Tuesday Tidings: The Mattel Green Lantern Blog Tour

So there I was, minding my own blogging business, when my wife called out "How would you like to be part of a blog tour?"

See, my wife's done blog tours as part of a group called Mom Central Consulting and now the moms have a counterpart: Dad Central. Well, I like blogs and I like tours, and my kids love toys, so that's how, just for today, the name of this blog is Playtime. [The tenuous link to writing is that the hero of the blog tour is a famous comic book--today we call them "graphic novels"--character. And now I get to write about him.]

Massive excitement. That was the emotion, at least among the junior members of the clan, when a huge cardboard box arrived the other day. We sliced through the tape. We pawed through the piles of brown paper. Until we came to...

The Green Lantern Colossal Cannon

Green Lantern Basic Figure Assortment

Holy smokes! (O sorry, that's a bit too Batman.)

Great galloping green toys that make a lot of noise! Like, realistic gun noise with flashing lights. And shooting projectiles. (In a pacifist home, no less. Now they're bound to join the army!)

Hal Jordan at 4
"This is what you get for taking away my mask, Dad."

The Green Lantern Colossal Cannon was a massive hit, its "rat-a-tats" punctuated by cries of "awesome," and "we really get to keep this?" At first, there were dire parental warnings, dramatized by reading the safety information on the packaging, about taking out an eye or several--and I still wouldn't fire pointblank. But the reality is that the plastic projectiles feel a bit like being brushed by a fly, at least from ten feet distance. (Yes, I bravely stepped into the line of fire to test this.)

Cannon Fodder

The only downside, according to my 8-year-old, is that the projectiles are hard to find once they've strafed the living room. (God forbid you should shoot them in a grass-centric yard. Or at least pray that your grass turns brown (red might be even better) so you'll have a fighting chance of spotting the little flyers. (They're about the size of a half dollar, but much, much lighter.)

How's this for an aloha?

I expected the 4-year-old to be all over the Green Lantern figure--we received the Hal Jordan figure, with a Green Lantern ring of power and an arm-fitting saw. But the cannon's magic proved too compelling. Poor Hal languishes as yet, but I'm sure his day will come. (Probably when we've lost all the cannon projectiles.)

Sending Buzz Lightyear to infinity and beyond

The toys were well made and attractively packaged. I would recommend them to the 4-8 set, although older kids would probably also enjoy dashing about, pumping plastic into the enemy, and throwing themselves into trenches to avoid capture with the cannon.

And, by June 17th, when the movie Green Lantern opens, these toys are going to be all the rage. You can find them at Mattel or at a toy store near you.

Disclaimer: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Mattel, and received Green Lantern toys to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.