Sights of particular interest include Daisy Cottage, which has been given a spruce up this month. A new version of the popular dolls’ house is now available and should be pleasing to those who prefer modest, single-storey accommodation.

Daisy Cottage is fresh and spring-like, in pink and yellow pastel colours with a daisy motif, and also includes a spacious attic. An interesting circular roof window lets children peep in and see what the dolls (sold separately) are up to, or both roof panels can be removed for easy access to the attic.

It may be small, but it has everything that a doll would need, thanks to the included furniture pack, which has chunky wooden pieces of painted furniture for the living room, bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. It all matches the pink polka dot interior perfectly and is included in the price of around £70.

There’s a new house on the lane too; Bella’s House is a larger house with accommodation on two floors, and an attic too. It’s painted a soft pink colour and decorated with roses, including on the little awning over the front door. Pretty shutters at the windows open and close, and the windows can be opened too.

Fully furnished with brightly-coloured wooden furniture, Bella’s House is priced around £95.

Part of the Horrible Science range, which is based on a bestselling series of books by Nick Arnold, this kit is for terrible 10-year-olds upwards.

The 10 experiments provided include instructions and materials for making your own vile vomit substance, creating slime, creating fake poo or startling unsuspecting guests with a cockroach embedded in a bar of soap.

The contents of the kit include a plastic stomach, goggles, a poo mould, a fart pot, green food colouring, vinegar, a plastic cockroach and loads more.

There’s also a 36-page notebook so that children can jot down details of their experiments, or perhaps document the nervous breakdown of various family members, and the price for the kit is around £15.99.

With 100 pieces, the ThunderCats Glow in the Dark Puzzle not only makes a busy picture of Lion-O and the rest of the gang (as well as arch enemy Mumm-Ra), but once it is all put together the cats begin glowing, helping you to see them as well in the dark as they can see you.

With the Duo Puzzle you get two puzzles for the price of one. A smaller 70-piece puzzle shows the evil side of ThunderCats; all the baddies are lined up and looking villainous. The 100-piece puzzle, meanwhile, features Lion-O, Cheetara and Tygra getting ready to defeat the baddies.

Both new puzzles from Jumbo are priced around £6.99.

The Binoculars, Microscope and Dynamo Torch that make up the range will educate and illuminate (literally, in the case of the torch and microscope), bringing the natural world closer than ever before.

Three lucky winners will each win all three of the new Outdoor Adventure products (total value around £26) in our new competition.

To be entered into the prize draw, just email us with the answer to the easy question below. All correct entries will be entered into the prize draw.

Question: Which of these is not included in Brainstorm’s Outdoor Adventure range?
A – Microscope
B – Telescope
C – Binoculars

Send your answers to adventure [at] toytalk.co.uk, and remember to include your name and address (only one entry per person please). The first three correct entries drawn at random will win.

Automated entries, bulk entries and third party entries will be disqualified.

The closing date for entries is Friday, June 8, 2012.

Good luck!

These super-bouncy, brightly coloured cases transform balloons into a hugely entertaining cross between a ball and a balloon. Bounce them, swat them, throw them, catch them, the potential for fun is almost endless.

We have three of the fantastic 46cm Mega Ballzoons (usually priced around £14.99) to give away in our new competition.

To enter, just send us the answer to the question below. All correct entries will be entered into the prize draw.

Question: How big is a Mega Ballzoon?
A – 6cm
B – 16cm
C – 46cm

Send your answers to ballzoons [at] toytalk.co.uk, and remember to include your name and address (only one entry per person please). The first three correct entries drawn at random will win.

Automated entries, bulk entries and third party entries will be disqualified.

The closing date for entries is Friday, June 8, 2012.

For stockists call John Adams on 01480 414361.

Good luck!

With only so much garden space, however, choosing outdoor toys should be a carefully-thought out process. To help you with this, we’ve had a good look at all the products on the market and come up with a list of the best.

In alphabetical order, our pick of the best outdoor toys is as follows…

Anchors Away Water Table
Little Tikes
Making a splash in the garden is great fun with a water table and this one has a piratical twist. There are all kinds of fun water features and play opportunities.
The full story…

Ballzoons
John Adams
A great new spin on balls and ballons, Ballzoons are the must-have accessory for beach and garden this summer.
Read our full review here…

Bugz Kites
Brookite
Britain’s oldest kite manufacturer knows exactly how to produce these traditional and much-loved toys and these latest bug-themed models are real eye-catchers.
The full story…

Gardening sets
Faber Castell
Providing both indoor and outdoor entertainment, these gardening tools have to be decorated first and can then be used by helpful children to get the garden looking nice for summer.
The full story…

Lawnmower
ELC
Real lawnmowers are no fun at all, but when pushed around the garden by young children, these sturdy plastic lawnmowers make a realistic sound and spin the pieces of plastic grass inside the see-through plastic box.
Read our full review here…

Nerf range
Hasbro
The extensive Nerf range allows children to play shooting games with a wide range of weapons which fire soft foam darts.
The full story…

Swingball
Mookie Toys
A classic garden toy, great for developing hand-eye coordination and heaps of fun. You can also get a Tailball variant of the game, which features a fast ball with a streaming tail.
The full story…

Water Park
Haba
A brilliant way for kids to explore, imagine and build, this system encourages youngsters to construct complex water courses from a variety of pieces.
The full story…

Wooden Lidded Sandpit
TP Toys
Proudly representing all sandpits, this new offering is the perfect way to introduce little ones to the joys of sand-based play in the garden.
The full story…

The Eezy Peezy Monkey Bar, priced around £99.99, is intended for use by up to two children at once, with a maximum load bearing of 70kg.

Easy to assemble, the sturdy frame should keep little mountaineers (and monkeys) entertained for hours.

Bouncing tots can also burn off some energy on the new SurroundSafe Big Bouncer. The built-in safety net should stop little ones from bouncing into next door’s garden, while the zip door makes it easy to get in and out.

For ages two to five, the trampoline has a diameter of 183cm and is priced around £150.

The set comes with implements including watering can, fork, trowel, and secateurs, as well as a selection of plant pots and a big bucket to carry everything in.

The Miniland Garden Kit is priced around £14.

You can also buy standalone tools in the Miniland range, in a variety of colours. Rake, spade, flour shovel, sieve, mason’s trowel, bucket and trowel are all available in red, yellow, green or blue. Prices range from around 90p to around £3.99.

Durability:

The Max Force range, from Jakks Pacific, uses water-softened paper pellets as ammunition. A selection of weapons is available and we looked at the Maximiser 60 (around £14.99) and Shadow Hawk 100 (around £39.99).

Both shooters look impressive and are sturdily built. There’s a sense of solidity here, and an impression that these will be durable toys.

After this good first impression, however, it is a disappointment to find that, although these shooters have traditional pistol grips, they do not have triggers. Firing is achieved by pulling back and releasing a spring-loaded firing mechanism.

Before loading up your shooters, you also need to soak the pellets in water (they won’t fire if they haven’t been soaked). This doesn’t take long, and actually adds a little to the sense of expectancy, but it’s easy to see how kids might prefer a quicker and easier loading system.

Once loaded up, the Maximiser 60 promises to deliver its pellets up to a range of 60 feet. The problem is that the firing mechanism adds so much wobble when you fire that accuracy goes right out of the window.

Our testers found this frustrating, as they could never be sure of hitting their target.

Switching to the Shadow Hawk 100, accuracy improved thanks a more natural, pump-action mechanism, but it would still be preferable to use the pump action merely to prime the shooter and then fire with a trigger.

Reloading is accomplished via a very sturdy bolt action, which advances the pellet cartridge each time it is used. Less sturdy were the two supporting feet, which snapped off almost immediately.

The pellets themselves leave a satisfying splat where they hit, and we found that even when they hit a living target they did not cause any pain (protective glasses are included to make sure eyes are kept safe).

This is therefore a bit of a frustrating range of toys. They are mostly solid, well made and attract young boys like a bag of gobstoppers, but the firing mechanism is just too awkward and introduces so much inaccuracy it spoils the fun.

Add a simple trigger (even at the risk of raising the price) and this would become an altogether more satisfying range.

Approx. price: £14.99/£39.99

Age range: 8+

Website: www.maxforcetoys.com

Using the pump-action nozzle, you can hydrate friends and family from a range of 35 feet. The backpack unit holds one litre of water, which should be enough for around 60 squirts before refilling from a tap or hose. You can choose between a single or triple stream of water, depending on how dehydrated your target is.

The set can also be used for role-play fun even without the water (this is what we would recommend if you want to use it indoors!).

Suitable for ages five and up, the Super Soaking Fire Hose is priced around £12.99.