Tuesday 14 December 2010

(Almost a) Toyologist Review: Ben 10 Ultimatrix

£17.99 (so it says on my info leaflet, but the website says £13.99) from Toys R Us

Now 16 years old and an international star, Ben is armed with a new evolved Omnitrix called the 'Ultimatrix' allowing him to transform his aliens into their stronger ultimate forms with new powers and abilities as well as unlocking new aliens along the way.




So you bought the Omnitrix (possibly a couple of times) and now you're being pestered by small people for the latest version: The Ultimatrix! (which, being a made-up word is proving a right nightmare for me to keep typing out).





The first major improvement is the strap. Gone is the annoying plastic strap with its fiddly to fasten clip things, and in its place a fabric strap with a nice velcro fasten. This on its own makes the Ultimatrix worth buying.

In fact, I might just end the review there.

But I won't.


The problem I had with the Alien Force Omnitrix was the size of the thing. It was HUGE and looked ridiculous on my arm, never mind a small person's. Don't get me wrong - this one is probably just as big, but the added surround that goes down the arm makes it appear a lot less silly.


Much like the Alien Force figures came with a little clear plastic figure that came clipped to the top of the Omnitrix and spoke the name of the monster, the Ultimate Alien figures come with a small clear plastic disk that clips to the top of the Ultimatrix and (you guessed it) speaks the name of the monster! The disk also pops up and 'transforms' into the alien. It works well and the pop-up feature is an improvement over the old version.



My 4 year old had trouble clipping the figure on the Omnitrix, but finds sliding the disks in much easier. Really though, he hasn't played with this much as he much prefers playing with the figures than pretending to be Ben 10 himself.

My 2 year old likes anything that can be clipped to his person that makes a lot of noise. His Iron Man 2 Arc Light has been 'lost' by Dad.

The opinion on the price is biased slightly by the fact that it's only been a few weeks since I bought the Omnitrix at a reduced price.  I thought £17.99 was a bit pricey, but then I looked it up on the TRU website and it's apparently £13.99 which is a lot better and if your child is collecting the 3 3/4" figures they'll have a big pile of the disks that are completely useless unless you buy this.

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