Gombby Channel by Magnistage – Review and Giveaway of $50 iTunes card

Gombby’s Green Island is an animated television show for preschool age children, created in Portugal, and shown in Portugal and Spain. It has recently become available through a universal app – Gombby Channel, which allows you to access episodes from the show and view them in English, Portugese or Spanish. The app is free to download and gives you free access to three episodes, 10 more episodes are currently available as in-app purchases, the episodes are each 13 minutes long. it contains no adverts or social media links, it does contain app store links for the IAP’s.

The episodes are set on Green Island and center around Gombby, baker boy, Celeste, Strawy the scarecrow, Gadget Man the inventor and their friends. You can learn more about the characters by visiting the Gombby’s Green Island Website. Everyday Gombby bakes fresh bread and delivers it all over the island on his bike, so children learn more about the bread making cycle.  The friends explore the island and learn about inventions and discoveries, respecting the environment, making healthy choices and friendship. It is a very gentle show, the animation and audio are very well done. If this were a US show I could easily see it being aired on PBS kids.

The Mystery of the Broken Flowers.  In this episode Celeste is very upset because the flowers she tends so carefully are all geting trampled and broken in the night. The Brigadeer (who is like a Mr Potato Head sheriff) sets out to investigate, but falls asleep on the job. With Gombby’s help they solve the mystery – Celeste is sleep walking, and the Brigadeer finds a solution to stop her.

Boo! Here comes the Bugaboo. It’s a full moon on Green Island and spooky stories abound. Sarah sets out to scare Strawy, but has an accident and disappears. The friends go to look for her and decide that elusive figure the Bugaboo has kidnapped her. They find Sarah safe, and Gombby realizes that the Bugaboo didn’t kidnap her at all but helped her, and that maybe everyone has been wrong about the Bugaboo.

You can download each episode so that you can watch them offline, they do take a couple of minutes each to download. I would recommend switching off the “auto-lock” feature in your iPad settings whilst downloading as otherwise the iPad may go to sleep during the download and then the videos don’t download fully (they look like they do but stop playing part way through). On the app’s homepage there are options to choose the language (English, Spanish or Portugese), access your favorites list (you can mark your favorite episodes), and a listing of more apps which includes an iTunes link to the Gombby Stickers app (a free app). From the home page you can also swipe to see all the available episodes. The episode you have not purchased are marked with a lock, but do contain links to buy them. I would recommend setting up your iPad restrictions to not allow IAP’s and to require a password immediately to prevent children accidentally purchasing in this and other apps with IAP’s.

Overall, this is a really nice television series for preschool  and kindergarten aged children. The animation and soundtrack are high quality, the stories are gentle and suitable for the targeted age group. I like that they are good role models teaching children to respect the environment and each other, as well as teaching them about nature and inventions. I would highly recommend downloading the app if you have toddlers,  preschool or early elementary school aged children and would like a new TV show for them to watch on the iPad. If your children enjoy the 3 free episodes the additional episodes are a very good deal – you can buy 5 more episodes for $1.99 or 10 for $2.99. Both my five-year-old daughter and  her twin brother really enjoyed the show, so I have bought them the 10 extra episodes.

You can find out more about Gombby by visiting the Gombby Website, or following on social media: Gombby Facebook, Gombby Twitter, Gombby Pinterest.

Gombby Channel by Magnistage Category: Entertainment Requirements: Compatible with iPadMini4G, iPadThirdGen4G, iPad 2 WiFI, iPad 2 3G, iPhone 4, iPhone5, iPodTouchFifthGen, iPadFourthGen, iPad 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone4S, iPadThirdGen, iPad WiFi, iPod Touch (4. Gen.), iPadMini, iPadFourthGen4G, iPod Touch (3. Gen.) Size: 106.73 MB

$FREE

Screenshots

Screenshots for iPad

NOTE: A fee was received to expedite this review to the top of our waiting list but this payment has not influenced the objectivity of the review and all opinions have been offered honestly.

Giveaway

To celebrate the launch of the app Gombby are giving away a $50 iTunes card to one lucky iMums fan. The giveaway is open worldwide. To enter please enter via the rafflecopter below. Winners will be announced here and notified by email, and must respond within 48 hours to claim their prize. Click on the following links to get a start on your entries:

Gombby Facebook

Gombby Twitter

Gombby Pinterest

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Mary

Mary is originally from England but now lives in California with her husband and three children, an 8 year old boy and 5 year old boy/girl twins. Mary and her family love soccer, camping, hiking and playing with their iPad which is also used for therapy for their daughters Apraxia (speech disorder).

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You can email me direct at mary(at)theimums.com