Some facts about Horrid Henry:
- Over 13 million books have been sold.
- Horrid Henry was the No 1 best-selling annual in 2008
- 3 out of every 4 kids in the UK has a Horrid Henry book
- re:creation plc holds the exclusive license for these toys
Master Craftiness revels in the naughtiness and defiance of Horrid Henry. So we were curious to see whether these toys based on Francesca Simon's bestselling book, would evoke our love/hate relationship for Horrid Henry. Would the figures capture the qualities we know and love? Let's take a look......
As you can see from the photographs, I had a lot of fun posing the figures. It doesn't look like Perfect Peter is so perfect anymore, does it? When we took Skater Horrid Henry out of his box, we found that he was accompanied by a skateboard. Henry has holes in the base of his shoes, to allow him to firmly stand on the skateboard. Pull the skateboard backwards and it propels forwards. Nothing really horrid about that, but if you have read the Horrid Henry range of books, you will know that Horrid Henry likes to get up to nasty things with his skateboard. Look beyond the skateboard and study the figure of Horrid Henry's face, you will see that the look of pure disgust with life in general has been captured perfectly. Also, we found that colours were accurately matched on the figures to the ones used in the illustrations of the books. But what Master Craftiness and myself were most impressed with was the weight of the figures. The weight of the figures made them almost seem life-like. There seemed to be weight distribution based on what you would feel if you picked a real human being up. The head seemed heavier and I loved the way that the head could only turn so far, much like a real human head. All the horrid Henry figure range are fully articulated, so children will have lots of fun setting up scenes, performing actions etc. with the toys.
Perfect Peter was next taken out of his box. He was accompanied by a rubbish bin, 'Fluffy' the cat, a few banana skins and a tub of gooey slime. The imagination can run wild here. Did Horrid Henry put the cat in the bin and cover him with slime? Does Perfect Peter have a penchant for banana skins, which causes him to fall in the bin? Or has Horrid Henry framed Perfect Peter? Fortunately, the fact that Perfect Peter is deemed boring in the hit show, doesn't make the Perfect Peter figure any less appealing. Again the figure is very accurately portrayed compared to the illustrations in the book, and feels a great quality toy. Perfect Peter loves homework and never eats chocolate or confectionery, he loves vegetables and he enjoys going to school. If children don't want to stick to conventional roles of the characters, they could have a great time creating new persona's for the figures. How about if Perfect Peter becomes a greedy guts or starts thieving? How about if Horrid Henry becomes an angel over night and then has to deal with the temper of not so Perfect Peter? These toys are so well made and accurately designed that they are sure to become a great source of creative play! They can even be used when reading the Horrid Henry books to bring the stories to life.
There are a few more in the range, which we will definitely be collecting:
- Pirate Henry
- Mischief Henry
- Rude Ralph
Available from Play or Amazon
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