BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00639 Andy bought a Pikachu from Build a Bear a few weeks ago, it has become his go to Stuffed Animal. This has been the year of Pokémon for him. Andy loves playing the game and with the Pokémon Battle game that we got to review a while back I’ve learned how to play and so has Eva. I was heading to bed and Allison peeked in on Andy, she had to show me how he was sleeping on top of Dave (his name for his Pikachu).

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00638 I recently pulled out my old gaming systems including the Wii U which runs old Wii games. I had Guitar Hero for the Wii and put it away when Andy was little because he kept fiddling with the guitars and pulled down the stand for them. So the game was relocated to the basement where it sat for several years. But now with the new office taking shape I wanted to bring that back up and well as my old games.  We dusted (literally) off Guitar Hero and the guitars and gave them some play time tonight. The kids were so impressed by how Mom and Dad could play the songs (easy mode). The kids gave it a try and found it difficult but wanted to keep playing. Eva’s favorite son to play is Story of My Life by Social Distortion. Andy’s is School’s Out by Alice Cooper. He’s funny because he will trash talk me about getting the high score for the song but when I say, “I’ll play that one he does not want me to take that honor away from him. He’s getting better at the gam...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00637 We received some Pokémon costumes from Disguise Inc for free to review. Opinions are our own. This past year I learned how to play Pokémon so that I could play with Andy and Eva. We are really enjoying the game. When I was asked if we would like to check out some Pokémon Costumes I was happy to do so. Disguise Inc sent us two costumes and some accessories. I decided to go with the inflatable Poke Ball adult costume. This has a special blower that inflates the costume. You can decide to allow your arms out of the costume or pull them in. It is super easy to put on and inflate. For Andy we picked the Charmander costume. We also got the Charmander accessory set that includes the Charmander Headpiece and tail. We added that to the Charmander Classic costume which had the jumpsuit and mask. Andy can then decide if he wanted to wear the Charmander mask or the Charmander headpiece. We played around with the costumes and also Andy’s new Pikachu stuffed animal. I do...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00636 Amazon has an exclusive set of Funko Pop characters of the six MCU original Avengers. The set, once fully assembled recreates the moment in The Avengers first movie where Captain America, Black Widow, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Hawkeye prepare to take on the Chitauri horde. The camera moves around the group as they check and ready their gear and put their game faces on. I have 5 of the six so far with Black Widow arriving today. The last Figure will be released on November 20th and that will be Captain America. Once all six figures are here in the house I plan to display them in my office on a lazy susan so that it can spin around and show all of the figures.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00635 I ran through Walmart on Friday morning and was checking out the toys section. There is a company called Jada that made some vey detailed miniature die cast cars from movies and tv. They had some G.I. Joe vehicles and a set of 3 Transformers. I picked up the Transformers one. It came with Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Starscream. They have pretty decent weight to them and great detail. They are now sitting on my Game Over sign on my desk.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00634 We received an African Dwarf Frog Biosphere from Froggy’s Lair for free to review. Opinions are our own. With so much uncertainty and anxiety inducing upheaval in the world around us, especially for our children, it is nice to find something that is peaceful and calming. We are now proud owners of a couple of very chill African Dwarf Frogs from Froggy’s Lair and just having them hanging out in my office has had a soothing calming effect. When the frogs arrived they were packaged very carefully. I only had to pick up a gallon of distilled purified water ($1). Do not use tap water as that will cause a chemical reaction that will cause the Biosphere not to work properly. The frogs came in a secure bag of water. We first added the bioactive sand to the bottom of the octagonal tank. Then we added the colored rocks (blue) plus some decorative rocks (so the frogs can hide). Then we added the bamboo stalk and the water. I tried pouring the water slowly so as not to...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00633 Super Impulse sent me these two World’s Smallest video games from their Tiny Arcade Series for free to play with and review. Opinions are my own. Back when I was a kid one of my favorite games on my old TI 994A computer was BurgerTime. In it you ran around as a Chef Peter Pepper and had to assemble burgers by walking across the various pieces of a burger to make them drop. At the same time Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Egg and Mr. Pickle are trying to chase you down and prevent you from assembling the burgers. You can drop them down with the layers of the burger or drop layers of the burger on them for bonus points. The game is a hard one but fun. The little video game has the classic images on the sides and on the front light up marquee. Controls are simple, up and down and you can throw pepper at your pursuers to prevent them from pestering you. With the Turtle Fighters game you get the classic cabinet look for a game that I would plunk quarter after quarter into at t...