A few weeks ago a dream invite appeared in my mailbox: VTech asked me if I wanted to join them and some other bloggers for a press presentation and a luxurious lunch at MamaKelly in Amsterdam. This place has been on my bucketlist ever since they opened ~ about a year ago. As you know, I love me soms pink and MamaKelly has the most instagrammable pink interior you’ll ever find in Amsterdam. That plus the fact I adore the VTech brand made me reply with a big YES within seconds of receiving the invitation!
Around 25 influencers got invited to this very special day and I feel so lucky to have been one of them. The location was a real dream and the food was amazing. The VTech team showed us their new collection of toys and while most of those items are for the little ones, they also have some fun products for kids aged 7-12. So I will be highlighting and reviewing some of those junior musthaves below.
Mama Kelly is a pink paradise and the best location to have a lunch, ever! I was beyond excited to get invited here. They work with reservation only, so it’s not easy to get in. But thanks to VTech we could enjoy a delicious culinary lunch at this gorgeous hotspot nearby the Olympic Stadion in Amsterdam.
VTech launched some brandnew musthaves, right on time with Sinterklaas and Christmas on the calender soon! And I will show you some of my favourite VTech products below!
Raspberry and lime lemonade, this tasted so good!
Some great new VTech products for the little ones are the Tante Jet Theeset, the Bla Bla Blocks and Mijn Eerste 100 Woordjes ~ which helps kids to learn words in both Dutch and English! I won’t be going into detail about these fun items, because my kids are 8 and 13! But there are many reviews online, if you would like to know more about them! My focus will be on the products Joya really loves, the junior gadgets, like a super secret diary, a MP3 player with build-in discoball and a tablet called the KidiCom Max.
Update: the Bla Bla Blocks won the Speelgoed van het Jaar award (toy of the year)! Congrats to VTech for winning this incredible prize!
KidiCom Max & Storio Max XL
New VTech junior tech toys are the KidiCom Max and the StorioMax XL.
We got to take home an amazing goodiebag and the KidiCom Max was one of the products we were gifted. I will be reviewing this fab gadget below, so keep on reading! The other product on this photo is the StorioMax XL, a fun yet educational tablet with a 7 inch HD multi touch-screen for kids aged up to around 11 years old. It’s wifi-enabled and comes with a web browser, camera, many build-in apps and there’s an option to download two more apps for free at the Explorer Park application. And all of this in one parent and child-friendly package. It’s a great design and it’s fun and easy to use, with lots of well-thought-out features.
Buy the StorioMax XL online here!
If you want to keep your own expensive smartphone away from your young one’s hands, the VTech KidiCom Max might just be the answer. This device is designed to enable young children to own their very own smartphone whilst having a completely child-safe environment.
It really does look like a child’s very first smartphone and it is also packed full of enjoyable, educational features and it has a 5 inch capacitive touchscreen, a 2mp rotatable camera and 8GB of internal memory which is expandable up to 32GB with the use of a microSD card. It also houses a built-in rechargeable battery that gives a reasonable battery life.
The KidiCom Max has a gallery, a calendar, a clock and includes a variety of ebooks. It also has lots of games pre-loaded onto the device plus you can download two further games for free if you register with them. It also has the VTech KidiConnect app build-in. Parents can download the app on their smartphones too and this way they can connect and chat with their kids. It’s also very safe because each person that wants to connect with your child needs to register and send a request to you before they can actually start messaging your child. It’s a superfun feature and I love being able to send cute little messages to Joya!
The one thing I kinda dislike about the KidiCom Max is the keyboard. Because it’s not QWERTY ~ just ABC. Joya is very used to using a QWERTY keyboard so she finds it a bit difficult to typ on the KidiCom Max because she really has to search for the letters. I hope VTech will make an update for this product someday, including the keyboard we all know and love.
Buy the KidiCom Max online at here (in blue) or here (for a pink version)!
Kidi Lightshow Party
Then we have this fabulous Lightshow Party! This is a 9-in-one bluetooth speaker with disco lights and party games! Kids can listen to the radio or connect it to a phone or computer to stream (YouTube) songs or use it as an MP3 player using a microSD card.
To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the speaker and the lights. Music sounds pretty great and the lights are very bright and give an amazing effect, especially at night! Joya absolutely loves her Lightshow Party and I love being invited to her little dance parties every day!
Buy the Kidi LightShow Party here.
Kidi Secrets Selfie Journal
Next up is the Secrets Selfie Journal which is well… a secret selfie journal! The only way to open this lovely diary is with face recognition or a secret code! How awesome is that?! So they won’t have to worry about a nosy brother or sister getting into their journal because of these cool ways to keep it safe. The facial recognition software unlocks the journal only when it recognizes your child’s face. If they don’t want to use that feature they can turn it off and use a numeric password. Ofcourse both of those features can be turned off but my guess is that every kid will just love unlocking the journal with their selfie!
Kids can create new looks for themself and their friends, care for a virtual pet, decorate photos and videos, play learning games and more! It also has a headphone jack to listen to music and voice memos. Joya’s favourite features are the virtual pet and ofcourse writing in her journal.
With this interactive journal, kids will be sure to enjoy hours of fun, which in turn can give you some down time ~ yay! The VTech Kidi Secrets Selfie Journal is geared for children 6+ and requires one AAA battery, which is included.
Buy the Kidi Secrets Selfie Journal here!
This is Mila! She is a magical make-up unicorn! Kids can use a magic brush to change Mila’s eyeshadow, horn and wings by selecting any colour from her make-up palette and apply it magically with the brush! Oh, and she can sing too! Joya is a bit too old to play with Mila but I really love the design of this lovely unicorn so I had to share it with you all! I think this would be a dream gift for every little girl who loves magic!
If you’re looking for fun and original yet educational Christmas gifts then you should really check out the new Vtech collection. They’ve got so many amazing musthaves!
Many thanks to Vtech for inviting us to this fabulous party! I loved every minute of it!
