I know this blog entry has been promised for a long time and finally today during my lunch break I found some moments to articulate my thoughts.
After the test of the Mister S Talon Eagle Clamps I was a bit shocked: The clamps are good toy for experienced pain pigs and it only scored in the mid 7s. So I took a look at other toys I haven’t tested yet and scored them. The result was devastating. Even the ones I considered real good toys scored below 8. I wanted them to score better, but the numbers didn’t add up which got me thinking: How good is the rating system?
After a deep and critical look I came to the conclusion: It is not very good. Every toy I own is “up to the task”, even the bad ones so every toy should score 10 on this category. So the task score was influenced by other criteria which got own categories. And looking at the other ones I came to the conclusion that the rating is more subjective than I want it to be in all categories. In the end it comes down to question: Does the toy what I want it to do? And this can’t be the answer to the question if the toy is good for the reader.
Before starting this website I knew that toys can hardly be measures with objective criteria but I wasn’t aware of how difficult it was. So I need a new, more qualitative approach: The test will feature descriptions of how the toy performs in all important areas like security, handling, etc. so that everybody can decide if the performance in a specific category influences the usefulness of the toy for oneself. I hope that this new testing modus will create easier to understand and more universal reviews.
If you have any thoughts or advice for me on this topic, please let me know.
