Adventure Van, By Hape - REVIEW

Nature/ Type:          Adventure van imaginative play set  

Rating:                     ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

Recommended age:  3 year-old ++   

Who would love this: Kids that love adventures/ camping + imaginative play 

The kids think camper van is one of the coolest things in the world; they want one with pop-up roof, mini kitchen, and freezer with never-ending ice-cream tubs. When Hape (Australia) offered the Adventure Van to us in exchange for review, I knew this would be an instant hit for the kids! The verdict? Impressive! 

Why I love ❤️ this toy: 

(1) Adventure Van + Camping / Outdoor Accessories - This toy fits the Aussie summery season! This is dream vehicle of all adventurous souls: spacious van with cooking stove, kitchen sink, stand-up shower, and inbuilt “navigation system” (with 3 exchangeable GPS screens). The set comes with orange plastic tent, matching felt-fabric outdoor rug with floral pattern, a hang glider, two surf boards, “campfire” made of plastic “logs” and felt orange flame, two blue fish on wooden skewers, miniature mugs, plates, frying pan, and two avid campers Dave and Mia (with moveable joints and heads)! I like the complete accessories for campsite imaginative play. We love posing the figures around our pretend camping ground - barbecuing, launching the hang glider, riding on massive wave, driving, resting. 

(2) Interior / Exterior Features - I love the details and delightful features of the van. The interior walls are painted with interesting objects such as ukulele, Hawaiian Lei, potted herbs, and shower station; externally, the vehicle is joyfully decorated with conch shell, star fish, snorkelling set, singing bird, curious squirrels, lady bug, and cheeky crab. The steering wheel is spin-able, and the van has moveable wheels. My personal favourite is the removable reversible roof; it’s a shield at one side, and exciting blue sliding wave at another. 

(3) Gender-Neutral - I love the gender-neutral theme; both boy and girl can enjoy the same air sport and water activity. 

(4) Material - The camper van is mostly made of wood with some mixture of plastic materials (eg roof, steering wheel, and most of the accessories). They are generally of high quality and very well-made. I’m not a fan of the massive number of stickers on plastic surfaces (I’m clumsy with stickers). But other than that, I’m happy with the toy. As per usual Hape products, the toy meets international standards for safety. 

# gifted in exchange for review 

[This review was first written and published in Instagram on 3 December 2021] 

Where to buy this: 

Myer (Australia) 

Enjoy the video! 

Monster Math Scale, by Hape

Nature/ Type:           Wooden cute monster scale

Rating:                     ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Recommended age:  3 year-old ++ 

Who would love this: Mini number lovers 

Monster Math Scale by Hape - this toy is cute, cute, cute! My four year old loves using it to find the “perfect” balance; my 1 year-old has no idea what mathematics means yet, but she loves watching the monster’s hands move and tilt from one side to the other every time when a weight is added or removed. 

Why I love ❤️ this toy: 

(1) Impeccable Weight Detection: the detection of weight is almost impeccable! The scale comes with colourful little monster weights, each represents a number with a corresponding weight. Doing mathematics like adding and subtracting becomes extremely fun when you have an accurate scale telling you the correct answer! When the weight number is equal on both sides, the monster hands swing up and down until they get to the perfect balance point. I find the accuracy pretty impressive. 

(2) Its Cuteness: the cute monster - just look at the cheeky adorable face. Enough said! 

(3) Quality and Light-Weight- I also love that the scale is light-weight, but looks durable, made of quality and child-safe materials. 

Enjoy the video! 

Rapido, by Hape

Nature/ Type:           Bamboo and Colour Recognition Learning Toy 

Rating:                     ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

Recommended age:  3 year-old ++ 

Who would love this: Kids that love a quick, speed, learning game. 

Rapido by Hape is all about ball, ball, ball and ball! 😊 

Why I love ❤️ this toy: 

(1) Speed & Colour Recognition: It’s a game about speed, concentration, visual memory and colour recognition; this is a perfect little game for small kids that love “picking things up”. 32 colourful balls released and ran wild within a roped boundary; the object of the game is to pick up the balls according to the colour sequence shown on the dotted bamboo strips, quickly and correctly. The four clever cylindrical collecting pipes remind me of a mini tennis balls pickup-tube that my 1 year-old really loves handling every weekend during her big brother’s weekly tennis class. So naturally, the girl was obsessed with the activity of pressing the pipe down onto each ball, and finding real joy doing just that. My four-year-old enjoyed a mini “race” with me and felt pretty proud with what he could do with the pipe. 

(2) Natural Materials: I love the bamboo materials; they are light weight, lovely to touch, feel natural, and eco-friendly. 

If I can change a few things, I wish there were more balls of different colours (perhaps purple, orange and white for more challenging levels?), and also more strips with coloured patterns. I also wish they can replace the rope with a sturdy bamboo boundary as the balls can easily escape and make a mad mess in the house. 

Overall, I think this is a good toy to train-up hand-eye coordination, and is a nice “occasional” game that can bring some giggling fun to the kids. 

Enjoy the video! 

Magic Touch Piano, by Hape

Nature/ Type:           Music

Rating:                      ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Recommended age: 12 month-old

Who would love this: Any mini music lovers! 

Magic Touch Piano by Hape is one of the cutest music toys I have ever seen. 

Why I love ❤️ it? 

(1) The Materials: it’s made of wood and is beautifully painted with bright and vibrant colours identifying 8 musical sounds. It’s also small and of the right size for toddlers as young as 1 year-old. 

(2) Features & Functions: it has multiple functions suitable for different skill levels; an older kid can train-up their colour coordination by following the sequence of colours on music card. But if you have a younger baby, you can switch to a different mode where any random touching of the keyboard would produce the melody on the music card placed at the slot. 

(3) Beautiful Sounds: the set comes with 3 double sided cards with 6 different melodies. The sound of the instrument is beautiful, clear and of high quality. We can adjust the volume, and also listen to demo with different variations of songs. Other than that, it also function well as a 8-note keyboard for music playing. 

This is a fantastic musical toy that I really love. 

Enjoy the video for some true music sessions! 

Quadrilla Wooden Marble Run Construction- the Xcellerator, by Hape

Nature/ Type:         Construction and Building / Marble Run

Rating:                    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommended age: 4 year-old ++

Who would love this: Marble Run fans who don't mind some packing up at the end of day

This toy has a very fancy long name- it’s called the Hape Quadrilla Wooden Marble Run Construction - The Xcellerator. To play this game, you need patience and perseverance: First, build up the impressive tall structure (there are a few different marble run structural designs in the instructions booklet, or you can design your own). Next, throw in the marbles and watch them go spin and spiral and completely out of control! 

Why I love ❤️ this: 

(1) Fantastic Wooden Materials: Perhaps the most unique feature of this set is that all pieces are made of birch and rubber wood, so they look natural, colourful, and long lasting. 

(2) Quality Time with Family. Let’s face it, a four-year-old is not going to build the structure all by himself, so parents, yes, you do need to help! The structures are kind-of complicated, with marbles spiralling, dropping out, and spewing out everywhere, and scattering around the entire house, while creating rain-drop noises. It's one fun game that makes us giggle, shriek, and laugh like a bunch of little kids again. 

There is no catchment tray for the marbles for this set, so expect to get messy and search for the marbles all around the house right after. But that’s probably part of the fun of the entire game, agree? 😊

Enjoy the videos below for some crazy, insane, thrilling, and very messy marble run action!