The TV show is hugely successful with children and as such there are a wide variety of Bob the Builder toys available to buy.  Your little ones can have no end of fun acting out their favourite TV show moments as well as practising their yet to be learned DIY skills! Amazon are currently offering over 400 items so you can see the popularity and diversity of the toy range.

For what age group are they suitable?

From 3 years old.

What toys and merchandise does the range include?

The favourite toys in this huge range are undoubtedly the action figures and vehicles. There are toy replicas of Bob, Wendy and numerous other characters from the show and each piece of construction machinery has its own toy version.

To widen your collection you can then choose from die cast models, playsets, role play toys, games, puzzles, soft toys, outdoor toys, interactive toys, drawing and craft items, furniture and furnishings, tableware and school items.

Why not get a Bob The Builder workbench for your little boy and one of the many toy kitchens for your little girl and they can have some great role play fun together. He can fix something in the kitchen while she makes him a cup of tea!

How much do these toys cost?

A single plastic figure starts at around £2.50 although they seem to be quite hard to find.  A set of five plastic figures sells for approx. £12 with beanie versions costing £6 each.

There are two types of larger vehicles to choose from – the Bob The Builder friction toys cost about £8 and the talking versions of these machinery characters cost around £11. Their smaller die cast counterparts (the Bob The Builder take along toys) cost from £4.

Which are the best selling toys?

By far the best selling toys are the friction powered construction machinery characters, specifically Scoop, Muck, Roley and Lofty.

Which are the worst rated toys?

As I find with many TV or movie toys, the playsets are never well received.  For Bob The Builder, his Snap Trax Garage playset and Sunflower Valley Drive & Build playset and not considered good value for money.  For the price of a playset you can get a nice collection of the core vehicles and figures so that your little ones can have more fun making up their own games.

What do real people think?

The following comments are taken from real reviews on Amazon.co.uk

“This toy is worth the money.”

“They have been played with a LOT and they really do last well.”

So if you have a Bob The Builder toy fan, they won’t be disappointed to receive an item from this toy range.

Part of this boys’ toys range are Bob The Builder games and puzzles and here is a short summary of the top 10 choices available:

Jigsaw Puzzles (RRP from £5) – there are so many Bob The Builder puzzles to choose from, the choice is overwhelming. There are some in tins, some in boxes, there are some with two or more in a box, some are wooden, some are for the floor – see what I mean! They range from 12 to 42 pieces and cost upwards of £5.

8 Piece Wooden Playtray (RRP £8) –this is a simple introduction to puzzles for younger children (from aged 2). Each of the 8 wooden pieces featuring a popular character from the TV show, has to be fitted back in the right place on the playtray.

Giant 4 Game Picture Card Deck (RRP £4) – four traditional card games can be played with the 32 extra large and easy to hold cards measuring 13 x 8.3cm. The games are Matching Pairs, Snap, Old Maid and Happy Families.

Memory Game (RRP £7) – this is just a matching pairs game but nice thick cards, great artwork and easy rules, make it ideal for younger players. All of the favourite Bob The Builder characters are included on the 24 picture cards.

Shapes & Colours Game (RRP £8) – this is a game that will help encourage shape and colour recognition. Each player’s card has four shaped holes cut out of it which all must be filled correctly to win. Players throw the dice and collect pieces as shown to use to fill their board.

Brick By Brick Game (RRP £8) – a simple game where you have to help Bob build a tower, brick by brick, according to what you throw on the dice.

Character Blasters (RRP £5) – choose the Bob The Builder character you want to build, set the game’s timer and press start. You then have until the time runs out to fit the 3D puzzle pieces together. If you don’t succeed the puzzle board pops and all the pieces fly across the room.

Pressmatic (RRP £9) – this game takes me back – I didn’t know they even made these anymore. Anyway this is a normal board game where you have to take your character round the board to collect some items they have muddled up, but the dice are in a handy popping bubble in the centre of the board. They never get lost – perfect!

Uno (RRP £10) – this is the Bob The Builder version of this well known card game. The extra large cards feature all the main characters. Players have to match the colours and numbers on the cards to get rid of them and win.

Tricky Tool Box (£9) – this looks like a fun little game as you get to flick tools into Bob’s tool box as it rotates. The ‘tricky’ part is keeping them in there once you get them in as the tool box throws them out again.

If you are looking to buy a Bob The Builder vehicle, here is a quick rundown of the top 5 characters in order of popularity:

1. Scoop

Scoop is the unofficial leader of Bob’s machine gang. He is a yellow JCB and his catchphrase is “No prob, Bob!”.

If your child has to have a Scoop toy, here are your choices:

• Friction powered vehicle
• Talking vehicle
• Take along (die cast) vehicle
• Various Lego Duplo playsets
• Inflatable chair
• Scoop carry case
• Torch
• Inflatable ball pool
• VTech story & activity book
• Interchangeable flip top watch & Bob The Builder Scoop toy set
• Paint your own Scoop pottery set

2. Muck

Muck is a red bulldozer with a catchphrase of “Muck to the rescue!”. He is often in trouble for doing things without thinking.

For all the Muck fans out there, you can choose from the following toys:

• Friction powered vehicle
• Talking vehicle
• Take along (die cast) vehicle
• Lego Duplo playset
• Mega sized Muck (measuring in at 45 cm long)
• Talk ‘n’ learn Muck (teaches numbers 1 – 10, 10 colours & 10 of Bob’s tools)
• Muck & Lofty stilts

3. Roley

Roley is a green steamroller with a catchphrase of “Rock and roll!”.

If you need some steamrollering fun, try this collection of Roley toys:

• Friction powered vehicle
• Talking vehicle
• Take along (die cast) vehicle

4. Lofty

Lofty is a shy, blue crane with a catchphrase of “Uh … yeah, I think so!”.

To start or extend your collection of Lofty toys, check out this little selection:

• Friction powered vehicle
• Talking vehicle
• Take along (die cast) vehicle
• Lego Duplo playset
• Muck & Lofty stilts

5. Dizzy

Dizzy is a young, orange concrete mixer. She is very excitable and has a catchphrase of “Brilliant!”.

To complete your Bob The Builder character toys collection, don’t miss these Dizzy heights:

• Pull back vehicle
• Talking vehicle
• Take along (die cast) vehicle
• Lego Duplo playset
• VTech Dizzy’s Picture Mixer (a press & guess game)

With plenty of fairly cheap toys to choose from you should not be stuck for ideas to complete your little one’s Bob The Builder toy collection.

Online Games
Children love to play free games online and there are numerous Bob The Builder games to amuse them while teaching them a few keyboard and mouse skills along the way.

On BobTheBuilder.com there are a large variety of games split into the following types:

•    Racing & Mazes (Mountain Scrambler, Packers’ Pick Up, Muck’s Maze, Scrambler’s Ramble)
•    Puzzles (including Jigsaws, Slider Puzzles and Noughts & Crosses)
•    Building & Painting (Paint The Gang, Design A House, Bob’s Pipe Game)
•    Matching (Matching Game & Bob’s Tool Shed)
•    Counting (Snowball Spud)

Beware though this site makes some annoying machinery noises every few seconds to keep you in the Bob The Builder building mood!

The BBC website has no such annoying noises but has a smaller selection of online games.

Here you can choose from:

•    Sunflower Park – where you help Bob build a playground.
•    Relay Race – where you have to help Bob find his lost spanner in the village.
•    Apple Antics – Spud is throwing apples from the trees and you have to catch them.
•    Bobsville Build – where you get to help Bob and his team move to Sunflower Valley.

For a more commercial online game head over to GameHouse.com for their ‘Bob The Builder Can-Do Carnival’ game.

There is a free trial of this game you can download or you can pay to upgrade to the full version. The game involves helping Bob build his own carnival. You have to help him plan the job, choose the materials, pick the right tools and clean up afterwards in a series of games that are both fun and creative.

Not quite a game, but for younger fans try these ‘projects‘:

•    Build A Playground
•    Mend A Road
•    Build A Fountain

Here your children have to go through a series of tasks to complete the overall project.  In the ‘Build A Playground’ project they have to dig a hole, fill in the sand, put up a sign etc. They have to follow Bob’s instructions and click on the right machine so that it performs the right action.

Printable Colouring Sheets

Children love to colour and what better pictures than their very own favourite characters from their favourite cartoon.

BobTheBuilder.com has many colouring sheets of Bob himself and all the most popular machines.

The BBC website has a selection of the human characters but no machines.

Printable Activity Sheets

If your children are not into colouring then print them off some of these puzzles, mazes and matching activities.

Other Printables

Brighten up your little one’s bedroom walls or doors with some Bob The Builder pictures by printing off these free posters of the most popular characters.

Other Online Activities

You can Meet The Team and find out some fun facts and hear sound effects of the most popular characters.

Read an Online Story with these great little Bob The Builder books full of pictures.

Craft Activities

Head back to the BBC website for a selection of Bob The Builder craft tasks – you can choose from making a card, a finger puppet or a drum kit.

There are also some nice step by step instructions on BobTheBuilder.com of how to make homemade dough, a shoebox town and sock puppets.

Outdoor Activities

If the weather is on your side, get your little ones outdoors for some Bob The Builder fun. Download instructions for the following activities: Painter, Muck May I? game and a Nature Collage.

And try ‘I Spy’ or ‘Construction Site’ games if you’re on the go and need to keep your children entertained.

Theme Song

If your little ones are anything like mine, then a favourite music activity is to listen to the theme song over and over again until you (not them!) want to scream! If you’re prone to headaches, don’t check this out!

I hope this gives you a few ideas of free Bob The Builder games and activities you can try with the click of a few buttons!

Each Bob The Builder set comes with a posable Bob the Builder figure, bricks, cement, and all the tools you need to build away. Children will have to watch out for the adults taking over this fun and educational toy.

Instructions are included to teach you how to build anything from walls to more advanced structures or you can just build whatever pops into your imagination. The bricks are reusable, so you can create new structures over and over again. You have to mix up play ‘cement’ to use to stick your bricks together and you spread it on with the included trowel. This cement isn’t real so is totally safe and sticks the bricks together long enough for you to get bored with your creation – you then just soak it in water and the cement dissolves.

Two sets are currently available – a 30 brick set costing around £10 or a 50 brick set for £15.

If you want more bricks and mortar, both are available to buy separately for about £5.

This Bob The Builder toy comes with:

•  30/50 real clay bricks
•  Cement
•  Wooden trowel
•  Wipe clean play mat
•  Base board
•  Mixing bowl
•  Cloth
•  Building plans
•  8 cm articulated Bob the Builder figure

What we liked …

• The included instructions are for a clock tower which was pretty straight forward.
• Mixing the cement was easy.
• It encourages your child to think about how buildings are constructed.
• The instructions teach show you how bricks are laid in real life which is a good skill to know.
• This is not just a stacking bricks game.
• The possibilities for building different structures are endless.
• Hands-on children will have great fun with this set.
• The real feel of the bricks makes a nice change from plastic.
• Although the majority of the bricks are rectangular, like normal bricks, there are also some more interesting shapes included to play about with.
• Girls loved this just as much as boys.
• It sounds too easy to “just soak in water and use again” but amazingly it does what it says on the tin.
• Everything you need is included other than water.

What we didn’t like ….

• The amount of cement given is only sufficient for two sessions.
• There are only enough bricks to make the clock tower. If you want to create a house or other structure buy the larger set of 50 bricks or even the extra set of bricks.
• It is quite fiddly so is probably more suitable to older children.  The Bob The Builder branding may put older children off using it but it would probably be more up their street. 7+ seems a better age range.
• It requires adult help and supervision, especially for younger children.
• The metal trowel is made of metal and would be safer if rounded off or made of plastic.
• The instructions would have been better if they had shown two or three different designs.
• The clock face would have been better in plastic not cardboard, as after one use it was rather soggy.
• Bob was the only character included.

Overall …

This is a brilliantly different item from the Bob The Builder toys range that offers a fun twist on the old block stacking sets. Children will love this even more than Bob The Builder Lego due to the theme of fun and mess and even adults will become addicted. If you are stuck wondering what are the top Christmas presents this year, this would be top of my list for children aged over 7 years old.