Arts Reviews

My wife bought this for her 7 year old nephew. All of the kids played with it on Thanksgiving Day for a few hours. Squirting camera, false teeth, whoopee cushion and hand buzzer. How could kids not get a kick out of these items. It actually took the kids' attention off of television for a few hours. You could probably get all of the items cheaper in one of those toy stores that sell these items individually but it is nice to get them in one box. We are getting one for this Christmas.

*Negative rating*

Magnetix Xtreme Combo Flashing Lights Castle
Magnetix Xtreme Combo Flying Saucer

A toddler named Kenneth Sweet, Jr. died on November 24, 2004. These two toys had been given as gifts to an older boy in the family's home just 10 days earlier. The Kroger Co., which owns Smith's Food & Drug, Fred Meyer and other stores across the United States, has voluntarily recalled Magnetix products from their shelves. In March, 2006 another boy, this time a pre-school child, almost died from swallowing magnets from a building set. The King County WA Medical Examiner has issued a warning about Magnetix - http://komo1000news.com/stories/42442.htm.

There are several tiny cylindrical magnets in each of the flat pieces of many toys in Rose Art's "Magnetix" line, including the flat pieces (triangles and squares) in "Magnetix X-Treme Combo 250 Piece Case: Triangles, Squares & Bars".

There may be a danger of these tiny magnets coming loose. Serious health risks are posed by "multiple magnet ingestion"*. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a statement saying that the agency is currently conducting a serious investigation.

* "Don't Swallow Your Magnets!
A recent article in Radiology alerts parents to the swallowing of magnets. "The problem is not the toxicity of the magnets, but rather the possibility that two or more magnets can attract each other through adjacent intestinal walls and become lodged there indefinitely. Over time, the magnets can perforate the intestinal walls." Check it out here http://www.magneticmicrosphere.com/no_swallow.htm.

My 8 year old daughter loves these! She is able to build more complex shapes and designs. I would not recommend them for someone younger unless they have a lot of patience as it takes quite a bit of time to get the pieces aligned to build something elaborate. The different shaped pieces have made building more interesting for my daughter.

I have triplet granddaughters - age 4 - and they love this! Add a cookie sheets and it can keep them occupied for quite awhile. Keeping the balls from getting lost is the only problem.

It's stores easily and with the case, keeping all of the little parts together is easy.

This is a tough puzzle, fun for the whole family. If you have someone that enjoys difficult puzzles this one is pretty cool.

This toy absouloutly SUCKS! It's so lame.and the paint is ugly.Pardon my french. by samiangel123.he he

My son loves the lights & music and of course making art withthe paints. Wish it came with double the paper & paints but he can play with this for hours!!!

I have two children 4 and eight they both loved it. The whole family was around the island watching as we all created different pictures. My only mistake was not buying the extra paper when I purchased the toy. My husband and the children played for over an hour. We were forced to stopped because we ran out of paper. It is a little difficult to wash, the paint runs down the sides. I would still not hesitate to recommend. We had a blast and it was a great way to spend family time together.

I do not remember why I missed "Dark Angel" when it originally aired, but I have made up for that big mistake by having both seasons on DVD. The story, developed by James Cameron, was set in Seattle, Washington, in the year 2019, which is after "The Pulse," an electromagnetic bomb that basically pushed reset on the United States. However, that is only the setting, because the star is Jessica Alba as Max Guevera, who at first glance has a day job as a bike courier, and at second glance works as a cat burglar at night, bit at third glance and closer examination turns out to be a genetically enhanced superhuman created by the government who escaped from a military training school ten years earlier.

Alba was truly stunning as Max, able to play hard, soft, or whatever the scene demands. Because of her striking looks, which come from a Mexican father and a mother of French and Danish descent, Alba has become the poster girl for the word "exotic" in the dictionary. Then again, she has also been the poster girl for "Sin City," "Into the Blue," "The Fantastic Four," "Honey, and "The Sleeping Dictionary" (i.e., for every film in which she has starred). Part of her appeal is that to date she has avoided doing nude scenes (Nancy Callahan in "Sin City" always danced topless in Frank Miller's graphic novels, but not Alba in the movie), which I can argue actually adds to her sensuality.

That brings us to the 3" "Dark Angel" Max X5-452 Minimates Action Figure. As fans of the series all know, "X5" was the series of genetically engineered humans that Max belonged to and her designation "452" is said "Four-Five-Two" (No, you do not get to see the bar code on the back of her neck because her hair is down and you cannot see the back of her neck). The figure has fourteen points of articulation, but you are rather limited in how you make Max strike a pose if you want her to stand upright. I bought this as a gift for my wife so that Max could guard her computer at work (there is not a "Eyes Only" companion minimate that she might have preferred).

The downside to the figure is that if you did not know this was Max from "Dark Angel" I think that very few people would ever recognize it. She is wearing her black cat burglar outfit, but I do not remember the white stitching standing out so much on the vest. The hair does not particularly remind me of Alba, although I do get a sense of how they were trying to capture her eyes. So it is more the idea than the execution that is appealing here. If you want something more realistic, then you have a trio of 7" action figures of Alba to track down with the "Season 1 Max & Ninja 600 Bike," "Dark Angel 'Jam Pony' Max," and "Dark Angel Season 2 Max." Or you can pass go and go for her "Sin City" Nancy action figure.