Reviews Revisited 2013-2018... Was it really any good?

I try to be honest in reviews, but quite often what I'm reviewing needs a really good looking at before I can truly judge it, so I often think it'd be more sensible to come back to it. Sometimes we review things which prove invaluable or 5 years down the line are still just as fabulous.

This is the first in a regular series where I'll feature some of the best products we've reviewed since the beginning of the blog... Here's a look back at things we reviewed in the the first half of January...

The first ever published review on the blog back in 2013 was one I did for Izziwizzikids, which was a Facebook page which held discussion evenings on play. We focused on slow play, which nowadays would cover most STEM toys. It was LEGO, the Goblin King Battle set 70910. Obviously we still have it, although the Goblin has a loose hand nowadays...

In January 2016 I reviewed two really great things which have stayed with me ever since. Room the movie, an incredibly powerful film loosely based on real events, in which a young girl is kidnapped and held in a single room until she escapes many years later. Brilliant acting by Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay, lots of crying and a true sense that as long as we don't give up, we can win.

The other thing that's stayed with me since 2016 is my pillow! Unbelievably the pillow selector doodad on the Sleepy People website really worked. I barely ever have any back, neck or shoulder pain despite previously having a shoulder injury and hunching over a laptop most days.

The website chose me a really solid Silentnight Memory Foam Impress pillow which I was still a bit doubtful of in my Sleepy People review, because I'd never ever have chosen a pillow like this for myself. It just goes to show - there are real experts out there... cheers guys!

In 2017 we went on a trip to London as guests of Anki Overdrive. We really love the Anki Overdrive car racing system and it was a great trip. We were able to try out a couple of different layouts and they had the jump for us to look at too - although sadly we didn't get to try it out.

We had some spare time at the end of the day and visited the newly opened LEGO Store - and I was lucky enough to be 1 of the 275 people to win a rare minifigure of LEGO Lester. We had to escape then because people were very interested in talking to me about Lester... Our Anki Overdrive trip to London.

Last January 2018 I wrote a review of our Canvas holiday to Northern France, at Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont, Berny Riviere near Paris. We had such a great time and although I won the holiday, it was incredibly affordable and made us wonder why we put up with UK Summers for all those years camping with the bigger kids...

My little kids haven't been on holiday a lot. For various reasons we've been unable to take them away and this holiday was really needed by all of us. We need to do it again....

And the Goodbye, you fools.... Has to be the Pillow Selector on the Sleepy People website. It worked and it's gone!

Some of these items were supplied/arranged previously for review. I've not accepted any incentive to include them in this post. I just picked the most interesting!