Team Power Battle Tops

Not only have I not posted any cheap toys in a while, Battle Tops is one I have had since the very beginning. I had actually prepared a video to go along with the post a long time ago, but looking at it now I find it a little too cheesy even for what it’s about so I made a new video. Battle tops are the tops you send spinning in a little arena and then they bounce into each other until one stops or one gets knocked out of the arena leaving the remaining top the winner. Beyblades are another type of battling tops and with their edges would probably make it more interesting, but I have not tried out my dollar store cheap version of Beyblades yet. The package itself comes with a small bowl shaped arena, two launchers and 4 battling tops. What I don’t get is why there is a red launcher with two red tops and a yellow launcher with one yellow top leaving one random purple colored top. It would have made more sense to have two red and two yellow tops. Then again, maybe they ran out of yellow and wanted to make another pack. There was only one at the store so I couldn’t do any comparisons on package contents. If there was the option, I would have grabbed one that had two of each, or I could have seen whether or not I got a fluke one or the tops were just thrown in at random. It’s one of the characteristics of cheap toys. This is very old footage with poor lighting. It was taken even before the other videos and even they were taken a long time ago. I think the arena is a little too small to have decent battles. If you couldn’t watch the video, a split second of contact was usually enough to blast the top out of the arena. Then you have to crank it up in the launcher before battling again. It’s kind of like going sledding down hills in the winter time. Sure, its great fun going down the hill, but it got tiresome when it came to having to climb back up the hill, with the sled in tow, in order to do it again. You have to climb the hill for couple minutes for a few seconds of sliding...

Plastic Bowling Set

Here is the Sunny Dayz(this is the actual brand spelling, not a typo) bowling set, but this isn’t just any bowling set, it’s the bowling set that sparked the creation of this website about dollar store toys. Sadly, the dollar section in the store I found the bowling set has been phased out slowly, replaced by more room to place normal store specials. Other toys found at this dollar section are the popular SWAT Force dart gun, the Build A Copter helicopter, Labyrinth Game Challenger and others. The bowling set comes with ten hollow plastic bowling pins and two hollow plastic bowling balls. The red stripe on the bowling pins is just a piece of red tape, not red paint, which is a good thing since the red paint might have had lead in it. The bowling balls have three indentations for the finger holes. When compared to the blue City Nimrod, you can see that the bowling pins are several inches tall and the bowling balls are a couple inches tall. As for it working, you set the pins up and you roll the balls at the pins to knock them down, you can’t really go wrong with that. My only complaint is that the bowling balls weigh about as much as the bowling pins. Typically, a bowling ball weighs more than a single bowling pin, helping it to knock down the pins. The bowling balls have a tiny hole so you could fill them with sand or something to give them some extra power. On the other hand, for a prank, you could fill the pins with sand since they have tiny holes in them. The bowling balls won’t have a chance at knocking the pins over no matter how hard you roll it. It just doesn’t weigh...

Sudoku Animals

Sudoku is a puzzle game played on a 9 by 9 grid that’s broken up into nine 3 x 3 groups. The game starts with several numbers already placed and it’s up to the player to fill in the missing numbers using any number between 1 and 9. In each 3 x 3 group, whole row and whole column, the numbers between 1 and 9 can only be used once. When each of the nine 3 x 3 groups, rows and columns successfully use the numbers 1 and 9 only once, the puzzle is solved. Here’s an example of a solved Sudoku puzzle. Now, this popular puzzle has been adapted for the kids by replacing the numbers with animal pictures, or for animal-loving adults who also love solving puzzles, a very dangerous combination. Meet the Animals of Sudoku Animals The pictures are the actual game cards, names were cleverly placed by me.(Click the name to see the reference). Pepe LePew Curious George Geoffrey Lord Rataxes Otis Babar Michigan and Kermit Gloria Leonardo It comes with a colorful yellow and blue folding Sudoku board/poster. It’s reminiscent of a checker or chess board with an extra row horizontally and vertically. The grid is already broken up into alternating color coded 3 x 3 grids and within each grid, alternating squares have a different design so there should be no confusing where to place the pieces. Instead of filling in the empty spaces with numbers like normal Sudoku, Sudoku Animals has a collection of nine animals, each with nine cards included in the box. Each 3 x 3 grid can only have one of each animal and the same goes for the rows/columns. To make things easier, or perhaps harder, each animal is given a number. This little chart is included on the instruction sheet. They give you animals and a number? It really doesn’t matter what animal is what number as long as the animals are placed in accordance with the rules. The only reason the numbers are given out and really all that important is during the set up. The instruction sheet(you get two in case you lose one) gives you 21 puzzles. The games cards are animals, but the initial placements are numbers Unfortunately, the second instruction sheet is exactly the same as the first so no bonus puzzles. It’s also frustrating having to set up the game before you solve it. I know in this case it can’t be helped, but come on. It’s like the 2D flip...

Toys Basketball Game

Hot off the trail of the Pocket Basketball Game, here’s another basketball dollar store toy, the Toys Basketball net and ball. No, it’s not a mistake, it’s actually called the Toys Basketball. Sorry, I’m going to have to ruin this for you already. This is the worst of the dollar store toys I have reviewed so far. Yes, it’s even worse than the New Concept Bike. At least the New Concept Bike sort of worked and did what it was supposed to do, I think. The Toys Basketball just sucks, not so much for the toy itself, more for what it’s meant to do. I mean it looked promising enough, it’s a basketball net with a ball that’s supposed to stick to a table or window. But, with even more poor quality parts than normal, it sucks. If you want to find out why, keep reading, if it’s enough to know it sucks so you can move on, nows your chance. Pictured right is the toy measured up against the running joke 11 Inch Army Soldier, who is actually 11.5 inches and recently got an equipment upgrade and accessories. The basketball net on it’s tippie-toes is almost as tall as the 11 inch army guy. The reason I make the reference to it being on it’s tippie-toes is due to it’s blue suction cupped bottom. Since it’s not suction cupped down to the table, it’s a little taller than it would be. Why isn’t it suction cupped down? Well, it doesn’t suction cup. There’s a small dent in the suction cup so it doesn’t stick at all. It was also packaged so the suction cupped was bent and with the thicker rubber used, it wants to stay in that position since it won’t stick. To top it off, the basketball net doesn’t even stand. It’s leaning against the army guy! Strike 1, it doesn’t stick like it’s supposed to. The suction cup can be removed from the base of the basketball net and placed behind the backboard for vertical suction. Oddly enough, it will actually stick to a window, if you use a perfectly flat surface(like a window), push really hard and don’t touch it afterward. This will obviously make it hard to play with seeing as how the basketball will make the net fall from the suction. Oh, don’t get excited yet, it’s still not going to work. The basketball is so light, the netting will hold the ball up unless it’s been stretched out. Even then, the...

Pocket Basketball Game

Another in a long line of handheld or desktop games is the pocket basketball game. This is a small basketball game that folds up into a handy little rectangular box and fits into your pocket so you can take it anywhere. I don’t really trust it in my pants pocket though. I feel like if I sit the wrong way it will crack the plastic. Would fit nicely in a jacket pocket. Good luck playing it on anything that’s not stationary. It’s not meant for play while traveling in a car or walking down the street unlike the 2D flip puzzle. The 2D flip puzzle can take a few bumps here and there but not the pocket basketball game. It’s hard enough to play when it is not shifting around. They sure do fit a lot into that small case. It flips up into a mini version of one of those basketball nets you see at Chuck E Cheese. You get three balls and the flipper is used to get the baskets. Here is a video of me trying it out. If you are having trouble getting them in, you can adjust the position of the flipper from a closer spot to farther out. I found I actually had an easier time getting them in when the flipper was further...