Casdon Joseph Joseph Extend Review

Reviewed by Jane

This toy arrived safely and undamaged in its own box within a cardboard package. All the items inside the box were in individual plastic bags. This is unnecessary in this day and age when we are so keen to recycle and reduce use of plastics. The toy parts are all plastic themselves so can easily be washed if needed so the plastic bags are not needed. However, once you have removed everything from their plastic bags, you can easily see what is there. The washing bowl and draining rack set are styled as Joseph Joseph kitchen ware with a good size children’s washing up bowl in lime green and in the Joseph Joseph plastic which is a thick plastic so it is just a mini version of the Wash&Drain washing -up bowl for the kitchen. Also, there is the mini version of the extend expandable dish drainer Joseph Joseph sell for kitchens which fits the washing up bowl and drainage rack. In the same high-quality plastic in turquoise is the water pump tap, soap dispenser, cutlery rack and a clean tech washing up brush again very similar to the adult version. There is a water storage container which fits below the washing up bowl in the draining set and the water pump tap fits into this, so the water is drawn up the tap when the tap is pumped up and down and out of the tap into the washing up bowl.

My grandchild found the tap pump a little hard to begin with but once shown what to do quickly got to grips with it though a little frustrated how little water comes out each time however from my point of view less water is not a bad thing! The remaining items in the toy set are the cutlery and crockery. There as 2 sets of plates, mugs, spoons, forks, and knives. These are not of the same quality of plastic as the rest of the set, but this is due to the fact these can change colour. Most of the information/instructions imply that all you need to do to get these cutlery and crockery to change colour is to pour water on them. This is not the case and warm water about 30 degrees Celcius is needed for the plates to go from pink to white and the cutlery to go from blue to a very pale blue and the mugs from yellow to almost white. The instructions are basic, but most is pretty obvious apart from the colour change. The diagram regarding the colour change indicates that about 30 degrees Celcius there is a colour change in the plate. In extremely small print it suggests in order to get a better colour change place the cutlery and crockery into the fridge for 5 minutes. (These instructions are then repeated in 13 other languages). I followed these instructions and we tried washing the plate with the tap water in the pump and no colour change occurred. However, when I used the hot water from the tap in the kitchen the colour change occurred. The colour change is a good idea but this needs to occur at a lower temperature for young children. I did try it by assembling the water storage with warm water and it did work but not for long as the water got cold quite quickly.

Despite this, it is a lovely idea and I like the fact the dish rack floor folds up when not in use so it is easier to store. My grandchild enjoyed washing his plates whilst I was washing some pans and luckily had a waterproof apron on as water went everywhere. He is just three so I think it would work very well for slightly older children who would also find the water pump tap easy to use. It is great to have a plug at the bottom of the washing up bowl so the water can be recycling but you need to make sure the bowl is not full of water as the water storage container under the bowl can only contain 250ml of water!

An ideal Christmas gift for a child over 3 and most children enjoy playing with water. This toy is currently on sale at Smythstoys.com for £10 cheaper than its recommended retail price so is definitely worth buying now for Christmas.

Rating: 4.5/5

RRP: £24.99

This product can be purchased from Smiths Toys here.