Duckie Deck Trash Toys Review

Duckie Deck Trash Toys is a cute new creative app that allows children to explore the process of making art from what may be left lying around their homes. My son and I can identify with this app as we went to an art class during his toddlerhood and throughout the preschool years, where a main craft activity was to use found objects and re-purpose them into child-friendly sculptures of some sort. Here, this app allows children to choose from a nice variety of objects they may be familiar with such as a CD, a plastic squeeze bottle of lotion, snack bag, a disposable drinking cup, small milk carton, a tin can, or a few different sized glass or plastic bottles. Adults will smile at the included details within each item as the CD is full of scratches, the classic red Solo cup has a lipstick mouth print on it, and the squeeze tube contains “100% dinosaur extracts” - fun details that I am quite fond of.

When a child has made a selection, I enjoy how a backdrop for spray painting is unfolded, ready for children to choose a spray can and paint with the drag of a finger. I do like the effect of the aerosol cloud of color decorating these objects, and I appreciate this choice to some degree as crayons, markers, or chalk would not work well on the majority of these surfaces. It would be nice, however, to have other art supplies as well such as poster paints and brushes for a more controlled application of color.

I do admire this app's attention to detail: one can still see the label from the dinosaur creme and milk carton - even the sticker on the CD can still be viewed faintly through the spray paint as these materials may not take paint as easily as the other items can. Perhaps some children may prefer a more opaque look that could be obtained past the faint translucence if one sprayed the paint for an extended period of time. Even with these notes, the spray paint is wonderfully tactile, sure to be a hit with children who ordinarily would not be given spray paints to play with. Next, children can choose from a variety of other smaller items used to decorate their project. These bits and pieces are categorized by eyes, nose and mouth, limbs and hair selections helpful in creating a human-like creature but also allowing for a more abstract or primitive craft as well.

These added details - be it bits of colorful string, a button, wine cork, a spring, as well as other choices - can be rotated, and there is an unlimited supply of these notions to keep children busy with their projects. Also nice is the movement added to the arm and leg pieces as they bob and sway back and forth. I do miss the opportunity to use these pieces anywhere as the users are not allowed to add them anywhere but the edge of their creation - not within the center of the structure to be used as an eyebrow or mustache. When completed, children are able to take a photo of their work, but it would be nice if a home button of some sort was included. As of now, the only way to return to the main menu and select another base piece for painting is after a photo is taken.

Even with this minor point, Duckie Deck Trash Toys is a cute and creative app that may give children some ideas about crafts they can work on at home. Whether or not this is the case, it is nice not having to clean up any messes associated with children and art supplies as well as not having a house cluttered with the finished products - one aspect of art class I can say I don’t really miss.