Roar into action with The Half Shell Heroes

The Half Shell Heroes Blast to the Past are a range of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys by Playmates Toys. They are collectable items for a younger generation of TMNT fans, like my 5-year-old son Eddie who wants to be a Ninja Turtle when he grows up. The latest addition to the range are half-shell heroes with prehistoric pets. Hurrah, that's two of our favourite things together!

You might have seen them in the Nickelodeon TV special aired on the 31st of January on Nick Tooms. 

The fearsless TMNT heroes are going back in time for the ultimate rumble in the jungle. Apparently they must stop a sinister alien dino race from changing the Earth's future forever.

The range is pretty impressive. We received T-Rex with Donnie and Stagosaurus with Mikey, but you can also find such fun combos as Pterodactyl with Raph, Robo Raptor with Triceraton as well as beaddies Shredder, Beebop and Rocksteady..

The toys are very colourful and bright. Dinosaurs look rather cute than scary.

T-Rex with Donnie: Donnie is riding his not so fierce looking T-Rex into battle, chomping down on bad guys. This set includes an exclusive Donnie figure. T-Rex's jaws open and close.
My son was very enthusiastically playing with both sets we received, and told me he wants to expand his collection. 

Stegosaurus with Mikey: Mikey rides a stegosaurus. When you press the button, the tail slashes.
These toys are cute and encourage imaginative play.

TNMT fans are eagerly anticipating a second movie release on 30 May 2016. Get in the spirit with the latest new movie based figures - ranging from the four brothers to Splinter, Shredder and Casey Jones. They are sculpted in a new style true to the characters of the film. 

Start collecting 11 figures now -  my son calls them goodies and baddies. I can just envisage trips with my son to the toy shops ahead, now that the Easter holidays are starting very soon.

Disclosure: we received two toy sets from the range for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are Eddie's and mine.

Turtletastic Cake Kit

Among numerous Christmas gifts that Eddie received was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtle-tastic Cake Kit. It was a gift from our friend Jen, who knows how much Eddie loves Ninja Turtles. For the last week he kept asking me if we could bake some cupcakes, and finally today I agreed.
The cake mix kit is a product of Green's. The kit is basically like any other cupcake kit for kids. There are 12 paper cake cases as well as a few dry ingredients, to which you need to add just an egg and some water.

Ninja Turtles cupcakes are vanilla cakes with green colour strawberry flavoured iding and rice paper Ninja turtles-themed cut outs of bandanas with eyes and mouths.

Simple and easy, this kit has oodles of appeal for little people who are fond of the ninja turtles.
Eddie's favourite part - apart from eating, of course - is decorating. He loved pouring the icing over the baked cupcakes and making the green faces.

The icing is a strange pale green colour, so not exactly like the animation characters' colour, but that didn't bother my ninja fan.

Eddie pronounced the icing delicious. It is very sweet and has a pleasant smell, not exactly a real strawberry, more like strawberry confectionery.

As you can see, Eddie was very proud of his work. This is not exactly Masterchef, but we'll get there one day.

The kit promises no artificial colours or flavours, though looking at the list of ingredients now I do notice quite a few E-numbers (in emulsifiers and stabilisers), and to be honest, I'd have been happier if they didn't use them at all.
What are your thoughts on the matter?