"In short, among all those Harry Potter toys --and any parent knows, there were a lot of them!-- this is definitely the most amusing of the electronic game offerings."

---from the review

-----------------

Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

------------------

-------------

Sidebar :

-------------

No sidebar comments for this toy... Yet.

When Harry Potter came out in theaters, tons of toys were made as a tie-in to the new film series. Among them all, however, nothing caught my eye --and amused the kids-- as much as the "Harry Potter Levitating Challenge," a sort of magic trick turned into an interactive challenge, which, yes, really does work!

The concept is simple: a small foam ball (yes, the box includes a few extra balls in case of loss) hovers in the air, in a circle around the game board; your objective it to keep it in the air. Turn on the game, and hear musical chimes along with the instructor's "complete the course as fast as you can..." A lever  controls the ball's height in the air, with a knob to move the ball (and the air stream that keeps it afloat) around the course. Interchangeable obstacles --removable and replacable at will-- keep you on your toes, as the ball moves through hoops, a cage maze, or animated challenges, like a toy guillotine! Get the ball back safely into the caldron, and be rated by the instructor's voice, based on the speed you moved through the course. Did I mention the ball really levitates all around the circular playing board? Cool!

There are several obstacles you can place along the course --way too many to place on the playset all at once-- ranging from the animated to the unanimated (yet still challenging). The animated items must be placed in 2 special areas of the board, with additional holes linking the item to the moving parts of the unit. These animated obstacles include a hoop which rotates, a broom whose handle tries to smack the ball away, a set of pecking crows, a guillotine, and so on. Inanimate obstacles include stationary hoops, a Ferris wheel (it moves due to the wind of the machine coming from below; quite ingenious), and my personal favorite: a three-level cage maze. Any number of these items can be included on the board for a number of different games, with varying difficulty.

Gripes? Few. For one, the instructor keeps saying "Concentrate! Focus! Keep it Steady!" throughout the game --no, you can't shut him off and still play-- which can get repetitious and annoying to adults within earshot. There's also the inevitability that the ball will leave this mortal coil --being just a small tiny piece of Styrofoam-- though with the replacement balls included, there should still be quite a long time of gameplay here. Likewise for the three "C" batteries (not included, of course), which last surprisingly well, regardless of the high powered jet of air they are powering throughout the game. However, these are the only gripes, and the toy is still an awful lot of fun to play...and even to watch!

In short, among all those Harry Potter toys --and any parent knows, there were a lot of them!-- this is definitely the most amusing of the electronic game offerings. Of course, kids will need the Harry Potter plush toy, pet dragon, action figures, and the cool LEGO miniature of Hogwarts, though among all the additional accoutrements of Wizard School fandom, this is the most enjoyable. After all, seeing anything levitate --even a small Styrofoam ball-- is an incredibly cool magic trick, even to this very day.