Howdy folks!

Today was an exciting day for our 5 year old preschooler son, whom I will lovingly refer to here as “Smarty Pants.” A big package arrived in the mail for him… a Green Lantern Colossal Cannon and an action figure from the Green Lantern movie.

It was a big hit, let me tell you.

When Dad Central Consulting told me they would be sending me some Green Lantern items to review, including a “Colossal Cannon,” I didn’t take the term “Colossal” too literally… but man, it really is colossal! My first thought was, “My wife is going to kill me!” (we don’t buy a lot of big-size toys that shoot stuff… but hey, for The Green Lantern you have to make an exception, right?)

And, seeing how excited Smarty Pants was about it, my inner child took over and I started unpacking it as quickly as Smarty Pants was. What was that I said about my wife?

The Package

My first thought was that it seemed a lot sturdier than most plastic toys these days. We don’t buy a lot of plastic toys, mainly because they tend to break so easily, but the Colossal Cannon is very solid and looks to be well made. It also worked fine through hours of use by Smarty Pants and two of his friends (also boys)… a test where many other plastic toys have faltered.

My son’s reaction on unpacking it was, “Cool!” and, “This is the best toy ever!’

After I took a picture, Smarty Pants wanted to take one too.

Unpacking the goods

The Action Figure

Showing his excitement

With that, we headed to the hallway to see what this puppy could do. We loaded it up with the supplied 10 discs, and fired away. It was easy enough to use, and the discs flew in a straight path about 20 feet, and quite quickly too.

Loading it up

Two of Smarty Pants’ friends came by, and were equally enthralled. They had a lot of fun with it, and everyone thought it was the coolest thing ever. What they liked the most was that it can rapid-fire all the discs… you just load them all in, and keep pressing the trigger to fire them all in succession. You don’t need to pause to reload between discs or reset anything. You only have to reload once you’ve shot all 10 discs.

Having fun

For Smarty Pants, who just turned 5, it took a bit of a knack to get the rapid-fire down, but one of his 7-year-old friends was able to do it with no problems right off the bat. I, of course, was the record holder for shooting all 10 discs the fastest. Hehe.

The action figure was a big hit too… so much so that one of Smarty Pants’ friends already asked if he can borrow it over night. Its at the friends’ place now, and it was the last thing that Smarty Pants mentioned before going to bed tonight. Hopefully we’ll get it back tomorrow!

Judging from that smile... I think he likes it... just a hunch

My recommendation – if you’re looking for a cool toy that shoots stuff…get it! The rapid-fire aspect of it is very cool. But maybe ask your parents to buy it for your kid, so that you can blame it on them when your wife comes home

Return to Parenting – The Dad Jam Home.

Note: 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.

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