REVIEW – *NEW* Vampirina Toy Collection
There is something about Vampirina that almost instantly caught Erin’s attention. Whether it be the theme tune, the fact that Vamperina was a little girl with a blue face and pointy teeth, or the deeper messages of the programme that highlight how it’s ok to be different, I will never really know, but ever since Erin saw that first episode last year, she has been absolutely hooked. Vampirina frequents our TV so often that now even Neve (aged 2) knows the theme tune pretty much off by heart.
Erin already has the Vampirina dressing up outfit (having recently dressed up for her friends spooky birthday party, face paint and all), but up until recently, hadn’t played with any of the accompanying toy range from Flair. To celebrate the addition of some brand new toy sets to the range, we have been lucky enough to be sent a bundle of toys to review, and are hosting a Halloween themed spooky Vampirina party on the 24th October where Erin and her friends will really get to put the toys through their paces, as well as getting involved with some fun spooky activities and games!
Do come and join us over on the UKMums.TV twitter account on the 25th October between 1pm and 3pm for your chance to learn more about the toys and even win some yourself, but for now, here’s what you can expect from the new range.
Vampirina Scare B&B Playset – NEW FOR AUTUMN – £49.99
The Vampirina Scare B&B Playset is based on Vampirina’s home (the bed and breakfast) in the hit TV series, and is a playset spanning three different floors with lots of spooktacular fun on every level! There is a secret reveal telescoping bedroom tower, a bookcase that transforms into Vampirina’s bed, magically rising food in the kitchen and a moving dance floor and record player. The set includes two characters to kick start a Vampirina fan’s collection, including Vampirina herself and her best friend Poppy. Vampirina features special glow technology – there are 6 points throughout the house where you can slot her character into place to watch her dress glow a bright white light from the inside out.
The Vampirina Scare B&B Playset does require some initial assembly, although this is all simply slotting things into place as opposed to more challenging screwdrivers and handywork. The pieces are all numbered on the instructions, which are very straight forward to follow (even for me!). There are however also a number of stickers to apply to the set to help bring the interior to life, and an adult almost definitely needs to do this as even I found it quite tricky to apply these straight – and they stick pretty tightly pretty quick – so you only really get one shot (steady hand required!)
Impressive in stature, the Vampirina Scare B&B Playset is large in stature, standing at over 66cm tall when fully extended, so perhaps something to bear in mind if you are a bit limited on space. It can be played with from both sides, with an opening front door and a staircase that flips from the bottom to the third floor in just one swift turn.
Erin was really fascinated by the glowing feature of the Vampirina character, moving her around regularly to the different glow points on every floor. She particularly liked the point at which you could pop Vampirina on to the ceiling where she would glow and hang like a bat.
The attention to detail on the Scare B&B if fantastic, with even the ornate gargoyle type statues outside the front door and spider web windows being included in the design. Only real negatives for us were that some of the larger characters (Oxana and Boris for example) from the Fangtastic Friends set are too tall to fit through the doors, and the bats on the corners of the roof didn’t fasten in very tightly meaning they did occasionally pop off.
The moving dancefloor is another fun feature that went down well with Erin, with a little slot to pop round Poppy’s waist, before using the roller on the side which makes the record player sway and Poppy spin around in circles.
Other elements that really caught Erin’s attention was the rising food in the kitchen, and the fact that much of the furniture within the Scare B&B playset was freestanding, meaning she could move it around and act of different scenes as she roleplayed with the characters.
Although not a budget item at £49.99, I thought the Vampirina Scare B&B Playset was fantastic, with so many features and so much space to act out lots of different creative scenes and big enough for two siblings to play together. There are so many interactive elements and it really is exactly like Vampirina’s house on the show.
Vampirina Spooky Scooter Set – NEW FOR AUTUMN – £11.99Â
These small figure sets are great value for money at £11.99 and come with one 3.5 inch main character figure and a scooter (dressed in their safety gear of course) as well as their animal friend who has their very own skateboard. There are a number of sets available in the range, of which you can see Poppy and Vampirina below.
Erin is a big fan of Wolfie (the sheepdog style warewolf pet dog that lives with Vampirina) and as such, she very quickly claimed the Poppy and Wolfie set, pushing them both round and watching wolfie race off into the distance. Despite being small in size, these roll pretty far on a hard surface or wooden floor and are ideal for those with smaller budgets or who want Vampirina toys that take up less space.
Vampirina Bootastic Backpack Set – NEW FOR AUTUMN – £24.99
The Vampirina Bootastic Backpack Set would make a fantastic gift for Vampirina fans and comes packed full of Spooktacular accessories and dress up pieces. A hard cased backpack with glittery ears and bat wings, it isn’t a traditional backpack as such, but with one strap can be easily carried over the shoulder. It has plenty of space inside to stash any additional figurines or Vampirina accessories that they accumulate along the way.
The backpack clips open at the rear to reveal lots of exciting goodies, including two sheets of Vampirina stickers, a Creepy Caroline backpack keyring (which is now on Erin’s school bookbag!), a light and sound scull necklace, glittered bat wing hair clips and bright pink webtastic sunglasses!
Erin really fell in love with the light and sounds necklace, which glows and plays sound clips from the show when the centre is pressed, and the glasses really topped off her Vampirina look once she popped on her Vampirina dress too. The hair clips were a little tricky to apply and we struggled to make them stay in place without Erin yelping that I was hurting her, so we decided to manage without those. I would have preferred these to have been on a more traditional style hair clip in my opinion, as it was quite challenging to keep them in place.
Vampirina Best Ghoul Friends Set – NEW FOR AUTUMN £7.99
Another of the smaller additions to the Flair Vampirina Toy range were these Best Ghoul Friends Sets, featuring a main Vampirina character, pet and accessory, with a range of different options to collect. These sets also feature Ghoul Glow magic, meaning that when they are placed into the Light & Sounds Chamber (sold separately) they make sounds and glow from the inside out.
Whilst we haven’t tested the Ghoul Glow magic element of these sets (we don’t have the Light & Sounds Chamber), the mini accessories are a great addition. Erin loved the skull guitar that came with Vampirina, although it was a little challenging to get it to stay in one place for long! 🙂
Vampirina Fangtastic Friends Set – £29.99
For those that want to expand their Vampirina collection, or are looking for a more extensive set, the Fangtastic Friends Set is a great way to bring the entire series to life, even featuring baby Nosy, as well as Vampirina’s parents, and all of her spooky friends including Gregoria the talking gargoyle. This is an ideal accompaniment to the Scare B&B Playset, as can help create lots of scenes from the show across every single floor. In the Fangtastic Friends set, Vampirina comes with her little bat rucksack which can be popped onto her shoulders, just like the Backpack playset above.
Vampirina Hauntley’s Mobile Vehicle – £29.99Â
A big hit with both my girls was one of the existing lines in the Flair Vampirina range –Â Hauntley’s Mobile Vehicle, a larger sized car vehicle perfect for smaller hands, Hauntley’s Mobile Vehicle can be rolled around and opens up so you can add Vampirina to the drivers seat.
The large bat button on the roof lights up, causes the headlights to beam and plays some fun sound bites from the show. No ordinary vehicle, the Hauntley’s Mobile Vehcile also opens up at the back to create a drive in movie cinema, where Vampirina can sit on the sofa in the back and tuck in to some popcorn on a gravestone table whilst watching her favourite spooky film.
Finally the Vampirina Headband and Gloves set – £7.99 is the perfect accompaniment to the range (and also doubles up as an easy win for Halloween). The set features a sparkly bat wing headband and the infamous blue gloves featuring a glittery bat and skull design.
Erin is five, and the gloves fit with plenty of room to spare, so there is a bit of flexibility on age with this one!Â
Overall, the Vampirina Range from Flair really does have something for everyone, with pieces to suit every budget and every scale. With Halloween coming up, some of these pieces would make super fun additions for parties and October birthdays.
Fancy learning more about the range and entering to win some in time for Christmas? Come and join in the Vampirina Twitter Party over at UKMums.tv on the 25th October from 1-3pm for your chance to win! 🙂 See you there!!
If you can’t wait to try your luck, the Vampirina range from Flair is available to buy at Argos and Amazon now (affiliate link).
*Disclosure – We were sent a number of items from the Flair Vampirina Range free of charge for the purpose of this review however all thoughts and opinions are my own.*
