This weekend we took Dani to meet one of his heroes. I say one of his heroes but I really don’t know if there are any others. I am talking about Chase the puppy dog from the children TV series Paw Patrol (Patrulla Canina in Spanish). The Paw Patrol are part of the attractions at a theme park in Madrid (parque de atracciones) which now seems to be have gotten into bed with the Nickelodean kids TV channel to offer rides and characters based on some of their TV programmes.

Back in my early years children’s TV consisted mainly of re-runs of the “Watch With Mother” shows – originally made in the late 50s – in black and white. Well they were all  in black and white in our house as we never got into the 20^th century until I was about 6 years old when we had our first colour television.

Later there were also the old classics Trumpton and Camblewick Green which have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. These days Paw Patrol is where it’s at for the toddlers. If you are not familiar with this TV show then here is a quick rundown.

Introducing the team…

Ryder (some kid of maybe 10 years) has a team of multi skilled puppy dogs who respond to distress calls – International Rescue style almost. Ryder is their leader and trainer. Then there are several pups:

There’s Chase (a German shepherd pup) who is dressed like a cop, Marshall the dalmatian pup who drives the fire-truck and Rubble (an English bulldog) who drives a multi functioning construction digger. It changes according to the job in hand a bit “transformers” like (or dare I say Hong Kong Phooey style multi changing vehicle?).

Skye is a cockapoo (whatever they are) and operates the helicopter or any type of flying machine. Skye is also the only bitch! But that is about to change – see below.

Rocky is the only mixed breed pup in the group – a token gesture to the worlds mongrels perhaps? He recycles things and carries all sorts of tools.

Finally, Zuma is a chocolate Labrador who operates all the water based vehicles.

Chase appears to be the lead pup and certainly Dani’s favourite. His catch phrase (of course they all have one) is “Chase is on the case”. Naturally Dani refers to him by his catch phrase as if “is on the case” is his surname.

Marketing heaven…

It is a marketing man’s dream. Not only do they sell cuddly toys in all sizes for each pup they also sell the vehicles each pup operates. Then there are the plastic toys of each pup in all sizes and endless other merchandise like hats, T-shirts, slippers and the like.

I have just learnt that there is a new member of the team. A husky pup called Everest who apparently can do pretty much anything on snow and ice. Perfect for those mountain rescues perhaps or merely just another toy to sell. You decide. Everest is another bitch by the way.

Thankfully Dani is not yet at the stage where he wants to collect these things. I am sure that day is fast approaching but until then I can relax and let him browse the various addictive characters.

At what age do they suddenly decide that they have to have one of these toy every time they see them in a shop?

Kids TV Programmes Review?

Paw Patrol is certainly one of the better kids TV programmes and shows a fair bit of imagination – as I say above, the kind of innovative concept of Thunderbirds. OK, maybe that is a slight exaggeration. Nothing gets close to Thunderbirds on the conceptual scale. The only other TV show Dani will sit through is Peppa Pig and personally I think that is crap!

I feel a rundown of the toddlers TV shows (or kids shows in general) coming on… See future post.

For now however just remember the Paw Patrol moto: “No job too big, no pup to small”.