Celebrating World Play-Doh Day + Unboxing Fun Play-Doh Package

It’s World Play-Doh Day and the brand is also celebrating 60 years of fun today, September 16, 2016!  We are so thrilled to celebrate such an iconic brand, and a fun toy that has brought so many laughs and smiles to our home and millions of others.

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Over the years, we have used Play-Doh to build creatures, help with reading reinforcement, sensory play, brother bonding and so much more! We’ve made a few videos of our own, too!

 

In case your kids aren’t on YouTube as incessantly as mine, Play-Doh has an entire sector and fanbase for videos on the social platform. I can’t even tell you how many hours Littles has spent mesmerized watching people unbox cool Play-Doh sets and creating fun things with this fun squishy compound. 

 

 

It was a @hasbro superhero-filled day for this guy! #marvelspectacular

A photo posted by Jen Rabulan-Bertram (@jenrab) onOct 24, 2015 at 12:12pm PDT

 

Our friends at Hasbro know how obsessed my guys are with Play-Doh, so they sent us a fun box in celebration of World Play-Doh Day. Check out the chaos that ensued:

 



More Play-Doh, Please

Our playroom might be overflowing with every color on the spectrum of Play-Doh, but here’s just a few of the latest sets that we have our eye on:

 

Play-Doh Town 3-in-1 Town Center

This cool playset allows kids to create their own town. They can create everything from the clock tower, to the figures’ hairstyles, to the local birds hanging out on the rooftops! Before the citizens go on a downtown drive, stop at the mechanic shop to make custom hubcaps and other automotive details.

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Stamp and Roll Featuring The Minions
Combine those quirky Minions with Play-Doh, and we are officially obsessed! The rolling tools are always a hit; and I love that the Minions are Can Heads! These are two of our favorite things, so this cool collaboration will be a fun stocking stuffer or surprise.
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Doctor Drill and Fill

This set reminds me of one of my favorite Play-Doh sets as a kid. Who doesn’t love playing doctor or dentist, especially when you’re the one performing the work and NOT in that chair!912bf8282096532304af38327b2f06b8f6adf9a4

Full disclosure: Though we are genuinely obsessed, this is not a sponsored post. We did, however, receive a fun package form Hasbro. As always, opinions on NKT are my own.

Coolest Star Wars Toys from Hasbro

Like so many of you, we are in total Star Wars mode these days. In honor of the long awaited debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I thought I’d share some of the new Star Wars toys from Hasbro. Back in September, my family was invited to the Global Day of Play where bloggers and other media were invited to play with all of the newly released Star Wars toys. I can’t even begin to describe how excited we all were to geek out with these awesome toys.

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Hasbro has a huge selection of Star Wars-branded toys, ranging from toys for preschoolers in their Playskool line to board games to role playing games to cool items for collectors. Because there’s something for Star Wars fans of all ages, my entire family loved being among the first ones to get a look at the Next Kid Things from Hasbro.  

 

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There was so much to see and try out, but our favorites include:

Playskool Heroes Star Wars Series

I love the Playskool Heroes Star Wars Series because of its chunky characters and easy to handle vehicles and accessories. Preschoolers like my little guy love these Star Wars sets because they’re more age-appropriate and perfect for open-ended creative play. ($4.99-39.99)

Blade Builders
My older Star Wars fan loved creating his own powerful Lightsaber with the Blade Builders set. By connecting and twisting various different weapons, young Jedis can create their own custom Lightsaber that boasts realistic sounds to be used in battle. ($49.99)

Play-Doh Can Heads

My Play-Doh fanatic can’t get enough of the Star Wars themed Can Heads. I love the way the cans become characters and can be included in open play patterns. Little Padawans can mold and sculpt their favorite Star Wars shapes with these fun sets. ($9.99-19.99)

 Kylo Ren Black Series Lightsaber
This super sleek lightsaber is geared to the collectors and die hard fans. It has solid features, light effects, movie sound effects, 3 blades and metal hilt. ($199.99)

Star Wars Mr. Potato Head
What better way to introduce Star Wars to the toddler and preschool set than with the iconic Mr. Potato Head toys. Mr. Potato Head takes on the Dark Side with all the coolest Star Wars accessories. Choose from Frylo Ren, Darth Tater, Spud Trooper and more. ($9.99-19.99) 

BB-8
Ok, so, like everyone else, we want BB-8 for ourselves. Biggie loved maneuvering the RC BB-8 and had a great time navigating the Dark Side obstacle course. This BB-8 boasts movie-accurate sounds and expressive droid sounds, just as one would imagine.

We absolutely loved getting our hands on all of these fun toys. To say we were over the moon with excitement at the Global Day of Play was a total understatement. Check out the highlights from the Star Wars Global Day of Play to see these toys and more in action! Biggie was so giddy to train with a Jedi and Littles, my Play-Doh fanatic, LOVES Can Heads!

 

 

 I truly can’t pick a fave, the whole day was such a treat. If you’re Star Wars fans like we are, I have no doubt that some of these fun goodies are on those wish lists. 

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Thank you to Hasbro for hosting us at the Star Wars Global Day of Play.

Happy Play-Doh Day + 3 Fun Play-Doh YouTube Channels

Today marks National Play-Doh day, and with its close timing to back to school season, the iconic dough compound from Hasbro sculpted six schools and students from classic movies and tv shows. From Cher’s plaid back to school outfit from “Clueless” to the Burn Book from “Mean Girls,” to Rydell High’s infamous T-Birds and Pink Ladies, to Mike and Sulley from Monsters University to the lockers from Saved by the Bell and to two memorable scenes from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Play-Doh captured the essence of these classic shows.

 

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Play-Doh on YouTube

We can’t leave all the fun up to Play-Doh on National Play-Doh Day! In case you didn’t already know, the kids love watching kids play on YouTube. This is a thing, people. Some of the highest trafficked channels on YT are toy and play-based! One of the reasons I know this is because my 3 year old Godson is a huge fan of watching Play-Doh on YouTube. When YouTube was created, I bet they never even considered this would become a thing!

 

And in honor of National Play-Doh Day, here’s a trio of channels that have captivated audiences young and old…all in the name of Play-Doh!

 

Surprise Eggs unboxing toys 

These videos give a thorough visual tour of the toys. What I found about these Play-Doh fan channels is that they rarely have a “face” to them.  And, I guess that doesn’t really matter for the kids who just watch for entertainment, rather than research. As a blogger, I personally appreciate the faces behind the content, but that’s me.

 

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Kid Toys TV

This is another unboxing channel that focuses on the product, rather than details of the toy.  This unboxing of Frosting Fun Bakery Playset which was originally published in August and has about 240, 000 views and counting. What’s unique about these videos is that there’s no commentary, just playing and unboxing. The musak gets repetitive, but it’s still cute.

 

 

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DisneyCollector

Perhaps the rockstar of the the Play-Doh YouTube sector, DisneyCollector has garnered billions of viewers on her channel that overviews toys. Billions! This video of the Mega Factory Play-Doh playset has a staggering 25 million views.

 

 

 

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The voice behind Disney Collector is, quite simply a mystery. Many of her video analyze and unbox new toys, including Play-Doh sets. According to Adweek, she has over 3 Billion views. She’s been mentioned by BuzzFeed, New York Times, AdWeek and now NKT 😉  After watching some of her videos, I get the allure. Her voice and video content are equally mesmerizing.

Things We Love: Fun and Colorful Goodies and Gear

Cold, wintry days often mean monochromatic shades of gray for weeks at a time.  We’re currently craving warmth  and color on the dull days, and enjoying these goodies (and gear) that channel some much-needed cheery vibrance.

 

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EO Bubble Buddy

 

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Winter, especially with small children in school, typically equates to germs…lots of them.  There’s been a lot of negative reports about antibacterial products lately, which is why I prefer old fashioned soap and water when it comes to hand washing.  In fact, I’m currently I’m in love with EO’s Bubble Buddy. This kid-sized foaming soap squeezes out and features natural and pure ingredients and is paraben free, polysorbate free, disodium EDTA free and sodium laureth/lauryl sulfate free. With scents like orange, coconut and lavender, Bubble Buddies makes clean up time a little more fun.

 

 

New Balance

 

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A departure from my predictable and conservative gray New Balance sneakers, the Splatter 890v3 make quite the colorful statement for kids.  Neon colors are a resounding throwback design trend and remain a mainstay in kid style. These New Balance sneakers not only boast a brighter presence, but also feature glow in the dark details and splatter design. My boys have this style and have been sporting them when we head to the indoor playspace.  I love how the bright colors contrast against all the snow and gray landscape of winter.  Aside from the bright colors, I always love that the New Balance’s baby and toddler sizes feature a hook and loop closure.The Splatter 890v3, which was unveiled this fall, is available in toddler and youth sizes and are currently on sale.  

 

 

Play-Doh Rainbow Pack

 

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A longtime fan of Play-Doh, I’ve probably mentioned how my love for this classic modeling compound has been renewed with the babe’s ongoing therapies.  Between his occupational and developmental therapy, we get even more use of Play-Doh around here.  So, between the big kid’s creative sessions and the little’s therapy, we seem to always be creating something colorful, which is why I absolutely love Play-Doh’s Rainbow Pack.  With a palette of 33 different colors, the Rainbow Pack is ideal for those open-ended play sessions where a handful of colors just won’t do.  Even better, the singular packs found in the Rainbow Pack make Play-Doh even more portable for those families on the go.  The only caveat I found for this fun spectrum of Play-Doh is the clean up and storage afterward.  I don’t like mixing the colors, so we try to preserve each individual color by wrapping each one in plastic wrap.  There has to be a better way, though.

 

Pantone

 

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Having studied a bit of graphic design and then working closely with magazine production, I appreciate that Pantone remains the color standard.  A Pantone-influenced children’s book is an ingenious idea.  I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce a spectrum of color to young kids, than by the authority itself.  In this Abrams title,  nine basic colors and 20 shades of each are overviewed, giving toddlers and preschooler a bright primer on the beauty of color. The  puzzle element to the book gives it a tactile approach to engaging the kids even further, though unfortunately, we’ve learned by experience that these pieces are easily lost.  Nevertheless, Pantone Colors is our color theory board book of choice.

 

Ruum Headphones Hat

 

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We’re obvious fans of Ruum Kids Wear, but when I say I love them for their unique style, I mean LOVE.  Beyond the cool, yet classic styles, Ruum has some of the best accessories to boot.  Right now, they’ve got crazy sales going on, including their winter gear.  In January and early February, I like to stock up on basics for the next size up, but I positively love this cool headphone hat.  You rarely see purple for boys, so I always love that I can turn to Ruum for boy color schemes beyond baby blue.  Best part of this unique hat, besides the fact that it’s on sale for about $3?  You can wire a pair of buds so that they actually depict the design.  Want some gloves to match? Those are $3 bucks too! Cool!

 

Hunter Kids Boots

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I’m sure I’ve professed my love for Hunter Wellies before, but I’m currently loving these bright yellow boots for kids.  The fire fighter and lady bug rain boots get overplayed, so why not opt for a pair of yellow Hunters that are well worth the investment.  In addition to rainy days, Hunter boots can be paired with warm boot socks and worn in the snowy weather. If you have an older kid and need functional, colorful rain boots, check out Hunters.  These are the kind of staples that are worth the investment and hold up as hand-me-downs.

 

 

 

Kid Made Modern

 

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I’ve been in love with Todd Oldham’s kid craft line Kid Made Modern since its debut at Target a couple of years ago.  From the basic colored pencil sets to the craft kits, Kid Made Modern takes craft sessions to an all new level of cool.  Santa gifted Biggie with the coolest ukelele personalization kit and comic creation kit.  It’s like Kid Made Modern can read our creative minds to combine fun, function and crafting.  I’m currently eyeing the Felt Frenzy kit, which would be a great collaborative craft with the toddler and big kid.  The colorful kid-friendly felt crafts make this kit a perfect snowy day activity.

Reading Enrichment with Play-Doh and Star Wars

With school back in session, I wanted to share one of the many activities that we’ve been doing to sharpen and enhance Biggie’s reading skills.


Because of his late September birthday, we redshirted our five year old and thus, I’ve been vigilant about bridging the transition to Kindergarten. I have much to say about redshirting and transitional kindergarten in general, but I’ll save that for another day. Today, it’s all about Play-Doh and Star Wars.

Reading enrichment comes in many forms, but for one rainy afternoon, we paired Play-Doh and Star Wars to engage in a hands-on reading activity that just happened to focus on Biggie’s favorite characters. I let J flip through one of his favorite books right now, which is a DK Readers Level One book called Who Saved the Galaxy? by Catherine Saunders. Since he’s not quite reading fluidly on his own, I love the fact that this book has characters he loves and can decipher words with graphic help. Not to mention, it’s a well known tactic that familiar characters engage beginning readers. In our case, my beginning reader is most interested in things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, space and Star Wars.


For this project, we used Play-Doh’s new Ultimate Rainbow Pack. The wide range of colors makes this activity fun since the novelty of new colors and variety keeps J interested in the task at hand. Once he picked his colors, he used various cutters to cut out letters for characters like Luke Skywalker.


We moved on to other characters and even picked colors that matched the characters color scheme; yellow and brown complemented C 3P0 quite perfectly!

To change it up, we decided to roll letters, which also works on those fine motor skills, and is important for proper writing utensil handling. By rolling the letters, I found that it was a great way to better understand letter formation since he had to manipulate pieces to form the letters.


Our most favorite part of this project was making a model of R2D2. This project was a fun way to work together to create something we both like! To work further on those fine motor skills, I let J cut out the tiny buttons that make up R2D2’s robotic exterior. I helped J to make the formation of R2D2 himself, but allowed him to make the final touches of all the pieces.


By pairing Play-Doh and Star Wars, not only were we able to keep occupied and have fun on a rainy afternoon, but we made Play-Doh educational by twisting it into a reading activity. Play-Doh isn’t the cleanest activity, so I’d suggest using Glad Press and Seal for easy clean up. To make Play-Doh an educational activity on our own, just grab your favorite book, pull words and play away. The more accessories, colors and words, the better!

I’m so sure teachers do activities like this in school, but for us at home, it’s a great way to sharpen reading skills and express creativity by bringing our favorite characters to life via Play-Doh and Vine!

Full disclosure:  we were provided with a sample of Play-Doh, but we used our own creativity for this fun project.  As always, all opinions are my own.

Kidz haz cheezburger: Play-Doh Burger Builder

Play-Doh has cooked up some new items, specifically, some new food sets, some of which are set to roll out this fall. With school starting up for many, the unofficial end of summer might be imminent, but the kids can BBQ all year round with the Play-Doh Burger Builder. With the Burger Builder, kids can press, knead and “cook” up their own burgers and all the “fixins” (That’s how they say it back home) How ever they might like their burgers—lettuce, tomato, pickles, fries on the side—the possibilities are endless with the Play-Doh Burger Builder.

Play-Doh Burger Builder

We had the chance to check out this latest set, which, like all of its timeless playsets, the Play-Doh Burger is entertaining for boys and girls. Even with the various pieces, it’s easy put together and take apart.  It comes with five small canisters of Play-Doh, and the cool looking molds.  Even with all the glorious electronics out on the market, there’s nothing like good old fashioned play with classic toys that encourage creativity. I love that the allure of Play-Doh will never get old. Anyone remember the Fun Factory?

The sets are recommended for kids 3 and up, but in my opinion, I’d push that age range to whenever kids “get it.” I know some parents might think of Play-Doh, as one of “those” toys, but really, if the kids get it, then it’s much more fun for everyone.

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The Play-Doh Burger Builder can be found at toys stores and will retail for $15.99.

In addition to the new Burger Builder set, Play-Doh has rolled out the Spaghetti Factory where, you guessed it: kids can create a spectrum of noodles, meatballs and even shrimp. And for all all the budding Star Wars Fans, keep your eyes out for the R2-D2 playset.

But, Happy Friday, I’ve got the Play-Doh Burger Builder playset for one of you!

Want it?
Just tell me any of the items that you can make with the Burger Builder!

Share this giveaway for extra entries. Please comment below for each entry! This giveaway ends on 9/18.