PBS TV shows are big favorites around our house, and though we have only watched Wild Kratts a handful of times, the characters are very recognizable to my son. He is also in a dress-up/pretend play phase and loves having a large variety of costumes at his disposal. The Wild Kratts Creature Power Suit and the Creaturepod Projector are great additions to our collection!
The Blue Creature Power Suit comes with a Creature Power Vest, a pair of Creature Power Gloves, and two creature power discs (Giraffe power and Kangaroo power). The box says it fits most children in the 4-6X size range.
The vest is designed with velcro straps that can be adjusted, allowing it to fit a wide range of children. It was a tad bit snug around my 4-year-old who is tall, but far from chubby, so it may be a stretch for a child much older.
The gloves were a bit disappointing. The material was stiff and the fingers were nearly impossible to fit little hands. They left my son looking like he had a pair of oven mitts on, which frustrated him and made swapping the power discs in and out quite challenging because he couldn’t grab anything. The power discs are fun for children to pretend they are activating a certain power, but it would have been nice if the set included a few more.
The Creaturepod Projector is a small plastic toy (about 6″ long) that can be used along with the Power Suit for Wild Kratts pretend play. It contains 20 different Wild Kratts-related scenes. Pictures of animals, their environment and scenes from the actual show can be projected onto a wall. A simple button press activates the light inside and another button clicks through the images. As with any projector/light-based toy, you need to be in a fairly dark environment for the images to appear clearly. It also took a bit of adjusting to make the images clear, as they start out quite blurry. My son was impressed with the toy for a short time, but it was quickly put in the toy bin and hasn’t come out since. I enjoyed playing with this along with my son It reminded me of the ViewMaster toy I loved, albeit a long time ago!
Both of these items appeared to be high quality and have the potential for lots of fun, Wild Kratts role play. The simplicity of the items appeals to the toddler/preschool age range and also highly encourages the use of imagination. Either or both of these products would make great gifts for fans of the show!
Wild Kratts Blue Creature Power Suit and Creaturepod Projector Set
Manufactured by PBS Kids
Available at the Official PBS Kids Shop (shop.pbskids.org), Toys R Us (www.toysrus.com), Amazon (www.amazon.com)
$16.99 (Power Suit)
$7.99 (Projector Set)
Appealed to the advertised age range: 4
Instructions were easy to follow: 5
My child played with this multiple times: 3
Small pieces were a problem: No
Messy: No
Would travel well: Yes
Durability: 4
I would purchase this for my family: Yes
I would purchase this as a gift: Yes
Overall rating: 4
Christy Petrak is a systems engineer currently taking a leave of absence to raise her two children, Thomas (4 years) and Eliza (1 year). She enjoys spending time with her family, swimming and baking/decorating cupcakes.
