"There's a magical place, were on our way there"

When your a nerd like me its a great feeling when your children get into something that you love yourself. Myself and the boys have been through quite a few toy ranges over the last few years, playing with them until they have lost their appeal, but the Batman Imaginext range by Fisher Price is the one that has stood the test of time (so far). Seth has loved batman for about 2 years ever since i introduced him to the exploding shark...

This is definitely one of our most watched things on the TV which is great because we are no longer subjected to episode after episode of Ben 10 (Thankfully that phase passed pretty quick). Its always great as a child when you see a great film or series that there is a toy range to back it up even if it is not directly based on it. The Imaginext range does just that.

After buying Seth the Batcave a while back we have slowly been building our collection based solely on good behavior which luckily for him he has a never ending amount of. Today was no different, Seth had been exceptionally good with watching and playing with his little brother and impecable manners so off to Toys R us we went.

I'll leave you with Seth to tell this part of the story...

"Today we went to Toys R Us and on the way there i was hoping that we could buy the Batboat when we got there we went straight to the batman aisle. We looked for the Batboat but it wasn't there, so instead we looked for all the things that i don't have already. I was allowed a new toy because i have been a good boy, it made me happy. There was a Batcopter and a submarine there but i decided to get the superman figure that came with his dog and some krypt...something, oh i cant remember. Kryptonite (Seth proceeded to repeat Kryptonite about 10 times in different ways). 

We had a look round the rest of the shop and found some batman gloves and mask. I'm going to try and be very good so that i can ask Mommy, Pauly or the pirates for them. I like looking at the batman Lego to see what minifigures they have to go with the Jokers funhouse that pauly built for me.

 He made me a Mr Freeze figure out of my minifigures and it was pretty funny because it didn't have a proper head it just had a see through Lego bit that was round."

Well Superman met the gang and fit in very well (Seth was happy at the extra good guy as he has lots of villains and they keep taking over the batcave so the caped crusader could do with the extra help). The great thing about the DC Imaginext range is the variety, there are a great selection of different characters and vehicles. which has been great for educating the boys on the characters backgrounds etc. Also you know that you can safely leave your children to play with these toys as they are made by Fisher Price (which is great for the many worrying parents out there). The range is really well made too which you expect from Fisher Price. There's nothing worse than children's toys that fall apart and it can be very upsetting for them.

Toys R Us has been great for getting hold of the sets although Ive been a little disappointed that they haven't had the Jokers Fun House in as me and the boys really want to get hold of it. I wrote recently about the Two Face van and Mr Freeze Ice cave also purchased from our local Toys R Us during their 3 for 2 range which i took full advantage of. I find that Toys R Us tend to have much better offers on than any of our other local toy shops, and the staff are always really helpful.

Ive got some great memories of my parents taking me to the Oldbury store in Birmingham so Toys R Us has always been special to me and I'm glad i can now share it with my boys. Plus i once had a Christmas temp job at the branch in Chester when i was younger, it was only for 2 months but i was in my element surrounded by toys. Its not changed that much over the years too with Geoffrey popping up on the adverts.

One of the things that Seth really likes about these toys is that they go with Opeies Batman little people range, the colours used are the same on both collections which is great. They put their Batcave's together and it's really sweet. Seth also likes playing with them as he thinks their little fat bellies are cute.

I think its great that Fisher Price have released the batman ranges to appeal to 2 different age brackets and has worked out really well for us with Opeie, he doesn't feel left out when Seth is playing as he has the same characters. Anything that can get the boys playing together is great with us but they do love playing Batman together its so sweet to watch.

Playing with the toys aside, they have also been great for Seth's arty side, he really enjoys drawing his figures and because of that his drawing gets better and better each time he sits down to draw, Ive had some really great comments about Seth's sketches and we will soon start framing them for his room...

If your as passionate about your toys as we are or if you just love seeing that excited look on your child's face then Toys R Us is definitely the place to go, even if we don't find what were looking for we never come out of there empty handed and we are never disappointed, "There's toys in their millions, all under one roof".

"Who cares about the clouds when we're together? Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather."

There was always something quite magical when i was younger about taking my action figures outside and playing with them in the grass, especially if the grass was a little longer than it should have been. I used to tie string on the handle of my bedroom window and peg the other end into the grass outside so that i could get my Star Wars figures to zip wire out it was so much fun.

Once outside i would dig holes and put my figures in them and fill them back in, leaving them only visable from the waist up and sometimes just the arm, leaving the garden looking like a battlefield of fallen soldiers. This i only did with the few figures i had duplicates of or ones that i wasn't emotionally attatched to. Seth has a collection of Action man dolls for doing just that which i have brought from various charity shops. Theres always action men in our local Charity shops, Seth's not bothered about them which makes them great for playing with outside and perfect for targets when we have the Nerf guns out.

We had brought Opeie and Seth an Imaginext van each from Toys R Us which we had put away for Christmas but it seems that now Mrs M is more impatient than me about giving the boys their toys. So after some VERY good behavior from Seth including always looking after his little brother and being generally lovely, Mrs M decided we should give him a treat from the pirates, So we put the van somewhere in plain sight and Mrs M said "i think i just heard the waves" (this is how we let Seth know that we think the pirate ship has been) so excitedly he ran off round the house searching for his booty.

Well as always Seth was very appreciative of his gift and looked up into the sky and said "thank you pirates" in a very jolly voice. The weather was lovely so we got a blanket and took all the Batman toys out in to the garden, and due to some lazyness on my part the grass was slightly longer than it should have been... Excellent.

I always think that when your playing with your toys outside it makes the role playing more realistic and who doesn't love sitting out side when the weather is nice. Plus you have the added bonus of random vines and plants that can wrap around figures stopping them in their tracks, great if your playing as poison ivy. Everything in the garden can be part of our play. climbing frame, slide, the figures can even grapple to the washing line and then crawl across it. The possibilities are endless.

When Seth wrote his last post (allow me to break the ice my name is freeze...) he mentioned his hammer car which i realised at the time he had had for a while but it hadn't been mentioned in any of my imaginext posts. He is right though it does look a little like a shoe. Its great for beating down the caped crusader though (it always seems to be the good guys taking a beating).

Opeie really enjoyed playing outside with all the toys although he has a tendancy to throw things about so when we packed up to go in i was left hunting around the garden for figures. As usual the Batcave had been taken over by villains and Batman and Robin had been locked up in Arkham Asylum. I have a feeling Seth is going to end up being a fan of the baddies like me. Especially when it comes to DC as the villains have so much more depth to them. 

When we went to see Batman live last year the Joker completely stole the show and Batman was left just looking like an extra in 'Joker Live' but that's a post for another time.

I'm quite sure there will be another Imaginext post soon as its all the boys want to play with at the moment, although i am waiting for star wars to rear its ugly head again. I'm hoping i have a few weeks before Seth's back at school and Williams Jedi talk starts influencing Seth again.

Previous Imaginext Post's:

"Allow me to break the ice. My name is Freeze. Learn it well. For it's the chilling sound of your doom."

"Still they cry out for him... for their hero and savior... but he is broken... and Gotham is mine!"

"Don't adjust your sets. Welcome to the Oswald Cobblepot school of driving. Gentlemen, start your screaming!"

 

"In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play." 

 

 

"A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow."

Its 3am and i cant sleep, this doesn't happen very often but tonight there is no chance of me dropping off so it looks like come tomorrow afternoon I'm going to be a very tired boy which Isnt great when you have 2 young children that crave your attention the entire time they are awake.

As i sit here and eat what i can only describe as a cocktail of cereal (there was lots of boxes with bits in the bottom) i decided to play some Lego Batman 2 on the xbox which Mrs M had bought me for my birthday. I dont get to play computer games anywhere near as much as i like, i was brought Arkham city months back and have barely touched it but with the Lego games at least its a game me and Seth can play together.

We love the Lego games in the house and spent months completing the Star Wars game to its entirety and when were not in the house then weve got the games on our DS's which usually come in handy when were waiting around in the car or our frequent trips to the hospital for Seth.

The game is great and i really enjoy playing it, Seth's not so sure because of the split screen game play when playing on multiplayer. This only happens when you venture to far apart which works out great for me because in the 1st game Seth would rush off to far usually trapping me under a flight of stairs or round a corner,very frustrating.

The game contains a wide variety of characters not included in the first game such as wonder woman, green lantern, superman and the flash i haven't played it enough yet to know if there are any new villains but there are 50 characters to unlock in total.

The game has the added bonus of a free roaming open-world environment which you can run or drive about in for as long as you like. great for children with a short attention span that get bored after 5 minutes. Also like all the other Batman games there's an option on the pause screen to drop in and out of the game mid level which if like me you have lots of other things going on around the house ie younger children to watch over, keeping an eye on dinner cooking is perfect because you can drop out, do what youve got to do and jump back in without affecting the game play.

This Lego game is the first to have the characters voices which is great because i didnt fully understand what was going on between the levels of the last game so i just ended up flicking through them as soon as i could. There's a lot better story line on this game.

The only negative thing Ive got to say about the game is that the DS version is really short and i had all the levels completed in no time so i was a little disappointed, hopefully i wont feel the same about the Xbox version but time will tell on that one.

I'm off now to continue my game, I'm sure Mrs M is going to wonder why I'm not in bed, I haven't heard Opeie wake up for a feed much so it looks at least like she has got a better nights sleep tonight. I'm sure he will be up in the next couple of hours so ill have to find something to entertain him ( If by that time i can manage to keep my eyes open).

"Still they cry out for him... for their hero and savior... but he is broken... and Gotham is mine!"

This week i helped my Dad move house which was a lot less stressful than i remember house moving to be. As i was leaving he gave me some birthday money for Opeie as i hadn't actually seen my dad for a few month's and we had been away in Florida on his birthday. My grandad added to the birthday kitty too which was clearly going to be burning a hole on my pocket until i ventured into Toys R Us to spend it.

Opeie has started playing with Seth's imaginext Batcave quite a lot, and when we went into Toys R Us they had a 3 for 2 offer on the Imaginext so i thought it would be rude not to take advantage.

Mrs M wasn't to happy about the fact that you press a button, lights flash on Bane and his skeleton appears on his torso making him look like he is being electrocuted (i guess it would be a bit much for a 17month old if he actually understood). But apart from that its a pretty cool little playset for 3-8 year old's apparently (or 32 year old geeks). Me and Opeie have had lots of fun with it especially because we already had the other baddies to go in the cells.

Opeie loves fiddling about with things and working out what the toys do etc, he looks so serious sometimes when he's concentrating.  The first thing he did this morning when i brought him in the lounge to let Mrs M sleep was go straight to the batman figures so i guess once i have finished writing this i will be joining him. 

Looks like i may end up unboxing one of the other things i bought yesterday to play with today even though i should probably start saving things for Christmas as it will sneak up on me as it does every year.

Opeie has just crawled over to me and has got really excited seeing a picture of himself on the computer, He loves looking at my blog page but he is going to love it a lot more when he gets older and him and Seth can read it together. I feel so lucky to have such an amazing family and would never take any of them for granted. Everything has fallen into place and i am exactly where i want to be, So i will be ending this a very happy boy.

"In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play."

Seth has been asking me for a while if he can help with my blog because he likes seeing all of his  toys on the computer and he thinks that keeping a blog sounds fun. He said that when he is older he would like to write a blog about star wars! grrrrr...... like i said before Ive Lost him to the Darkside. "DAM YOU WILLIAM!!!" (shakes fist in the air!!!). I hoped both the boys would eventually start joining in and so far it seems to be going to plan.

Anyway over to Seth..... "I got the batmobile last week because Ive been a good boy and because i had some pocket money off my nanny Robson when we went to see her to take her some meals. The top window is easy to open and it came with a Batman figure  which was cool because he is wearing driving goggles. There is a button with the bat symbol on it for a grabber on the front to grab the Joker. When the wheels spin the fire on the back spins when it drives."

"The Batbike came with the Batcave, i use it for Robin but i have lost Robin at the moment he's run off to join the circus" (i love how he said that, after what happened to the rest of the grayson's at the circus i dont think he would be going back there in a hurry.)

"I like the goodies the best but the the baddies are my favourites as well and two face is one of my favourites because he's got half a bad face and half a good face. The Riddler is one of my favourites but i don't know why. Mommy likes the penguin because she likes his umbrella, she wants the Penguin submarine toy but they didn't have it at Toys R Us when we went."

"The Batcave we got from Toys R Us is quite cool because its got 3 floors ones at the bottom one in the middle and one at the top and its got a lift and the bat sign on the front lights up. There is a grapple hook gun. Its got a turning bit on it that opens the door. You can use the feet on the figures to open doors and the lift and a little gun thing that comes from out of the roof."

"When im playing with the Batcave i like to put the baddies in the jail on the back. Ive got 3 batman figures and i like to pretend that each one thinks their the real batman and they get angry with each other. Ive got 1 robin. ages ago Pauly was the Joker and he had 2 figures and pretended that one of them was a robot joker to trick me."

"Opeie has got a Batcave too and we like to put them next to each other so that we can play together, it's got a slide and a garage on it for his Batmobile and do you know? we got it from America in Florida. I got some Lego batman stuff that day."

"My Batcave has got a door on the side for Robins motorbike and the door on the front is blue."

"If we win the bat helicopter on eBay i want to write on the blog again, i would also like the the jail playset with bane, the jokers fun house, joker tank, and the penguin submarine so mommy can play with me."

Well there you have it, all you needed to know about Seth's Imaginext Batcave, it made a nice change lying on his bed with him before he went to sleep writing this and it's made me want to jump on eBay and buy that Batcopter just so we can do it again and i know that Mrs M will feel the same about the Penguin Submarine so Mommy can play with him.

I think i will definitely be making this a once a week thing as i love hearing what he has to say about his toys he's such a kind and sweet boy and i cant wait for his brother to get a little older so he can join in too.

Updated 19/6/12

  

Turns out that the missing Robin was actually with a missing Batman that we had forgotten we had. The two fearless crime fighters were overseeing the construction of their new underground Batcave that is being built under Arkham Asylum (For anyone out there with no imagination they were under the sofa).