Review: Badge it!

Well winter is well and truly on the way now, and that means one thing in the James household. The prospect of having to entertain the kids/monkeys when we're stuck inside sheltering from the Rain. My daughter Iola loves all things craft so when I was contacted by Bandai and offered the chance to review Badge It! I jumped at the chance. Bandai are an established company founded in 1950 which have brought us such infamous toys such a Power Rangers  and Ben 10

We have tried a couple of cheap badge making kits in the past, which involved making 'badges' out of plaster of paris. These are messy to make( which can be ok if you like messy play) and very fragile, so they don't usually last five minutes. Badge It! is different, it gives you the chance to make genuine metal badges, with real ease and no mess. 

Did I also mention that it's affordable too! For only £20, Badge it! can be yours. It was time to see if Badge it got the James family stamp of approval.

The package arrived on the weekend and as luck would have it, Sunday turned out to be a Rotten Welsh Wet Autumn day so it gave us the perfect chance to get Badge It! out. My daughter was itching to get started which is always a good sign. Not only were we provided with Badge It! starter kit but we also lucky enough to receive a free Badge It! 30pk Refill Kit which is available from Bandai for a very reasonable £9.00

 The Badge It! starter kit comes with the Badgemaker and materials to make 15 badges. It is not suitable for kids under 36 months so we left my 24 month son out of the equation. Iola was more than happy with this.

I Badge It! Badgemaker is quite compact which is good news as my little house doesn't have a lot of room. I wasn't looking forward to reading the instructions as I can be a bit of an instructaphobe-Is that even a word! These are usually left with daddy but he was otherwise engaged watching the rugby. The instructions were remarkably easy to follow which was good news. 

There were a collection of pretty pre cut designs to choose from, so Iola set about making her badge which was really easy. I have to admit that our first effort didn't work as I don't think we screwed the maker into place properly. It does warn you about this on the instructions but I guess that was me rushing and not supervising Iola adequately. The second attempt was really successful and we had our own homemade badge which is just the same as the real thing, complete with safety pin. 

I am sure you agree that they look pretty professional and Iola was really chuffed with them. 

We then got a little bit more adventurous and decided to make Daddy James a badge from a picture of a 70's rugby player in a newspaper. One of the big bonuses of the Badge It! maker is that you can make a badge out of any design you want, simply by finding a picture and cutting it out with the template. This is our effort which Daddy James was very pleased with

Overall the Badge It! Badge Maker got a big thumbs up from the James household, and Iola is asking me everyday to make badges! The quality product that you make yourself is really great, and it is so easy to use! I also think that it is really good value and would make an excellent gift for most children/teenagers. 

Badge It! Badge Makers are recommended for those aged 6 and above. You can check out and buy this fabulous item here

* Disclosure, I was provided with the Badge It! Badge Maker and Refill set free of charge. I was not told what to write and all opinions in this review are honest.