Marvel Super Hero Squad: Jumbo Colouring Book (Scholastic Australia)

Background

Scholastic Australia and their close pals Parragon (in the UK) have been the most active of the Spider-Man and Marvel colouring/activity book publishers outside the U.S. market. Most of their non-Spidey stuff has been under the "Marvel Heroes" brand. Less common is to see them using this "Marvel Super Hero Squad" logo and artwork.

Story Details

This book is square bound, glossy cardboard cover, 96 pages on clean white stock. While the book proclaims itself as a "Colouring Book", it really is more of an "Activity & Colouring Book". Slightly less than half the pages are pure "Colouring" material. The majority of the content is mazes, puzzles, and other games.

The "Marvel Super Hero Squad" artwork always features dwarfish, comical versions of the famous Marvel Heroes (including Spider-Man). The illustration style is simple and childish, and features a very limited set of poses. Most pictures feature a character lunging at the viewer.

General Comments

The lack of variety on the tiny pool of stock "Squad" art work is partly compensated by a relatively solid selection of activities. The most-common content types are well represented — spot the difference, unscramble the words, word-find, mazes, and copy-the-picture. There's even a multi-choice quiz, with answers in the back of the book.

None of it is desperately creative stuff. But at least it's professional and well-designed.

Overall Rating

Probably the greatest feature of this book is the super-low price of NZ$4. For a 96-page good-quality colouring book, that's better value than the knock-off Chinese colouring books that you find in the local junk stores.

I'm going to give this one a generous three-and-a-half web rating for a product which offers quality and value-for-money, if not a great deal of originality.