Gabby’s Dollhouse, Meow-mazing Board Game Based on

Games which have stood the test of time adapted to favoured cartoon characters
One of my five year-old grandson’s favourite programmes is Nickleodeon’s Paw Patrol, and with long winter nights soon approaching looking to give him and his elder siblings something to keep them occupied in the evenings took a big step forward with this set of Paw Patrol themed games when offered for review under the Amazon Vine programme. Aimed at a minimum age of four due to the use of small parts, there are a wide variety of largely traditional games tweaked to include favoured characters within the product box:

* Tic Tac Toe
* Draughts
* Go Fish
* Memo Match
* Bingo
* Hide and Seek
* Colour Match
* Colour Race

Manufactured by Spinmaster in China presumably under licence, the games are all for 2-4 players, which encourages sharing and friendly competition. Everything comes in a tightly packed cardboard box which might give issues when trying to put back, with a mixture of cardboard and plastic parts — all attractively coloured. The only negative is the use of LDPE plastic for keeping some parts, such as the draughts under control during transportation, so these will need to be promptly removed by an adult.

The box carries the following symbols:

* EU CE mark confirming that it is completely safe for children above 3 and means that it is manufactured from non-toxic materials, with smooth, rounded edges featured throughout.
* The new post-Brexit UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking
* The standard recycle mark
* The warning sign symbolising unsuitable for 0-3 years, almost certainly because child of these ages could choke on small parts
* Gulf States G Mark safety logo

Parts included are:

* Game Board
* 2 x punch sheets
* 1 x label sheet
* 6 x double sided game cards
* 36 x playing cards
* 2 x side walls
* 2 x crossbars
* 1 x bottom brace
* 4 x L-clips
* 30 x draughts pieces
* Instructions

At 19.99 there is plenty of variety here to keep kids occupied over dark winter evenings. Whilst the cardboard could take a battering from young hands its fairly common in board games. The plastic is good quality and should last; save if they get clumsily trodden on. I think that game play of the type offered here encourages lateral thinking and learning, something both grandparents are keen to encourage. Friendly competition too is a good lesson for later life, showing getting better through practice, as well as encouraging interaction and sharing — a factor so often missing from many computer based games. I like this set, enthusiastically received by my grandson with the Paw Patrol characters drawing him in. This is a largely traditional set, with some of the games encouraging thinking, teaching strategy and close observation, and thus holding the attention amongst the target age group. The selection of games might be judged as basic, but they are games which have stood the test of time. Draughts for instance will hopefully encourage an interest to learn chess in later life.