Review: Kid-Eco rocket

Our house is only small – or at least it is considering that it has five people and a crazy kitten living in it.

Lack of space = careful toy choosing required.

I like to get the maximum output in terms of space required, activities involved and joy received.

The Kid-Eco rocket, for example, ticks a lot of boxes. In fact, it kind of IS boxes, in a non-standard, rocket shaped way.

Made of double-walled cardboard, and flatpacked into a slimline sturdy brown cardboard sleeve that can be used to stow it away safely when the kids aren’t flinging themselves around inside it, the Kid-Eco rocket is assembled out of 8 different pre-cut shapes.

Shapes which are easy to fit together, and then take apart again afterwards. It took myself and the Other Half only about three minutes to get all the bits together, which was probably just was well as we had three small children excitedly trying to climb inside it as soon as the main rocket body was up and ready!

The cardboard is obviously very sturdy as we’ve taken it down and put it up several times now and it’s still in one working piece, albeit a bit more rickety and with some minor tears and scrapes – all easily fixed with duct tape (and duct tape goes quite well with the ‘rockety’ vibe really). The kids have shown it some serious abuse too: jumping in and out of it, zooming off in it ‘so fast that it’s fallen on it’s side, Mummy!’ and inviting their small friends from next door to have a play too. It’s definitely big enough to fit three small children inside – but five, well that’s a bit of a squeeze…

…and Grandmas are most DEFINITELY too big!

The rocket comes in four different colours – brown, white, pink and silver; but we chose the white one because then not only could the kids play inside it, they could custom-colour their rocket too.

Because we were using it mainly outside thanks to the lovely weather (although it’s compact enough to fit in the front room too on rainy days) I let them go at it with paint.

HOURS OF FUN!

Our multicoloured grass is getting some interested comments from passers by now, but hey, grass is washable and so are the kids, so it was worth the mess to see how much enjoyment they got from getting their rocket space-flight ready.

And of course, they customised the inside too. I’m reliably informed that the rocket has ‘start dishwasher’, ‘ZOOOOOM’ and ‘not sure what this does’ buttons now fully installed and working.

I’m not expecting it to last forever, but the great thing is that at £28.99 it’s very reasonably priced for a toy that has given so many hours of play and enjoyment – and when it has eventually seen it’s final flight into imaginary space, it can go and live out a lovely retirement in the local recycling centre.

At which point, we may invest in a Princess Castle. Or a Teepee. Or a FORTRESS!

For more information about Kid-Eco and all the cardboard toys they have available, take a look at the Kid-Eco website or follow them on facebook.