I just found this advert on YouTube from Chevrolet, using footage from the Transformers movie released last year. It’s for their new range of cars and it shows the cars Transforming just like they did in the film.

Awesome advert, but of course the cars themselves aren’t particularly great so it wouldn’t convince me to get one.

Makes me want to play with some more Transformers though, particularly the Blackout toy that we see in this video.

According to IC Wales, Toystore owners in Wales are being inundated with requests from parents to find alternatives to Easter eggs this Easter. It follows a trend of health food campaigners preaching that our children are becoming too fat and are eating the wrong foods.

Some purists may feel that giving children toys at Easter may give them the wrong message, and that Easter has just become another commercial holiday, just as Christmas has become. However the fact remains that reducing the amount of chocolate that your children eat in favour of toys and activity led family days can only be good for our children’s health.

Zoe Harcombe from Newport, South Wales, is the author of the diet guide, Stop Counting Calories, Start Losing Weigh

Cheap eggs – or confectionery as I call them – are very high in sugar and contain little in the way of nutrition. Eating them leads to a massive sugar high, and unlike chocolate high in cocoa, the body doesn’t register when it has had enough, and it will crave more later.

If you’re looking for an alternative to chocolate this Easter you can find loads of toys in our online toy shop. The top toy this Easter, instead of chocolate, is expected to be Iggle Piggle, another character from the BBC, this time from the series In the Night Garden.

Bungie.net have interviewed Todd McFarlane, the supremo of McFarlane Toys about their upcoming line of toys set in the Halo 3 universe. Todd gives an insight into the design process of creating the figures based on the characters and personalities of the game’s heroes and villains.

And that’s just one side of the coin. Luckily for us, the character designs and personalities present in the games, books, etc., are all interesting enough that the personalization becomes a cool extra as opposed to the main focus. If you want to have an action figure of the Spartan you use in-game to put on display or play with, cool. But, if you just want a bad-ass army of cool toy soldiers and alien warriors? We not only have that covered, we will do our best to offer up as diverse a product as possible while still focusing on the key characters and color groups.

You can read the full article here.

You can get a 5% discount at Woolworths on all Babyshop and clothing code until March 18th when you use the voucher code: AWBABY5.

To take advantage of this offer you can visit the Woolworths Babyshop here.

One of the offers included is this Babylo Relax and Recline nursing chair only £129.99

Take time out with your little one and relax on this Babylo Relax and Recline Nursing Chair and Stool. Featuring glide and recline motions, this nursing chair offers a gentle, smooth movement and deep upholstery for ultimate comfort.

While sat in work today I heard the familiar intro music from the classic Welsh animated children’s cartoon Superted emanating from the other side of the office. For some reason someone had decided to look for this on YouTube and was laughing his purple little head off at the voice-over.

I’m not quite sure where the comical element comes in, but it’s certainly a great cartoon. If you remember Superted you’ll like to know that the DVDs of the cartoon are available to buy here. You can relive the adventures of Superted, Spotty and Texas Pete all over again.

Following on from my post about the radio controlled cars website I wanted to see if you could still buy two of my favourite RC cars from Tamiya, the Hornet and the Mud Blaster. I managed to find them, though the Mud Blaster has a new ‘van’ body and is called Vanessa’s Lunchbox… er, OK.

Both of these radio controlled cars are incredibly fast, and relatively easy to put together; though would require some adult supervision for children.

Our site also features a range of Tamiya batteries, chargers and other accessories. You can see these here.

Toys R Us are currently offering a buy one get one free offer on die cast Noddy cars. If you click the link and add two Noddy cars to your basket, the lowest priced car will be free.

I’m a big fan of all things radio controlled, especially the Tamiya range of rc cars. I had one when I was seventeen and spent what seemed like weeks building it. My DIY skills are suspect at best and I failed both Woodwork and Metalwork at school. I’m not what you’d call handy. However I did manage to build the truck successfully and it was awesome, right up to the point I wore down its driveshaft 20 minutes later because I hadn’t applied enough grease.

Live and learn eh?

I’m still into the cars though, and came across this website this week all about radio controlled cars. It’s a fairly new website but features loads of info and pictures of cars, trucks and even the flying variety of RC toys. I’m not so much into those, always feared I’d crash them. With my track record with cars that’s a very real possibility too.

One of the nice things about this website is the regular features on RC movie toys as well, such as the life-size Dalek and R2D2 units.

I’d get a Dalek myself, but to be honest I’m not too sure where to put it, what to do with it or more importantly, what my housemate would say when I brought it home.

I already have enough junk, as he puts it. Quality collectible toys; as I put it!

Following on from my post yesterday about Monopoly, I remembered another board game I used to play quite a bit when I was younger; Hero Quest. This was a great game where you’d take the old formula of heroes battling orks and apply it to a more commercial, widespread game.

Yes the real geeks may still have been into their Dungeons and Dragons and their Warhammer, but Hero Quest made the notion of fantasy role play more available. I used to play this game with my friend and his little sister, and much like games of Monopoly the board game usually delved into heated arguments before the final dice was rolled.

Of course the real fun in Hero Quest came in the painting of the figures, and by fun I mean total frustration followed by tantrums. I have to admit that even though I have an art A-Level and a Diploma, I was still rubbish at painting the figures.

Monopoly is, according the Guinness book of World records, the most played commercial game ever, with a reported 750 Million people having played the game. First patented in 1935 the game has survived over 70 years, court cases over ownership and even helped British POWs escape the Nazis during the second Word war.

The most important thing in all of this however is that the game is damn good fun, and shouldn’t be played against any family members who don’t like to lose. This last tip is vital. I used to play this game against my nephew and two nieces years ago and it would always, without exception, result in arguments.

Nobody likes to lose, but when losing means that one of your own family members has forcibly made you bankrupt it can be hard to take.

The game hasn’t changed much in all of this time, except for recent years where merchandising has reared its ugly and cynical head causing countless branded versions such as Football teams, Simpsons, Star Wars… even Transformers.

If it’s likely to sell to fans, it’s been stamped on a version of Monopoly. Even Wales has its own version, for the love of Brains SA boyo, why?

All of this cheap cash in nonsense aside, the game Monopoly remains one of the most engaging and entertaining games ever devised. Just be careful who you play it with, it can cause massive tear ups!