available from John Lewis and Amazon with prices ranging between £4.99 and £19.99 depending on box size.
The PlayMais World Jungle is priced at £14.99
Last year some of the SFR testers were lucky enough to test and review PlayMais the fantastic cornstarch based modelling toys for children. At the time Liv was too young to test this, however we had great fun looking at all the models that were made. We again were given the opportunity to review and as Olivia is now of the age where she is quite creative it seemed to be the perfect time to give it a go for ourselves!
I was quite pleased when a PlayMais jungle theme pack arrived as it was something new and gave us the opportunity to develop a scene! The box contains enough PlayMais pieces to stretch the whole length of our close (over 500 pieces!), 7 pre-cut sheets of cardboard to make the jungle scenery, wildlife warden, giraffe, lion and zebra, instructions and a child proof knife to cut the pieces. I have to admit I did look at the instructions on how to construct the animals and am so glad you are shown "how to" diagrams, if we had had to create them on our own they certainly would not have turned out the same!
Our first attempt was the Giraffe model (as pictured), I cut the pieces to size whilst Liv stuck the pieces together using a little dab of water. I was surprised how easy the pieces were to cut and also how strong the pieces were when stuck together and was quite impressed. The pieces are really easy to model together and do not create the mess that I was expecting. If anything I was more aware that the water being knocked over would have created more mess!
PlayMais is such a fun way to keep children occupied, without the mess, without any arguments - with a box containing over 500 pieces there is certainly enough to go around! The product itself is natural and environmentally friendly (and edible according to our dog!). The pieces are coloured with food colouring and although I did notice our fingers were stained slightly, it was very easy to wash off with soap and water and only a slight mark on Liv's clothes easily washed out.
A great, easy to use, fun modelling toy that will keep children occupied for more than 5 minutes and will develop their imaginations and creativity!
I would be more than happy for Olivia to keep playing with PlayMais than paint - the end results are lovely, even if they are not accurate and make great features on the mantlepiece. Which is exactly where Geoffrey the Giraffe is right now!