Star Monsters Pocket Friends Children's Collectible Review

Magic Box Toys, the people who brought you Zomlings, have a new children's collectible available to buy now.  Star Monsters toys have fallen from the sky in triangular shooting stars. When they arrive on Earth they take a form depending on where and how they land, and what they see, so star Monsters can be any shape - chairs, dolphins, wheels, fish, traffic lights...it's really different and makes them pretty special.

Star Monsters are grouped into 4 families (Air, Plant, Earth and Water) and 4 categories because Star Monsters can evolve (Essential, Evolved, Rare and Ultra Rare). There are 72 Series 1 Star Monsters to collect in total. The starter pack (£3) includes a poster which shows the whole collection.

There is also an Album-Guide, which explains how to play the different Star Monsters games, and everything else you'd ever need to know - including showing you those all-important rare characters, and spaces to collect the stickers included in some of the packs.

Star Monsters are sold sealed in blind bags, so you don't know who you are going to get without some pretty nifty bag-feeling, and different versions of the same character mean you still won't be sure.

Star Monsters are great, really varied, nicely made and the colours are beautifully done. My 5 and 7 year old boys really had an awesome time opening all of the packs - and finding out what item or creature their Star Monster represented! And we got 2 gold rare ones!

There's only 1 of our gold Star Monsters here - the other 1 was temporarily exploring under the sofa.

We got a couple of packs with Mini Capsules - we all liked these a lot. They fold flat for storage and fix together any way you like to display your Star Monsters or as part of play.

We were also sent packs with a Capsule and a drawstring Storage Bag. Both of these are great for storing the Star Monsters, and the Capsule is pretty cool - my youngest just wants to play with them as 'figures' and his imagination runs wild.

The games are easy to understand and really varied. They are physical and require you to play on the floor or at a table, scoring points to win. Points are gained by knocking over your opponents Star Monsters with your own, counting points touching the ground, or throwing your Star Monsters towards a target. The overall collectible game though is really about point scoring, and all the detail you'd ever need is shown on the characters underside.

The capsule can also be used for games - it's actually quite hard to throw a Star Monster into the hole from 3 feet away!

I really like Star Monsters because they're exactly the sort of collectible that does fire children's imagination. They're cute and neat with lovely backstories, it's fascinating seeing what object they became and why, and gives them real character.

The games are good, easy and quick, perfect for children to play together on a bedroom floor, and I think Star Monsters will be very popular with most youngsters aged around 4-11.

You can find more about Star Monsters Pocket Friends on the Magic Box Toys website - including a great little short movie explaining their arrival on Earth. They are available now at all good toystores in various pack sizes at genuine pocket money prices:

Two Pack (2 Star Monsters + 2 Stickers) approx £1
Mini Capsule (2 Mini Capsules + 2 Star Monsters + 2 Stickers) approx £2
Capsule (1 Capsule + 1 Essential Star Monster + 1 Evolution Star Monster) approx £3
Bag Pack ( 1 Bag + 3 Star Monsters) approx £2.50
Blister (2 Regular Star Monsters + 1 Essential + 1 Evolution + 1 Silver/Gold + 1 Silver/Gold Mini Capsule) approx £5
Collector Tin (8 Fusion Star Monsters) approx £8

We were sent our Star Monsters For Review.