I first got to know Popagami when I was watching Dragons’ Den on Sunday October 28 (BBC2). While questioning Sussex entrepreneur Brian Smith, the Dragons found themselves with an amusing paper-folding challenge as they made their own images into finger puppets. The TV Dragon sheets are available in packs of 10, two each of five characters: Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Deborah Meaden, Hilary Devey and Theo Paphitis. The packs cost just 99p. To help raise funds for Children In Need, anyone profits from these Dragons’ Den packs will be donated.
The latest Pop-ette characters come from Henfield creator Brian (author name Philip Craik), publisher of “The World of Popagami” – a fun activities book for children, packed with a dozen easy-to-fold colourful animals (folded from a single sheet of printed paper).
The World of Popagami is on sale at just £4.99 and available both online and in some major bookshops, including branches of Waterstones. The characters in The World of Popagami book include a robot, rabbit, meerkat, leopard, mouse, tiger, bear, cat, mountain lion, cow, giraffe and horse.
My five year old son loves making these. He does need some help at times but generally they are very simple to follow and fold. I would suggest these are particularly suitable for children aged five and above. Inside this book, there are step-by-step instructions teaching you how to fold the Pop-ette. Once the Pop-ette is folded, blow it to inflate. You can then cut the ear or hide the white areas with two or three inside reverse folds.
Inside this book, there are 3 black and white animals that you can colour as you wish. You can photocopy these pages for multiple sheets of fun and colouring in. If you don’t want to cut or photocopy the pages of the activity book, you can get supplementary packs of these and other designs.There are a lot of ideas of what you can do with the finished pop-ettes in the book. For example, you can use it as a container for all sorts of things such as sweets and small gifts to give as presents. Write a secret message on a small piece of paper, fold it up and poke it inside your Pop-ette. Use it as an Easter egg hunt by wrapping eggs into your pop-ettes and hide around the house or in the garden. I forgot to make some party bags for Mr K’s birthday party but luckily I recalled the idea from the book and popped a lollipop into the mini Pop-ette.
We had so much of fun folding the animals and put on a puppet show. Ms C used it to play animal farm. I rate this product 5 stars out of 5. It is different, simple yet fun to play with. It is very affordable and it is great for party games or party bags to keep the older children occupied.
Visit www.popagami.com to see the full range of popagami. Or follow them on Facebook or Twitter. There are games, activities, competitions and a photo gallery to browse on their website.
Disclosure: We received the sample for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.