Mookie - First Swingball

Swingball is a classic game, great for small spaces and young kids learning hand-eye co-ordination.  The Mookie First Swingball is taimed at younger, smaller players – the manufacturer's recommended age is 3+ years. It comes in a handy carrycase-come-base and is lightweight making it something that even younger children are happy to help carry over the park. It is easy to assemble and although plastic, the pieces seem durable and well made.

Both Sandy (five) and Betty (two) found it tricky to hit the ball and it did have a tendency to get tangled up around the pole. We decided that perhaps they were too young to play together on their own so it was time for mum and dad to show them how it was done. Rather embarrassingly we hardly got off to a roaring start either. By now a couple of other children (aged six and four) had come over to see if they could have a go. They had a bit more success than us but similarly rallies tended to be very short and more time seemed to be spent untangling the string from around the pole.

So I like the idea of Mookie First Swingball but I don't think the swing mechanism on this product works as well as it should.  It is very unforgiving.  A slight miss-hit and the ball and string are tangled around the pole - and let's face it with young children there are a lot of missed hits. It is a shame that this wasn't taken into account in the design of the product.

PWT rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Mookie First Swingball is available from Argos at £14.99.

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