Enjoy Heroes of the City – giveaway

I’ve been seeing Heroes of the City around a fair bit recently online, so when the offer to review a pack came up, I was interested to find out more.

Heroes of the City was created in Sweden as a tv cartoon series about Paulie the Police car and Fiona the fire engine coming to the rescue in their town.  We received a dvd, hardback book and die cast cars of the heroes themselves – all aimed at age 2-7 years.  Of course N was really pleased when he opened the parcel up.  The vehicles had to be removed straight away and played with.

N enjoyed watching the dvd and we’ve had to read the book several times – I’m thinking N now fancies taking to the skies in a hot air balloon like Calamity Crow.  Although the book and dvd are in English, there are a couple of references to foods that are less well known in the UK (unless you’re an Ikea devotee – I used to love their cinnamon rolls!).  This doesn’t seem to put N off at all – he just likes the story and doesn’t worry about details, so no questions asked in this book.  The book feels substantial as it’s A4, with a soft padded cover, and decent thickness to the pages, so should last with a preschooler using it.

Compared to other tv shows we’ve seen, Heroes of the City is really gentle and calming.  No tearing around all over the place, so it should be safe to watch without children getting over excited.  The stories always emphasize friendships and how characters help each other out.  N enjoyed watching it, and has asked for the dvd on a few times since we’ve received it.

The one thing I’d prefer would be if the music was a bit more bold – it’s very gentle and not very like children’s tv jingles that you’d end up singing all day at work after your child watches programmes in the morning (not that N does of course…hmmm!).  I’m not sure it’s a tune that N would learn particularly quickly where others he picks up quickly.  Obviously that unlikely to be something that N notices or is concerned about, I just like hearing him singing along to tunes.

Along with the books, toys and show, there’s a Heroes of the City app available on App store or Google play.  N’s not really big on apps on the phone, but I’ve got a new tablet with Heroes of the City downloaded and he really likes playing that one before we get up in the morning.

This app incorporates movies and games, plus children can gain trophies for each level they achieve on the games, so it encourages children to keep trying to progress and unlock the secret surprise.  So far we’ve only touched on the games as that’s what interests us but there’re the 6 hours of cartoon also to entertain if required.  On the free version of the app, there’s an hour long movie included as well as the 9 games.

The games are a mix of educational with matching pairs, solving problems like building train tracks and jigsaw puzzles and a paint option.  There’s also the enjoyment based games including ‘bop the moles’.  The games really allow children across the target age range to learn and move up the levels as they progress which I like.

I’m also running a competition with Heroes of the City where one lucky person will win a book/dvd/toys pack similar to the one we received above.  You just need to enter the rafflecopter below by doing which tasks you want, and then clicking back on the enter button.  Please note the t&c within the rafflecopter widget before entering.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Disclosure: We received a set from Heroes of the City and a copy of the app to review.  All opnions and words are my own.