Kids go wild for Hog Wild Toys

To my mind a toy is only good if it makes kids laugh and have good old fashioned fun. Sure there are video games, You Tube and the ever present Snapchat but none of those bridge the age gap and give everyone a good old fashioned belly laugh. This week, the folks at Toy Universe have sent me a set of the latest craze sweeping lounge rooms and schoolyards alike and, much to the delight of the Testing Gang, we had enough of these to go around. Even my wife was seen to pop once or twice!

So, what is it already you ask?

I’m talking about the Hog Wild Popper range.

You might have seen these 15cm odd tall soft plastic animals lying around with their giant gaping mouths or holes in their heads. Yes, well they are part of the Hog Wild Popper Range. So what are they. Essentially they are a novel and safe take on the old pop guns, you take a soft foam ball (each pack includes four - six but for serious fun you will probably want to grab the Hog Wilds Atomic Power Poppers Refills and you push the ball into the gaping hole. Once firmly inserted you give it a squeeze around its middle and POP the soft foam ball flies across the room or yard up to a distance of about 6 metres.

Having been the first to arrive for this week’s toy review I was able to grab the "toy of choice" for the serious big kid, the Hog Wild Atomic Sword Popper with a mammoth preloaded with a dozen soft foam balls. The Sword Popper is a slight variation on the other Poppers with a plunger in the grip of the sword. When depressed the plunger will rapid pop the balls from the end of the sword.

As the testing gang arrived our Poppers were quickly torn from their packets (no pesky metal ties!) and loaded up. Mr James (4) picked out the Dino Popper and Miss Emma (6) picked up the Unicorn Popper. Meanwhile Ben (15) was popping off the double pack cat and dog Clash of the Poppers and with one in each hand he did have a few people ducking for cover under the table. Not to be outdone Miss Emily (13) was popping her way around the room seemingly riding away on her Popper Pony with poppers going off left right and centre I watched as my wife walked in to see what all the noise was about. As I let fire at her with my Atomic Sword, she ducked, screamed and reached into the box all in one perfectly timed ducking motion and grabbed the last remaining Dragon Popper! The look on her face said it all. I was about to be popped!

Scurrying around on the floor trying to collect and reload my twelve poppers I quickly became the target for all 5 of them to fire their poppers with the sole aim of hitting me. Screaming and laughing together as I rolled into the foetal position and yelled "Mercy" everybody declared me beaten with Ben taking my Atomic Sword as the spoils of war. Even at close range, the Poppers are soft and very gentle on the "target" or, in this case, Me!

As we all reloaded, everyone was smiling, swapping poppers and coming up with new ideas for fun things to do with Poppers. Somewhat concerned when my Son, Ben, suggested a game remarkably similar to Beer Pong with Poppers, must remember to talk to him later. In the meantime, I pulled out the last item in box, the Hog Wild Bullseye Target and made my way outside to attach it to our poor old gumtree.

As the kids lined up to shoot targets for what would be over an hour, my wife and I sat on the back verandah and talked about the old pop guns we had as kids and what cool fun these were. As I said earlier, my idea of a good toy.

I have since been told by the Testing Team that these are really cool at school and the kids that have them are swapping and collecting the whole sets, perhaps the new YoYo? Time will tell. In the meantime, do yourself (and our kids) a favour and check them out. $15 or so is super cheap for an afternoon of fun, rain, hail or shine.

For more awesome kids toys visit Toy Universe.

Magda de Berg, a successful online business entrepreneur based in Australia, is the founder and owner of Toys Online Store - ToyUniverse.com.au