wisely!
Feedback
I’ve always found the instructions to be really clear (though lets forget that time I managed to do the pumpkin lantern inside out!), but we did have one issue with this box. My mum read the instructions but didn’t read the glitter glue packs which had to have a small stopper removed before using. This meant that by my 4 year old son’s sheer brute force we had a giant glitter glue explosion all over our kitchen. We managed to find it all and clean it all away (but seriously, some of it travelled REALLY far!) and it did clean up surprisingly well (I can also vouch that it washes out of school uniforms too) and no harm was done…however that is the one bit of feedback I would give, to make it clear in the instruction booklet that the stopper needed to be removed.
‘Glittergluegate’ aside, they managed to make a fantastic gingerbread man – we’ve saved the bits to make another one at another time as we may need to restock the glitter glue first!
They both had great fun and spent well over an hour playing and completing the tasks in teh activity book. This toucanBox was a huge HIT!
By Evelyn 
