Zuru Smashers - Series 1: Sport product reviews

As soon as we opened up our review box my 7yo daughter claimed the Zuru smasher. The box looked exciting and she was thrilled when she read you had to smash it open. Once she had taken it out of the packaging she managed to smash it open straight away and grab the toy out.

The toy comes with a collectors guide, which shows the over 100 different smashers you can collect, which includes 6 super rare and 6 limited edition smashers. My daughter was a little disappointed she didnā ™t get a rare, but was happy when she saw her smasher had a high amount of smash points. Every smasher has a S.P value, so you are supposed to make teams with the highest amount of smash points to play against your mates. On the other side of the collectors guide is an arena which you place the smashers in and throw other smashers to knock them out and score points. The player with the most points win.

At $5 each these would be quite expensive to collect the whole set. Id possibly buy for a childā ™s birthday if I knew they were collecting them, or get them for Christmas stockings. A lot of the characters were exactly the same they just came in different colours. I had read that you can put the outside shell back together and resmash the smasher. I attempted this but donā ™t have the patience and Iā ™m not sure itā ™s intended to go back together as it doesnā ™t say anything on the packet about it.

Something I had not heard of and neither had my children, so was interested in what this was. Very similar to the old Trash Paks that my children had. But I find that this product is a lot cooler, due to the fact you have to smash the ball to get the surprise.

There were fights over who was going to open this but I come out on top. With all children hanging around the table while I opened it. Took a few goes to break it but I got it and what a cool wee toy on the inside. I got a wee 8 ball looking toy so there were more fights over that. This wee dude was actually a rare collectable, which was even more exciting. Was a big hit here so I think this will be in a couple of stocking fillers this Christmas.

Packet took a bit to get into, but it was well displayed with what was inside and great pictures on the back of best way to smash to get the toy out. The price seems very fair for the size of the product. Great wee information sheet inside as well clearly displaying all the different wacky sports characters inside. Very interested to buy more and see what other characters I can collect.

My eldest son has been asking me lots recently if he could have a smasher, and I didn't really have any idea what he was going on about, until I saw them on the KIWIreviews website and in the SayWhat ezine. I requested to try one in the hope that my son could try one, and thankfully we were lucky enough to receive one. After bringing the box of review goodies inside, my children couldn't contain their excitement, it was like watching them on Christmas morning. My son's eyes were quickly drawn to the Smasher and he instantly begged to open the packaging.

The packaging is very eye-catching with the vibrant colours and entertaining looking characters. This Zuru Smasher is from Series 1 which is sport themed. When I read the front of the pack to my son, and told him there was over 100 to collect, he got a very determined look on his face and said "we must do it mum especially the rare one." On the back of the packaging it says the Zuru brand is designed and created in NZ, which made me happy as I love to support NZ businesses. We saw some pictures showing instructions on how to open the Smasher - throw, smash, surprise! We have since downloaded the Smasher Collectors app so we can keep track of which characters we have.

Finally we were ready to find out what was inside, my son quickly got the Smasher ball out of the package and threw it gently on the carpet. He looked upset it hadn't smashed so I told him he needed to be more forceful, instantly his face lit up and he proceeded to hurl the item at the wall. Once the Smasher made contact with the wall it flew open and the squeal from my son was priceless. He collected his toy and was thrilled, it has since been going everywhere with him. I tried to piece the ball back together again but alas I didn't have the patience hehe.

I definitely think this is a fun toy for the surprise element, however much to my son's horror I do not think we will try collect them all. It is a fairly priced collectable and I think it would be ideal as a small reward for a child, or perfect for in the Christmas stockings, or as a take-home gift from a party. I must admit I am curious to see what the Series 2 theme will be.

My son is a real on the go burst of activity so something like these Zuru smashers are right up is alley. Being able to throw something and smash it is a real novelty for a boy who likes to be messy and loud. He loved the Zuru smasher we received and had it smashed open to reveal the prize underneath in seconds. The prizes inside are all sports based little figurines we found a gold trophy inside which we read was a very rare collectible so that was pretty cool!

I do think they are a pretty reasonable price for the product you receive but with so many to collect in the series it would be an expensive collection if you aimed to collect them all considering each one is a surprise and you would end up with double up's. Also as they smash open in seconds the experience is fun but short lived still exciting for a young child but I think having a few at once would make it more fun perhaps as once we smashed ours open got the surprise inside it was a very short lived little activity.

I do think these would be great for a child's birthday party as a fun little activity where everyone would get a little prize at the end for their efforts. Being quite a unique product on the market we were very keen to try these out and had some fun i'm not sure we would aim to complete a collection but we would definitely buy more especially if we saw a special when you buy more than one at a time. Thanks Harvey Wholesale and KIWIreviews for the opportunity to test this out with my munchkins.

When my kids saw this they were all eager to have a turn with it, so much so that when Miss 8 went to her Granddads, she simply couldn't wait and asked him to buy her one, gleefully bringing it home to show off. I gave Mister 10 the privalige of opening this up. Inside there is a small leaflet, not uncommon in these mystery toys, which provided a list of all the collectible toys and a playing mat for a game. However, the mat for the game didn't really work well because it tried folding back up and refused to stay flat, so perhaps making it on cardboard which could remove from the back would work better.

It took effect a couple of tries to open it, but once he did he was keen to see what was hiding inside the ball and quickly checked to see if it was uncommon or not (something he now loves checking out). Later on we attempted the reassembling on the ball, there wasn't anything in the packet so we ended up going onto YouTube to find instructions and even then it proved so difficult for us to manage to put together that the kids lost interest and wandered away. I really liked the idea of being able to resmash these but in all honesty found them too fiddly and considering my kids gave up, wouldn't be keen on buying these (because all four of us know they'd come to me for reassembly).

At roughly five dollars for a single ball, this isn't too dissimilar in price and novelty as many of the other brands of toys out there which aim to get you wanting to complete the entire set. I really did like the idea of resmash img but find its just too fiddly and as such it's novelty wore off for the kids. My son, had been very keen to see what he would get but was dissapointed that the toy he got actually has about three identical versions, just different colours and because of this he says he's not interested in buying any of these. As for my daughter, she too finds the lack of variety a down point and won't be adding the the collection.

This Zuru Smasher's toy combines two things that kids love in modern toy's; smashing and surprise. One of the biggest attractions to toys of today is the element of not knowing what you're going to get and this is very apparent when you look at the biggest selling toys such as LOL dolls, Hatchimals and lego figures to name but a few. The biggest problem we faced with only having one was who was going to get it out of my two son's but we were lucky to find that they came to the decision of one having the toy inside and one getting to smash it open and keep the shell. In the end, we resolved this by purchasing more for our other children anyway.

We opened the packaging, removed the ball and my son threw the ball against the ground for it to shatter open and reveal and tiny toy character which I thought would have been bigger. The character itself was an odd little 8 ball figure pulling a funny face. I see the appeal to children as they have to collect them all and find out what other ones are in the set. The more appealing thing I found though was the shell pieces and how you can reassemble them with a bit of skill. My partner and I have been having races to see who can reassemble the ball the quickest.

The biggest downside for these though is that many of these toys are the same but just have their colours changed which I find is a little slack and would rather see just more different characters. All in all, I can see why these are popular and kids like them so they would make an easy addition to birthdays and Christmas but be ready to start looking around the house often for these little toy's as I can see them getting lost just as easy.

Mr Eight is normally pretty good at problem solving, but this one really had him stumped. We had all watched a selection of YouTube videos first as we had been advised to do, but they did not help at all. And the included documentation was no help either! Mr Eight was also upset because the ball fell apart as soon as he opened the packaging, so that was disappointing as he had not even had the fun of smashing it first!

However, our family are all a pretty stubborn lot and we were not going to let a seemingly impossible task faze us. Mr Eight and I spent about an hour taking turns to try, but in the end he got totally frustrated and stamped off to do something else! My daughter said she would have a go, so she picked up the pieces and started trying to assemble them. The same thing happened. She joined three, sometimes four, then the whole thing fell apart again. I wondered if our set was faulty, given that it had been so quick to fall to pieces when first opened.

Daughter insisted that she would not give up, so the entire world stood still while she attacked it using different strategies - combining different shapes, applying pressure in various places, balancing the partly finished ball in the packaging cups, and examining each segment carefully for hidden lips or catches. The moment came when she had five pieces assembled. Mr Eight came running back to watch, and I held my breath. But no: as she placed the last piece in position, the assembly collapsed yet again.

But we knew now that it could be done. Five more attempts, each getting speedier, and finally that magic last piece slotted into place. There were high fives all round, with daughter beaming with pride. Mr Eight was delighted too as he finally got to smash it and "rescue" the toy a second time. Now that we knew it was possible, the toy suddenly became very desirable. My daughter put it together again and this time it took only a minute: as she said, it was all in the physics - something you have to work out for yourself.

Since then, Mr Eight has managed to put it together himself. He took it off to the beach for the weekend so his ten-year-old cousin could try it too. Yes, it caused a lot of frustration but also an immense sense of accomplishment once the puzzle had been mastered. We thought it might be a good idea to have several balls so people could compete to see how long they would take to work it out. Being stubborn certainly helps - and my daughter's determination to get it finished inspired Mr Eight to persevere.

As for me, I still have not completed it - but it is not for want of trying. With everyone in the extended family now wanting a turn, I am having to wait until they all get sick of it and I can have a go myself. Maybe I will just have to go out and buy my own!

The idea behind this toy is pretty simple, there is a ball that "smashes" apart when thrown against something such as a wall, and inside is a collectable character. Each character has "smash points" and kids collect characters, creating a team with the biggest smash points and "battling" their friends. There is a character checklist so kids can tick off characters as they collect them and learn their smash points. The ball can be put back together to smash over and over again.

I'm pretty sure this toy had Mstr 8's attention as soon as he understood that the ball was opened by throwing it against a wall, something that he did with enthusiasm as soon as I had managed to wrangle a photo of him with the product. He was very excited to see what was inside and check the character off the checklist. He was happy to play with it for a while and to scan over the checklist to see what else he could collect and what else he could do with them. Mstr 8 then began to plan how he was going to use his pocket money to collect more.

From a parents point of view, I'm naturally rather lost as to the appeal! Having one single character leaves the child with very little to actually do with the toy which of course prompts parents to have to buy more to get a decent collection with which the kids can actually play. Being a collection thing also ensures that our adorable offspring will be pulling puppy eyes to beg us to buy more in an attempt to find a "rare" collectable character. The ball itself can be rather fiddly to put back together, Mstr 8 hasn't mastered it through Miss 11 did easily.

While the "smash" concept is unique I would say that ultimately this is another in a long line of "collectable character" type toys that ensure parents are being pestered to spend money. Mstr 8 hasn't played with for over a week now so I wonder if it's appeal is limited but that could change if he collects more. I would consider buying them for birthday or Christmas presents but they probably are better at least initially purchased in a multi-pack rather than a single pack so that there is more playing potential.