Bakugan Starter Pack

Durability:2.0 out of 5 stars Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars 

MODERN DAY GAME OF MARBLES The Bakugan-Mania is here. I had no idea what my daugh­ter was talk­ing about since she spoke a mile-a-minute about what the lat­est craze in children’s toys. These items are in extremely high demand and are sim­i­lar in genre to Poke­mon cards, Yu-Gi-Yo, and Digi­mon. The char­ac­ters appear to be a spin off from Japan­ese anime, in my per­cep­tion. What are Baku­gan? They are action fig­ures that are mor­phed from small plas­tic mar­bles, based upon a tele­vi­sion show on the Car­toon Net­work. Each fig­ure comes with a metal­lic card that has a point value. A point value is also imprinted on the fig­ure. A mag­netic lock in the toy is trig­gered to open when the fig­ure is placed onto a metal­lic game card. How do you play the game? Each player starts out with 3 Baku­gan and 3 cards. Only one care can be a spe­cial abil­ity card. The youngest player starts. Depend­ing upon how many play­ers are par­tic­i­pat­ing (2–4), deter­mines where the cards are placed in the arena. When a Baku­gan is rolled and lands on a card, it opens. If the Baku­gan does not open, the player loses a turn. If 2 fig­ures land on the same card, a point total is taken to count up the power value of the Baku­gan + the value of the card. The higher sum wins the card and the fig­ure. At the end of the round, the high­est total of points wins the game. My daughter’s after-school care has an Baku­gan Class where chil­dren play in the after­noon. She is 7 years old but her friends who have it range from 6 to 10 years old. This game rep­re­sents a unique and rev­o­lu­tion­ary spin on the game of play­ing mar­bles. It is quite cre­ative and super­fi­cially com­plex to play. How­ever, many chil­dren are com­pelled to play it all over the coun­try. Edu­ca­tional value Strangely, enough, this toy has an ACTUAL edu­ca­tional value by requir­ing the play­ers to add up or sub­tract the val­ues of each figure/card. Safety and Caveats Since these are essen­tially small mar­bles, cau­tion should be exer­cised if you child has small sib­lings who may try to swal­low this toy. It is too big to fit into someone’s ear or nose; how­ever the dan­ger is acci­den­tally swal­low­ing it or aspi­ra­tion (going into the child’s air­way). You should also be aware if you have pets since it may lead to a dan­ger­ous bowel obstruc­tion if ingested/eaten by your pet. Dura­bil­ity These are rel­a­tively frag­ile items that require users to be care­ful with the mov­ing parts. Some­times, the mech­a­nisms are defected or through wear and tear may not allow the action fig­ure to open or close. Con­clu­sion This toy sys­tem is, for now, one of the hottest items in the toy world. If you are actu­ally lucky enough to find it, or will­ing to pay the pre­mium, then you should strongly con­sider get­ting it. Your child will be extremely happy.

Durability:2.0 out of 5 stars Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars Educational:1.0 out of 5 stars 

I ordered these think­ing I was get­ting the orig­i­nal starter packs but then B2s showed up in the mail. I was excited because I hadn’t seen them before & I knew my son didn’t have any of them. Then we opened the pack­age & they are sooooooo cheaply made it’s ridicu­lous. It’s as with any toy from China that is in demand, they knew it was a hot item & went cheap on us mak­ing it so we’d have to get more. If your child is into Baku­gan go on ebay & look up the Series 1 or 2 reg­u­lar small mar­bles. They aren’t that expen­sive at the time of writ­ing this because the major­ity of peo­ple want the high num­ber Gs which the B2s do have. But my son is 5 1/2 & could care less about the Gs. Yes, he knows what they are & we play the game but he cares more about the char­ac­ter mar­ble he has & which one goes accord­ing to the car­toon at the time. I have got­ten every char­ac­ter off of ebay. .. Christ­mas is coming…and I have not been dis­ap­pointed in ONE of the series 1 or 2 mar­bles. They are awe­some. So, just find out which ones your child wants look them up & order from there. My son has been play­ing non-stop with the series 1 & 2 mar­bles since September(learned about this on the school bus) & they still open & shut awe­somely. Got the B2s about a month and a half ago & they don’t open all the way or their legs are loose. Skyress is an absolute pain in the tush to close. CRAP! So, good luck I know we get what we can for our kids & this is a good price right now com­pared to ebay ($18 at time of writ­ing this). Just had to send this out so you’d know what I learned!