Mr Frosty Choc Ice Maker Review - Is It One For Santa’s List?

Mr Frosty is certainly a throwback. In fact he was on my own Santa list in the 80’s, and my poor parents’ arms would despair having to crank the handle on the back of him, in his older incarnation, to dispense some slivers of ice into a cup for me, those were the days! 

I’m pleased to report the Mr Frosty of 2018 is much more hassle-free, and the Mr Frosty Choc Ice Maker is one product that parents won’t be dreading seeing on the Santa list this Christmas. It costs £12.99 and you can buy it from Asda or Smyths.

We were sent one to try out this week, so we gave it a whirl. The kit contains lolly moulds to freeze yoghurt lollies, and a lovely little igloo which you then use to melt chocolate to coat your frozen lollies. It’s very cute and a fun idea to make with your kids over the Christmas break too.

This blog is a bit of a “how to”  also in case you are thinking of buying the Choc Ice Maker, hopefully I can give you some tips and tricks.

I found a great hack was to buy Frubes, the yoghurt that comes in straw like tubes for packed lunches. Not only are they freezable, but they are perfect to snip off the corner and pipe into the snowman mould, rather than try to spoon regular yoghurt in there. A whole box of Frubes is never more than £2.

The lolly mould is like an ice cube tray, but it’s a flexible silicon one, which has good points and bad points. The good point is that once your lollies are set they are very easy to pop out, whether they be yoghurt, like we made, or solid chocolate, or anything you freeze. The downside is that the mould once filled with yoghurt is still quite floppy, so when I tried to carry it over to to freezer some of the liquid spilled. I would suggest putting the mould on a flat tray and putting the whole thing into the freezer like that. Also don’t underestimate the size the mould takes up with the lolly sticks protruding out, you need quite a bit of space in the freezer for it. Measure it out before you start so you don’t get caught out with a armful of yoghurt lollies and nowhere to put them like me!

The yoghurt freezes quite quickly, and is very easy to pop out of the moulds, and the roof of the igloo doubles up as a stand for your lollipops, which is so handy. You then melt your chocolate coating in the main igloo part in the microwave, and coat your lollipops. 

We found this part tricky, there must be a knack to it, but the shape of the snowman disappeared completely for us! It still tasted delicious anyway. We added some sprinkles and decorations, and you could add fresh fruit or any other decorations to make the pops a healthy snack. 

The clean up is very simple, I just put everything in the sink with hot water.  

We definitely want to try out some other recipes. Smix wants to try some solid chocolate lollipops. I want to try some other flavours of yoghurt in there, maybe add chopped up mini mallows or Nutella.

Would I recommend it? Yes, if you enjoy kitchen crafts it’s a fun one that you will do more than once, it’s easy, not much clean up required, doesn’t take up much storage either. Would make a nice gift too. Add it to the Santa list. 

Mr Frosty is Back! We Vlog Our Trip Down Memory Lane.

It took several years of nagging Santa, but I eventually did own one of these coveted ice crushing snowmen in the 80s. My memories are of the handle being impossible to turn, and of just driving the syrup from the squeezy penguin.

Well Mr Frosty is back! He's £19.99 from Smyths Toys, and there are some changes to be aware of. The super sugary syrups are no longer included, which means you can be healthier and add your usual dilute or flavouring of your choice to the crushed ice. As well as the classic Mr Frosty machine, you'll also receive lolly moulds to make yoghurt, juice, or lollies of anything in your imagination. There are also two trays of fun ice cube shapes.

You can use dilute juice and freeze that in icecubes so your ice you crush is automatically flavoured, if you choose to. 

So, is the Mr Frosty machine any easier to use? My parents used to hate cranking that handle! Well the tip is to leave the ice out to allow it to soften for ten minutes to make the handle turning easier. I'm a little sceptical here as surely the physics of ice means it is either ice or water, there is no mystical 'soft ice' state. A tip I would offer up is that if you use ice cube plastic bags to make your cubes, if you whack it with a rolling pin to smash the cubes up a little smaller, you'll have more luck than just feeding Mr Frosty regular sized cubes. 

We still found the handle hard to turn, sadly. We did get crushed ice and yes, it is easier than the 80s' version, but Smix is aged 8 and needed help each time he wanted to use it. Another tip we have is don't press down too hard on Mr Frosty's hat. Just apply even pressure. 

If you love creative toys then Flair's club will be right up your street, visit www.coolcreateclub.co.uk

Here's our Vlog! 

Zoingo Boingo: The Flexible Fun Pogo Toy That Tempted Smix Away From His IPad & Out to the Garden!

This week we received the new Zoingo Boingo pogo toy from Flair toys, a spin on the traditional pogo stick with a bouncing ball base and bungee cord handle which allows for more movement and the ability to do more tricks than before. With the weather finally picking up it was the perfect time to tempt Smix outside and off his iPad to learn the skill to 'boinging'.

The Zoingo Boingo is suitable for age 8 and up, so Smix is exactly the target range. The toy comes boxed, and you have a guide to inflate the ball base to prepare it for use. This is where we had a little trouble. Initially we inflated it as much as it could be inflated, which made the ball base quite hard and with no give. This was our mistake! Do not over inflate the ball, it doesn't need to be like a football, allow some give in it and it's a LOT easier to get the hang of pogoing on the Zoingo Boingo. Allow for it to be a little 'squidgy'.

One side of the footplate has a lip, put your foot on this side to start

Around the ball base is the foot plate, and you'll see one side has a little lip. This is the side you put your first foot on, then tip, balance and bounce. Smix got the hang of it very quickly (now we had fixed the over inflated base problem) and within the first session he could do 17 bounces in a row.

The Zoingo works best on grass or pavement, and as you'd imagine isn't suitable for indoors on carpet. I'm just happy to get Smix outside at last and off his iPad! The Zoingo Boingo will be on sale  via Smyths Toys for £24.99 or you can purchase now on Amazon.

WWE Construct & Destroy Building Sets

These WWE Stackdown construction sets (let's just say it, Lego, isn't it?) are perfectly priced to stockpile for birthday presents for class friends' this year. Smyths' Toys have the sets in their mix and match, two for £15 range, which is even better than their £9.99 RRP.

Michael is almost seven and a Lego novice, but found the set easy to build by himself with the instructions at hand. He's never caught the wrestling on tv, but it still caught his imagination. So much so that when I flicked through the Christmas toy catalogue this morning, I found he has each of the other sets circled heavily in black Biro! 

We were disappointed however that the snake doesn't 'leap' out of the cage at the wrestler, like it seems to suggest on the packaging. Still, a thumbs up for this toy.

Here are the other options. 

Aquabeads Not Just For Girls!

Michael, like most kids his age, has been Loom Band crazy the past few months and loves anything creative. We received the Aquabeads Jewel Starter Set a couple of days ago and he's already made dozens of little creations. The packaging is very girl-orientated, but boys and girls alike should love the ease of making little models.

I was pretty pleased with the mess-free element of the beads too. You don't need an iron, or heat, the beads stick together with a small spray of water. After drying for an hour you can lift the beads off and they'll stay stuck together. 

Michael loves them and already has requested I buy him more beads! 

You can connect with Aquabeads on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to share your child's creations.

The Chill Factor Jelly Maker- Does It Work?

Remember when we were young, if you wanted jelly you'd have to plan to ask your mum like a week in advance. By the time you bought the jelly, found time to make it, waited for it to set, it was hardly worthwhile. Now there's quick set jelly powders, and even better, ready made jelly pots.

If however you want to make your own jelly, you might want to invest in the £12.99 Chill Factor Jelly Maker this summer. 

We've reviewed the Chill Factor Ice Cream Maker previously, which I was intensely skeptical about, but which works a treat. Yet I was still suspicious of the jelly maker's claims of "jelly in minutes, not hours" as I recalled my own childhood asking, "is it set yet?" every five minutes of my frazzled mum.

We set about making our jelly, following the instructions carefully. You freeze the lower part of the device overnight. It says the freezer is where it 'lives' which makes sense, so it's always ready for making instant jelly. Otherwise the time you wait for it to freeze would be the same as waiting for normal jelly to set!

You make the jelly as the packet instructs and pour into the Chill Factor and start squeezing. The jelly mixture starts to thicken up over 3 - 5 mins. The process definitely needs an adult present, as you'll need the normal boiling water at the beginning. After the squeezing you put the stopper on the top and flip the Chill Factor over. 

You leave the mixture another minute to harden, and unscrew the top, leaving the jelly ready to eat in the lid which doubles as a bowl. 

The process didn't quite work for us, but I think we could have been more enthusiastic with our squeezing, and could have done with continuing for longer than the 3 and a half minutes. We were too eager to see the results.

Instead we put the bowl into the fridge for five minutes and when we came back to look, it had completely set. So if you can't get your jelly firm as you'd like, just pop the bowl into your fridge briefly. It's still a lot quicker than leaving it for five hours to set regularly. 

The Chill Factor Jelly Maker comes in several colours and is £12.99

You Too Can Become a Ninja Turtle!

Back again with some new releases from the Flair Turtle's range. The Ninja Combat Gear dress up set is available in each of the Turtles' colours with respective weapons. Michael was very excited about this, and has spent a lot of time in front of the mirror with his mask on this afternoon!

You better believe my husband and I have tried it on too, we were fans the first time around! 

Our second review surprise was the Leonardo from the Sound FX figures range. The 5.5 inch figures each say a range of phrases, activated when the arms or legs are twisted. A novel factor in the design means if you hold the limb, you can stretch out the length of the audio that plays. Great for battling the baddies. Incidentally, Shredder is available in the Power Sound FX line up too. All these are available for £14.99 each on the Flair Store.

Savvy parents, there's a Turtles film currently being made, by Michael Bay, which is released in October 2014, so it might be wise to beat the rush and stock up on bits for next Christmas when Turtles will be even more popular. 

Heroes in a Half Shell They're Back!

Turtles are back. As a person born in 1980, I grew shouting, "Cowabunga, dudes!" in the playground. Santa brought me the figure of Michael-Angelo, he was my favourite because he was funny. It's a little weird to think that in 1987 or so the supermarkets didn't even stock pizza in Northern Ireland, now in 2013 you can eat like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

And in 2013 a new generation of boys & girls are getting to know the pretentiously named, reptilian foursome through a swanky CGI series broadcast on Nickelodeon. This also mean shelves of TMNT figures appearing, and if you have a husband like mine, it means some very excited Dads in the toy aisle reliving their youth. 

 Flair sent us a Pizza Flining Mikey and Mutagen Ooze Ralph to play with. Guess who was the most excited by the post that day.

The Flinger range, You load Michael-Angelo with pizzas in a post box in his backpack, and when you roll him across the floor they shoot out. Easy to load for a five year old by themselves, not fiddly like Pez or anything. Son thought it was very cool.

Daddy was allowed to play with the slightly smaller Mutagion Ooze Turtle. This one has a back pack that loads with ooze goo that comes with the figure. You can also buy tubes of replacement ooze in toy shops. My initial reaction was, oh dear, I'm going to have give the review a negative point on this, no parent wants to bring gooey mess into the house. Even when my husband was loading it into the back of the Turle my mind was already half way to the kitchen for a cloth to clean up the inevitable mess.

Weirdly however, whatever its made of, doesn't leave residue or mess. I'm saying that after cleaning it off wooden floor, carpet rug and out of a bad (or a good) shot that landed in my son's head. It kind of bond to itself and picks up like a solid. So I'm giving the ooze a thumbs up.  

Father and son have played with the Turtles all day, apart from the two hours he was at his friend's birthday party, from which he returned with his face painted as a Turtle. I think they have snared another life long fan. 

Toys available from Smyths, Tesco, Toys R Us and all other good stockists.