"Prepare to fire all cannons. And be alert. Where there is Kenobi, you will always find Skywalker not far behind."

With the release of Star Wars VII - The force awakens just around the corner, LEGO as expected have gone all out with their kits to compliment the movie and all its new characters. Aside from the force awakens kits they have also released a series or classic characters in the larger scale 'buildable' kits. For me personally this style of LEGO iis more of a display piece as the creative aspect and after build play is limited but for display purposes these builds are awesome to look at. Opeie loves them, having less and larger pieces means that he can build something quite large in no time at all (perfect for those younger builders that are thinking BIG.).

With Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jango Fett, Luke Skywalker, Commander Cody and General Grievous in the line up, the full collection would look great displayed together. Obi-Wan is fully articulated and me and the boys had lots of fun taking him through an intense yoga routine...

It's always important to warm up first!

 And Stretch!!

One to make the men cringe (note that LEGO has allowed every bit of modesty to be covered).

 Now you are just showing off!

General Grievous is not as posable as Obi-Wan but to be fair does he really need to be? what a cool looking figure. General Grievous is a pretty huge figure which we love as he towers over most of the other creations on our shelf, a real show piece.

Opeie pointed out that we had the minifigure versions of both characters so the boys had some fun battling larger versions of themselves.

 The recent LEGO Star Wars releases are shaping up to be a pretty amazing collection and with Star Wars being LEGO's best selling theme and The Force Awakens set to be the top grossing film of 2016 I think these kits will be really sought after in years to come.

 

'The product was provided by LEGO GmbH without any obligation in regards to the content of the review’

I'm Stickman, I'm Stickman, I'M STICKMAN! Thats me.

While in Asda we did our usual rounds perusing the toy aisles but there was nothing to take our fancy so we headed over to the books. Since our friends bought the boys 'Zog' by Julia Donaldson for Christmas, everytime we read it and get to the pictures of her other books on the back page Opeie always points to 'super worm' and says 'I'd really like that'. Well today it was staring right at us from the shelves and as it was on offer we got to choose another book. I liked the look of 'stickman' so that found it's way in to the trolley too. 

Stickman is a great children's book and Opeie finds his adventures lots of fun, We've read it at least once every day since getting it. It made me think of when I was younger and how much fun i could have with a stick. A stick is the ultimate classic toy and it's up there with the rock, the cardboard box and the piece of string. Sadly with technology taking over this simple yet extremely versatile play thing probably doesn't get the attention it deserves these days.

Thankfully in our house 'Stickman' has awakened something in Opeie and his love of sticks is growing stronger by the day. Despite all the toys he has to play with over the last few days our garden role play has been stick heavy. His beloved stick (which now resides in the house and lounges about on the boys sofa like a lazy teenager) has been subject to many different games. The cliche but ever popular use as a sword or 'Lightsaber' if Opeie's feeling a little futuristic has been the weapon of choice for some up close and personal scrapping but it has also been transformed in to some form of gun/blaster to get him out of sticky situations (perfect for long distance battles and fending off up and coming attacks...

Are you a little bit bored while waiting for your Nemisis to attack? Why not make use of the phone setting (I'm not sure what the reception is like but I'm guessing its better that EE)...

The stick also comes in handy if your foe's nose resembles that of an elephant or prehistoric monster beak and you need to throw a little smack talk down. "hey big nose..."

Nature really is a wonderous thing and as I said before the classic, true vintage toys are really unbeatable in the world of play, so get outside while the suns out, grab yourself a free toy and let your imagination run wild. After all it's what being a child is all about and us parents need to be encouraging that.