Sunday, October 17, 2010

Review: Stinky the Garbage Truck by Matchbox


Introducing Stinky the Garbage Truck. The ULTIMATE best friend.
The ultimate in boys' buddies, Stinky the Garbage Truck is anything but rubbish! This rugged, large scale garbage truck has interactive sensors that bring him to life in unbelievable ways! With amazing articulation, Stinky interacts with his new best friend by talking, telling jokes ans singing - this garbage truck is like no other. He loves to exercise and dance along to music with his own unique personality.




I was first introduced to Stinky the Garbage Truck through Milkshake on Channel Five. Stinky appears behind the 'Five' logo after every ad break and my children were immediately drawn to him. My 2 year old son wildly pointing at him trying to get my attention to the screen and my eight year old already well-versed in the name of the creature replying "Yes, Stinky!" Stinky really looked the bees knees on the advert showing off his robotic skills and his humorous personality, but I was unconvinced. Things often look so much better on TV and when you get them home they sound very robotised and the movements are unrealistic and jerky. Not the case with Stinky.......

Stinky the Garbage Truck came to our home on a Thursday afternoon and my son couldn't wait for me to get him out of the box. There were lots of wires to deal with in the packaging and this seemed to pose a problem for my two year old son as he jutted out his bottom lip in frustration at me because I was not removing Stinky from his packaging quickly enough for him. Wires removed, he snatched the toy off me with delight and sat playing with him for around 20 minutes on the floor (impressive for a toddler). My 8 year old then got stuck in to the playing; putting his toys in to Stinky's mouth so that they would fall out of Stinky's garbage truck etc.
It was what you could call quite a hectic day as my husband had managed to drive in to a pothole and damage both wheels so in all the rush we failed to realise that the toy had batteries in for a demo mode. It was only the next day when my son realised that you had to pull the plastic tab out did Stinky come to life.....

Stinky coming to life after being an inanimate toy seemed to prove a huge problem for my nearly two year old as he froze in terror and pushed it away. He must have wondered what on earth was happening with Stinky suddenly "coming to life.'


The 8 year old absolutely loved Stinky's crazy movements and I must admit I was VERY impressed. This was every bit as good as it had appeared on the TV and I have included a video I got off YouTube to illustrate how good he is in real life.

Besides the fantastic robotics what I really loved about Stinky was the element of humour instilled in him! He had us all laughing. Particularly when he continuously passes wind and apologises by repeatedly saying "Excuse me!" It's also great fun putting toy cars in to his garbage truck as he laughs and says that it tickles him and then demands that you give him more.

It was also hilarious when he got up on to his back two wheels and sung and dance. The gruff voice he beholds also adds to how funny he is.

Around £65 for this amount of interaction, humour and robotic technology is great value and I will certainly be recommending Stinky to others.

And if you think that is good then Stinky even comes with a 20 minute DVD of him and his other friends having fun! I think this is great for children as it provides more of a background to Stinky and fuels their imagination when playing with him.

A few hours of watching us all laugh and gasp in awe at Stinky and my two year old came round to him again; suddenly becoming very possessive with him. The result is that I now have a war on my hands, as my two children rival to get to play with Stinky first.

Our conclusion: Simply AWESOME! We couldn't be any more impressed. In fact we think Stinky is even better in real life than he appears on TV. WE LOVE STINKY!!

Available from Argos
For more info on stockists please telephone: 01628 500303

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